Doing Ethnographic Research. Kimberly Kirner

I don’t understand, do I know some strategies to use to improve my understanding?

      Step 1

      Considering your target population or community for your research project, brainstorm potential methods (techniques, strategies) for advertising to them or otherwise recruiting them to participate. Provide a list or mind map in the space here.

      Step 2

      Considering your ideas from your brainstorm, select the techniques you think will be most successful. List two in the Recruitment Graphic Organizer (at the end of the chapter) and explain why you think they will be successful, as well as the details of how you’d do them (resources you need to make it work: money, skills, permissions from organizations, etc.).

       (Use the worksheet at the end of the chapter to complete this problem.)

      Step 3

      Can you foresee any ethical problems in recruitment? How would you propose to alleviate these? Fill in the Recruitment and Ethics Graphic Organizer (at the end of the chapter) to explore how your recruitment methods might lead to bias, exclusion of some people, or other ethical issues and how you can address these problems.

       (Use the worksheet at the end of the chapter to complete this problem.)

      Activity 2.6: Research Design Decisions: Positionality

      Background: When making decisions about recruitment, researchers are also deciding ways in which potential participants might be included or excluded from the study. This can pose ethical issues, as well as create selection bias, that researchers have to consider and then plan for in order to reduce negative impacts in their study and the population or community in which they are doing fieldwork.

      Aside from recruitment, researchers have to be aware of their positionality—the ways in which their own attributes (such as gender, ethnicity, age, and education) impact the way they will interact with their participants and the population or community they are studying.

      This activity will help you consider characteristics about yourself that might impact the ways in which your participants interact with you and take steps to address potential ethical and logistical issues arising from these differences, particularly ways in which you might have more power than your participants.

      Instructions

      Either independently or in small groups of three to four, answer the questions using the formal statement you wrote in Activity 1.7b (the description of your project question, your population and justification, and your chosen field site and justification).

      Common Mistakes

      Common mistakes students make when critically addressing their positionality:

       Failing to fully assess ways in which they have privilege and how this might differ from their participants

       Failing to adequately critically and creatively reflect on how they might be viewed by people different from themselves

       Insufficient clarity in planning to address imbalances of power and/or ways in which their personal attributes might negatively impact or bias their research

      Ask Yourself

       If I don’t understand, do I know some strategies to use to improve my understanding?

      Problem 1

      Are there any points of vulnerability in your population? These might include minors; the elderly; pregnant women; low-income persons; minority groups or persons who face persecution, discrimination, or prejudice; persons who may have concerns of being exploited or legally reprimanded (illegal immigrants, for example); and non-English speakers. Remember, your study population is not just your participants (who are representatives of your entire study population or community). In the Vulnerability Graphic Organizer (at the end of the chapter), identify up to two points of vulnerability in your population and how you will address potential ethical dilemmas or risks to your participants arising from that specific vulnerability.

       (Use the worksheet at the end of the chapter to complete this problem.)

      Problem 2

      Consider your positionality—how are you positioned vis-à-vis your participants? Are you an outsider coming into a community? Are you in a position of more or less power than them? How will this impact your research? How might it challenge participation and/or your ability to objectively collect and assess data? (Point to ponder: Do you think objectivity is desirable in your research? Is it possible? Why or why not?) In the Positionality Graphic Organizer (at the end of the chapter), identify two issues related to positionality and how you will address potential ethical dilemmas and logistical issues (bias, gaining trust and participants, etc.) that may arise.

       (Use the worksheet at the end of the chapter to complete this problem.)

      Activity 2.7: Research Design Decisions: Risk Assessment and Management

      Background: Researchers must also conduct a risk assessment and consider management strategies to address potential issues of risk, both to participants and to themselves.

      This activity will help you conduct a risk assessment and management exercise, preparing you to be able to fill out important parts of a human subjects protocol, the document that is reviewed by an institutional review board.

      Instructions

      Students should reflect on the research question they formulated in Activity 1.7 using the descriptions of each form of risk, assessing their project for risks and developing mitigating strategies. Using the Risk Assessment Graphic Organizer (at the end of the chapter) and the prompts provided, independently or in discussion with a small group of three to four colleagues, identify possible risks, first to your participants and then to yourself, and describe how you think you might alleviate, reduce, or respond to the risks your research entails. To identify trouble spots, use your group to reflect creatively on your research, describing how they might feel as your participant and as yourself. Remember that your participants may not face all types of risk.

       Psychological-emotional risks: Negative feelings and issues related to mental health, ranging from mild (boredom) to moderate (feelings of sadness) to severe (triggering episodes in people with PTSD by asking about their trauma)

       Social risks: Negative interactions and consequences to relationships, ranging from mild (provoking short-term disagreements between members of a family) to moderate (a friendship failing) to severe (excommunication of a member from a church)

       Economic risks: Negative impacts to participants’ ways of making a living, ranging from mild (taking a day off work to participate) to moderate (losing some clients due to a boycott) to severe (losing their job)

       Physical risks: Anything that can injure participants or make them ill, including violence or risks to patients in medical-related studies

       Legal risks: Resulting civil or criminal actions taken against participants, usually because their activities are brought to light through participation in the study. These range from moderate (a misdemeanor for unlicensed food vending) to severe (deportation of an undocumented immigrant)

      Common Mistakes

      Common mistakes students make when assessing and alleviating risk:

       Insufficiently using empathy and creativity to put themselves in