HOW TO CONDUCT A

SUCCESSFUL ETHNOGRAPHIC
FIELDWORK
SHARIFFAH SURAYA SYED
JAMALUDIN, PhD
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES

IN TRO D U CTIO N
Ethnography - Greek (ethnos) = folk/people.

Grapho = to write).
Ethnography an umbrella term for a family
of qualitative research methods
Often used interchangeably with participant

observation

The ethnographer immerses herself in a

chosen setting for a prolonged period of time

Watching, participating, asking questions

 The hallmarks of participant observation

involve the researcher living in the

community being studied, participating with
individuals, observing and talking with them
and interpreting the situations observed.
The researcher is the main instrument of
data collection, and shares the lives and
activities of those being studied by learning
their language and interpreting their
behaviour.
"to grasp the native's point of view, his
relation to life, to realized his vision of his
world (Argonouts of the Western Pacific,
p.25).

Ethnography and fi
eldw ork:getting out there

1. Developing a research problem (what

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

will you study and why?)

Choosing a setting (where?)
Participants (who?)
Access (how?)
Fieldwork: observation, field notes
interviews, and focus groups
Applying scientific method (systematic
observation, carefully data recording and
logical reasoning)

Steps in ethnographic
research:
1) Prepare oneself, read the literature
2) Select the field site and gain access to it
3) Enter the field and establish social relations with
the members
4) Adopt a social role, learn the ropes and get along
with the members
5) Watch, listen and collect quality data
6) Begin to analyze data and evaluate working
hypothesis
7)Disengage and physically leave the setting
8) Complete the analysis and write the research
report

Access
Adjusting to the field
Building rapport
The power of neutral information
Learning from own mistakes and
trying again
Official/unofficial route
Time
Learning the language

D oing fi
eldw ork:
Feeling strange and insecure
I was afraid of everything at the beginning.
It was just fear of imposing on people, of
trying to maintain a completely different
role than anyone else around you. [] Am
I going to be rejected? Am I really getting
the data I need? (Wintrob (1969) cited in
Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995: 114)

G oing N ative :Bronislaw M alinow ski

Malinowski is often considered one of

anthropology's
most
skilled
ethnographers, especially because of
the highly methodical and well theorized
approach to the study of social systems.
He is often referred to as the first
researcher to bring anthropology "off
the verandah" (a phrase that is also the
name of a documentary about his work),
that is, experiencing the everyday life of
his subjects along with them.

 Malinowski

emphasized
the
importance
of
detailed
participant observation and argued
that anthropologists must have daily
contact with their informants if they
are to adequately record the
"imponderabilia of everyday life"
that
are
so
important
to
understanding a different culture.

D ata collection m ethods

Meant

to capture the social

meanings and ordinary activities of
informants in naturally occuring
settings (field).
Goal to collect data in such a way
that the researcher imposes a
minimal amount of their own bias on
the data.
Multiple methods of data collection
employed

to
facilitate
a
relationship that allows for a more
personal and in depth portrait of the

 These

include participant observation,

field notes, interviews and surveys.
Interviews often taped and later
transcribed for full analysis
Traditionally

ethnographer
focuses
attention on the community selecting
knowledgeable informants who knows the
activities of the community well.
These informants are asked to identify other
informants who represent the community.
Ethnography relies on up close, personal
experience.
Participation rather than just observation is one of the keys to this process.

D ata collection
After I had established myself in

Omerakana (Trobriand Islands), I

began to take part in a way, in the
village life, to look forward to the
important or festive events, to take
personal interest in the gossip and
the development of the small village
occurences, to wake up every
morning.

 As I went on morning walk thru the village,

I could see intimate details of family life, of

toilet, cooking, taking of meals, I could see
the arrangement. (Argonouts, p.7).
They finished by regarding me as part and
parcel of their life. I had to learned how to
behave and to a certain extent, I acquired
the feeling for native good and bad
manners. I began to feel that I was indeed
in touch with the natives and this is
certainly the preliminary condition of being
able to carry on successful field work.

 There is a series of phenomena of great

importance which cannot possibly be

recorded by questioning or computing
documents, but have to be observed in
their full actuality. Let us call them
imponderabilia of life. Here belong the
routine of mans working day, the details
of his care of the body, of the manner of
taking food and preparing it, the
conversation and social life around the
village.

Ethnographic fi
eldnotes
When? What? How?
When? ASAP, best during an

observation but not always possible

How? Rushed and fragmented, key
words, pictures and drawings, even
elaborate notes need refining
CONSISTENCY! If in doubt, write it
down

Ethnographic fi
eldnotes (cont.)
What?
Impossible to record everything
Sophistication comes with time (tape

recorder)

Detailed can be good

Especially if we are dealing with

conversations and emotional situations

Types offi
eldnotes
Jottings brief phrases to be

developed
Description everything you recall
about the occasion (time, place,
people, surroundings, animals,
smells, sounds etc.)
Analysis what have you learned so
far?
Reflection what was it like for you?

Sam pling
Whatever is available

or
Convenience and snowball sampling
Or
Theoretical sampling gathering
data in accordance with the
emerging theory
From a general research question to
a hypothesis

W hen does the ethnographer stop?

Data saturation OR the field disintegrates
Can be difficult because:
a) Your participants do not wish you to leave
b) You find it hard to leave the setting
) You may feel relieved,
) Or sad,
) Or guilty

D ATA AN ALYSIS
Thematic analysis Most common

form of analysis in qualitative

research.
Emphasizes pinpointing, examining,
and recording patterns (themes)
within the data.
Focuses on examining themes within
data.
Coding
Primary process for
developing themes within the raw
data
by recognizing important
moments in the data and encoding it

PH ASES O F TH EM ATIC
AN
AL
YSI
S
1) Becoming familiar with the data
)) Read and re-read data in order to become

2)
))
3)

familiar with what the data entails, paying

specific attention to patterns that occur.
Generate the initial codes by documenting
where and how patterns occur.
Collapse data into labels in order to create
categories for more efficient analysis.
Searching for themes among codes.
Combine codes into themes that
accurately depict the data.

4) Reviewing themes
- In this stage the researcher looks at how the
themes support the data and the theoretical
perspective.
) If the analysis seems incomplete the researcher
needs to go back and find what is missing.
5) Defining and naming themes
) The researcher needs to define what each theme
is, which aspects of data are being captured and
what is interesting about the themes.
5) Finally, producing the final report.
- When the researcher write the report they must
decide
which
themes
make
meaningful
contributions to the data.

Thank
You