We begin by describing ethnography, synthesizing the works of Leung, Savage, LeCompte and Schensul, Pope, and Atkinson and Pugsley.
#The ethnographic principal definition series
Since ethnography is a method not easily summarized in a single paper, we are writing a series of articles to follow which will address specific aspects related to conducting ethnographic research. Therefore, the purpose of this introductory paper is to explain ethnographic methodology, discuss how the method may be used, provide a discussion of ethnography's use in healthcare and medical education, and briefly summarize some key limitations with the method. At times, deficits in particular research methodologies within various academic domains may be attributed to a general lack of knowledge regarding the methodology itself or ways in which the method may be applied. This opinion has also been expressed by Leung.
While, to some extent, ethnography has been applied in healthcare settings and in the medical education environment, we feel that there is a general lack of research employing this methodology. Ethnography is one qualitative approach that involves relative submersion into the setting to be studied, and is an appropriate methodology for a wide variety of research topics within healthcare and medical education. However, qualitative research can provide rich information otherwise not discovered through quantitative approaches. This is especially true in academic domains such as medicine where evidence-based practice has emerged as a popular treatment philosophy based largely on the quantitative research tradition. Qualitative research is often overlooked as an option when considering the methodological approach to a research question. These are not competing but rather complimentary methods. Oftentimes, the qualitative research leads the researcher to further quantitative investigation. The use of qualitative methods is essential to get closer to exhaustive information on any given topic or population. That is, the results may glean something never before addressed in similar research. Qualitative research allows for variable discovery. With quantitative methods, investigators rely on literature and past surveys to target the proper information. Qualitative research, whether standing alone or in a mixed method, adds rich information to any investigation otherwise not discoverable. Qualitative methods are often open ended or participatory in nature. Qualitative methods aim to explore a culture or group of individuals to understand more about the social or human problem this group experiences. That is, they may use numbers to label categories but it is only for the purpose of sorting information. The data is measured numerically with an ordinal, interval, or ratio scale. Researchers using quantitative methods are testing theories through examining statistical relationships between variables. The type of research method used is referring to the method used to collect the data. These two methods are at opposite ends of the continuum and the continuum is the level of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. A mixed method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative.
Hence, research designs are primarily aimed at describing the context or group of interest.Ĭreswell cites these three types of designs: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Since each context is unique and will have different perspectives, the world has many different meanings - none of which may be more valid than another. On the other hand, constructivists believe that knowledge is socially constructed and situated within a particular context. Such research seeks to test theory-based, testable hypotheses while remaining objective and value neutral. On one hand, positivists focus on studying that which can be directly observed and confirmed by the senses.
These views dictate the nature of the research design. Inherent to each of these approaches are different, and sometimes opposing, philosophical and epistemological views. A third alternative, mixed methods designs, have also gained popularity in recent years. Such methodologies range from the traditional quantitative approaches within the positivist tradition to the qualitative approaches premised upon the ideologies of constructivism. Researchers from the social science disciplines are able to take advantage of a wide array of research methodologies.
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