A Quick and Dirty

Introduction to the
Spradley-McCurdy
Ethnographic Interviewing
Method
Cole V. Akeson
GEOG5712: Research Design
Professor Kenneth E. Foote
02 March 2009
Agenda
What is this mouthful called the
Spradley-McCurdy ethnographic
interviewing method?
How and when is it useful?
How does it work? A 12 step program
Caveats: When is it not
useful/applicable?
Comparisons to other methods
What is this S-M E I M?
Ethnography as a non-linear process
(continual shuffling between selecting a problem, formulating
hypotheses, collecting data, analysis, writing up)
Informants knowledge is emphasized
A search for meaning through symbols, i.e. words and verbal
cues, to tacit cultural knowledge
Moreover, focusing on ethnosemantic symbols
the symbol, meaning, and relationship between symbol and
referent
Quoting sociological review: Drunks are notorious liars and
manipulators. Spradley unfortunately takes the lies as facts and
bases his conclusions on them (Spradley 1979, 49).
Finally, an interviewing methodology meant to systematize
methodology for novice and expert alike
Key ethnosemantic
relationships
Domains: Connections of cultural
symbols/folk terms into interrelated
domain
Domain analysis (taxonomies): Internal
structures of domains demonstrating
differentiation among components
Componential analysis (paradigms): Search
for differentiating attributes among symbols
Theme analysis: Relating domains in larger
cultural processes
How and when is the method
useful?
Designed for use by:
Novices and experienced academics
Students, social scientists and non-academic
professionals
Allowing ethnography to bridge
interdisciplinary divides
Grounded theory approaches
Can also be adapted to theoretically bound,
structured settings
Used and adapted by social scientists,
police, journalists, salespeople, etc.
Caveats and criticisms: When is
it not useful/applicable?
Best for open-ended approaches
Less useful in shorter-term ethnographic
investigations
Criticized by more humanistic
ethnographers, social theory devotees
Earlier renditions critiqued as not
considering positionality, etc.
Some terms en vogue during publishing of The
Ethnographic Interview and The Cultural
Experience are less often used today
A 12 step program
(no, not that one)
1. Locating an informant
2. Interviewing an informant
3. Making an ethnographic record
4. Asking descriptive questions
5. Analyzing ethnographic interviews
6. Making a domain analysis
7. Asking structural questions
8. Making a taxonomic analysis
9. Asking contrast questions
10.Making a componential analysis
11.Discovering cultural themes
12.Writing an ethnography
A 12 step program
(still not that one)
1. Locating an informant
2. Interviewing an informant
3. Making an ethnographic record
4. Asking descriptive questions
5. Analyzing ethnographic interviews
6. Making a domain analysis
7. Asking structural questions
8. Making a taxonomic analysis
9. Asking contrast questions
10.Making a componential analysis
11.Discovering cultural themes
12.Writing an ethnography
Making ethnographic records
Utilize both field notes and
transcriptions from recordings
Condensed notes, expanded notes (i.e.
transcription together with field
notes), journaling
Analysis and interpretation (i.e.
coding)
By hand, by computer
Descriptive Questions
Building rapport
ApprehensionExploration
CooperationParticipation (Spradley 1979, 79)
Avoid leading questions
Types of questions:
Grand tour: broad sweeping explanations of space, time,
events, people, activities, objects
Typical, recent time, show a process
Mini-tour: refining explanation of smaller processes
Example
Experiences
Native-language
Direct, hypothetical, typical sentence
Domain analysis
Folk terms elicit important cultural symbols
These symbols are semantically
interconnected in larger processes,
domains
i.e. spatial, cause-effect, rationale, location of
action, functional, sequential relationships
Next step: Determining not only presence,
but meaning of relationship


Structural questions and
taxonomies
Elicit informants structural relationships within
domains, avoid researchers perceived meaning
Used concurrently, repetitively, contextually, with
descriptive questions (again, non-linear process)
Types:
Verification questions
Cover term questions: Elicit meaning of term and its sub-
components
Inferential included term questions
Card sorting questions
Create taxonomic relationships among terms:
Relate terms hierarchically and functionally along
one-dimensional relationship
Example: Taxonomy
Contrast questions and
componential analysis
Elicit further details of relationships:
comparative/contrasting uses
Types:
Contrast verification, directed contrast (list),
dyadic (non-leading) contrast questions, triadic
Demonstrating multiple semantic
differences (as opposed to taxonomies one)
between folk terms, producing
componential analyses or paradigms
Example: Paradigm
Themes and writing
Elicited from informants, but will be most
influenced by the ethnographer
Typically multiple themes will be found in
any research setting/microculture
Creating cultural inventories to draw forth
themes
Looking for connections, but also gaps
Applying componential analysis on a larger
scale, across data collected
References
Further reading:
McCurdy, David W., James P. Spradley, and Dianna J.
Shandy. 2005. The cultural experience: Ethnography in
complex society. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. 2
nd
ed.
Spradley, James P. 1979. The ethnographic interview. New
York: Harcourt College Publishers.
Spradley, James P. and David W. McCurdy. 1972. The
cultural experience: Ethnography in complex society. Long
Grove, IL: Waveland Press. 1
st
ed.
Cover image
Vincent van Gogh, Green Wheat Field, 1889, Kunsthaus
Zurich.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/fields/
(accessed March 1, 2009).