Qualitative Ethnographic Research Methods

ANTH/SOC 416 ANTH 516 - Spring 2018

Course Outline, Textbook Readings, and Calendar

Dates are Tentative, Subject to Change.

Have Readings completed by start of Dates.

The following outline and session dates are tentative, subject to change and re-scheduling. Textbook readings are to be used to complement and supplement, and do not reflect and mirror class lectures and presentations. These textbook authors will add additional voices to our research discussion and additional methodological consideration to your own research project.  Please have the readings assigned completed during the assigned Dates.

• Re-telling Stories, the Sweat House and Tin Shed, the Medicine Wheel, and Being an Ethnographer - Dates: January 10, 17 and 22

  • Topics: 1.  The Palouse - on the Nature of Story and Values: the ethnographic focus - the Landscape Traveled.  2. Baaéechichiwaau -"re-telling one's own" - presentation of someone's story, and issues of text and pedagogy; "shouldering the responsibility of re-telling someone else's story" - implications for researcher and teacher.  and Basbaaaliíchiwé "retelling one's own story.  - what we seek to do - the Destination.  3.  Sweat House and Tin Shed - "you see that tin shed?"- how we travel the landscape and reach our destination - the Means.  What are your intentions, gaining permission, cultural property and sovereignty; "sitting together under the shade of that cottonwood" - a "guide," collaboration and mentorship;; "getting off the wooden bench and going inside" - experiential engagement, participant observation and interviewing; "feel it" - a participatory way of knowing, "heart knowledge" epistemology (other ways of knowing);  "see from the inside looking out" - insider's perspective sought (other perspectives sought); and "what are you going to say, going to do?" - "giving back" to you host, applied ethnography.  What are other ways of accessing?   3. Medicine Wheel - accommodating varied ways of knowing, the spokes and the hub - a varied tool kit.  4.  On being an Ethnographer - ethnographer's competencies: spokes and hub; clowns and empathy; humanities style; bumps in the road.

  • Readings:  Frey Story (PDF); Frey pp. ix-26 (Huckleberrying and Awakening Stories), 83-135 (Protocols and Ethnographer)

 

• Ethics: So You Think You Want to Re-Tell the Stories of Others? - Dates: January 24, 29 and 31  

  • Topics: "you see that tin shed/sweat house?"- own intentions, gaining permission, cultural property and sovereignty;1. ethical issues and social research considerations (forms: CITI, Informed Consent Form, the Application for Ethical Approval for Research with Humans and Cultural Resources - Protocol, Tribal Research Permits); 2. knowledge as "power" - issues of  tribal and community sovereignty, white privilege and essentialism, and collaboration; 3. You and Anthropology: your personal quest and role, and reflexivity.   Outline of Lecture Presentations

  • Readings:  Davies ch. 1 and 3; Rubin/Rubin ch. 6 (pp. 85-93); Frey pp. 85-88; University-Indigenous Protocol (2014) pp. 18-22 (treatment of Intangible Cultural Property/Traditional Knowledge in University Research Projects); and review AAA Code of Ethics; review ASA Code of Ethics; familiarize self with the U of I  Office of Research Assurance (ORA - Institutional Review Board)

  • Exercise #1 (to present in class on January 29 and 31) 

  • Forms and Processes - U of I  - there are four-five parts to a completed IRB form/process - (1) the responses to the Protocol form, (2) the Informed Consent Form, (3) the Project Questions, (4) the CITI Training, and if applicable, (5) the Tribal Letter or Resolution approving the proposed research.   And Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge Assurances. 

    • IRB Protocol Template (IRB form for "In-Class" projects; blank hard-copy form, in Word, to download - it takes a minute or two to download - and answer completely; Typically, your project qualifies as a "Non-Exempt" project).

      • IRB Subjects Review Summary Form - an example of a completed hard-copy IRB application (formerly HAC), to be modified per your project, with example of Informed Consent Form, sample interview questions, and the NIH certificate (replaced by CITI); with only pages needed to be submitted.  And if all goes well, the Approval Letter.

    • Informed Consent Form (a Word template example, to be modified per your project), IRB Informed Consent Form (blank IRB Informed Consent form, in Word, to download and modify), Sqigwts Schitsu'umsh-NKN Climate Change Project Informed Consent Form  (an example 2014)

    •  Sqigwts Schitsu'umsh-NKN Climate Change Project Questions (example 2014)

    • CITI Training     How to register for a CITI account  (upon entering site, type in the "University of Idaho" affiliation; under first question, select "Human Subjects," and you'll need to provide some demographic information and create a password; you will then be directed to select the course to take, you you only take the basic "Investigators and Student Researcher" course, a 10 module course (others not needed).  You do not need to do other courses).

