The Before & After in Focused Ethnography
Focused ethnography was the qualitative research method I used in two of my PhD studies. This method is sensitive to how culture shapes, and helps to explain, our everyday lives and health behaviours. Parallel to traditional ethnographic research, in focused ethnography the attention to culture remains; however, it is more contained to a particular setting or focused on certain issues/topics, and within a shorter time frame. Because focused ethnography centres on issues/topics in a more contained context and within a shorter time frame, the before and after are as important as when data is actually being collected in the research setting. Let me explain…
Conducting focused ethnographic research requires prior familiarity and knowledge of the setting/field of interest. You need (at least) some background knowledge about the context in order to: plan your methods of data collection, purposefully sample participants for interviews and choose the normal occurrences in the setting that you will observe as an observer-as-participant (in other words, everyone in the setting will know you are an observer but you still make an effort to blend in, to participate and not to disrupt the normal occurrences as they would be in your absence).
How about after? Focus ethnography tends to generate a copious amount of audio, written and visual data in the short time frame it happens. As such, data analysis is commonly intensive, cyclic and involving teams. This process enables inter-subjectivity as well as increases data validity. The results and discussion of findings show the data intensity of focused ethnography by providing a thick description that, as much as possible, clearly demonstrates multiple sources of data and interpretation.
I try to make the blog posts informative and less formal than academic writing. However, I understand that some of you might need additional readings as you explore a method for your own research. So below is a list of my key readings for focused ethnography and culture in the context of ethnographic research. You might notice that most references are from the health sciences and that’s because of my background, plus the fact that focused ethnography has been increasingly used in health.
Suggested references:
Agar, M. (1996). The professional stranger: An informal introduction to ethnography (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Agar, M. (2006). Culture: Can you take it anywhere? International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(2), 1–16. Retrieved from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/IJQM/article/view/4384/3513
Andreassen, P., Christensen, M.K., Moller, J.E. (2019). Focused ethnography as an approach in medical education research. Medical Education, In press. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14045.
Graham, J. E., Mayan, M., McCargar, L. J., Bell, R. C., & Sweet Moms, T. (2013). Making compromises: A qualitative study of sugar consumption behaviors during pregnancy. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 45(6), 578–585. doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2013.03.011
Higginbottom, G. M. A., Pillay, J. J., & Boadu, N. Y. (2013). Guidance on performing focused ethnographies with an emphasis on healthcare research. The Qualitative Report, 18, 1–16.
Knoblauch, H. (2005). Focused ethnography. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(3).
Talk soon,
Maira