    • University - Intellectual Property and Tribal Traditional Knowledge Agreement - "Best Practices" Procedures for all Research - No form to fill out and sign (Coeur d'Alene Tribe and University of Idaho, dated: 5 February 2015)

  • Forms and Protocols for Tribes

    • Nez Perce Research Form and Ordinance

   

• Mega-Stories, Phenomenon, Modes of Inquiry, Research Design: Framing How You Will Engage and Re-Tell Another's Story (encountering another's world view through the lenses of one's own).  In this section we will seek to acknowledgment the epistemological relationships between what you seek to know (i.e., the focus of  your research ) and how you go about that knowing (i.e., your methodology), and develop the ability to appropriately apply that relationship in the doing of anthropology.  "Painting the Bull's-Eye" -  Dates: February 3, 7 and 12

  • Topics: With Mega-Story examples from the Indigenous Story, Sundance and Heart Knowledge, as well as Science and Head Knowledge, and linking the how and what: 1. the epistemological foundations of the tool kit - the three approaches:  positivist social sciences (inductive/deductive mode), constructivist humanities ("text," reflexive and interpretivist mode), indigenous (participatory attentiveness, interpretivist), the context for conducting research in another culture, and the nature of phenomena; 2. the nature of applied and collaborative ethnography, and academic service learning; 3. initiating collaborative partners and research topics; 4. the interpretivist paradigms and legitimizing criteria (authenticity, trustworthiness, credibility and confirmability), and positivist paradigm and legitimizing criteria (validity, reliability and generalization); 5. the qualitative methodological approach (considering "text," "story," and interpretation) and quantitative methodological approach (conceptualization, levels of measurement, operationalization; independent and dependent variables); 6. reflexive considerations; 7. critiquing research and the "literature search;" 8. writing a prospectus and proposal for academic and funding purposes; 9. addressing the "mutually exclusive" and applying multiple methods to research.       Outlines of Lecture Presentations, Aligning the Paradigms and the Two Paradigms;       Three case examples: Water from a Sundance Center Pole, Image of a Catholic Madonna in Vibrant Pastels, and a Reservation Property Line and the BLM.

  • Readings: Davies ch. 2; Frey pp. 28-73 (storytelling), 123-138 (Sundancing) and 139-174 (head and heart knowing);  Rubin/Rubin ch. 2, 3, 4, 5; Research Considerations in research design of project (one example); U of I Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP - for student research support)

  • Forms: 

    • American Anthropological Association Style Guide

    • American Sociology Association Style Guide

    • Prospectus Template 

  • Support Materials: Tepoztlan: Robert Redfield 1920s and Oscar Lewis 1950s, and e.g., the Nuer: E. E. Evans-Pritchard 1930s and 1950s; Outline on Grant Writing; Outline on Critiquing the Literature; Outline for a Curriculum Vitae (CV); Sqigwts NKN Proposal, Sqigwts, Kuhn's Paradigm Shift; Theory: an introduction (with page on Constructionist); Rainbow

   

• Research Topic Due and Submission of ORA Application -  Dates: 1. The research topic (PDF) is due February 12 (Monday by 6:00) to the instructor (submitted as an e-mail).   2. IRB Protocol Form (all four-five parts: Form (as "non-exempt"), Consent Form, Research Questions, CITI Certificate (only the 10 modules) and possibly Tribal Resolution of support) is due by February 16 (Friday by 6:00 pm).    I will notify you as soon as possible for each form accepted.

  • Once you have received the instructor's approval of your topic, submit the IRB Protocol form (with all four relevant parts; in only a doc. or docx. format) to me, rfrey@uidaho.edu, as an attachment with name file "IRB-(your last name)".   NOTE: late submissions will not be accepted without prior approval).  

  • If your project does not fall within Course-related Research Practica, i.e., you will be conducting research related to a graduate student project, e.g., related to a master's thesis, or as an undergraduate or graduate student project that might result in publication and/or conference presentation, such projects go beyond "course-related" and are considered "non-course-related" and thus must be reviewed by the University’s Human Research Protections (IRB) Committee. The online IRB Protocol is at VERSA: http://www.uidaho.edu/ora/committees/irb. Specify your project's status as either "course-related" or "non-course-related."

  • I will review the completed IRB Protocol forms and notify you of any recommended changes or approval ASAP.   

  • Remember, you can not begin your research (interviewing, participant-observations) until you have received approval from me, or for non-course-related" research, from the ORA committee.

 

• Field Research - Interviewing: Listening To Another's Story -  Dates: February 14, 21, 26 and 28. March 5 

  • Topics:  Selecting collaborators and consultants, and issues of sampling; recording equipment, interviewing techniques and considerations, life stories/histories, folklore studies.

  • Readings: Davies ch. 5, 8 and 9; Rubin/Rubin ch. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11; some class notes: "Qualitative Sampling" and "Re-Telling the Stories of Others: Oral and Life History Interviewing"

  • Exercise #2 - conduct interview during class session on March 5

  • Support Materials:

    • Transcribing option

    • Borrow a digital audio recorder from the U of I ITS Media Center, in the TLC 131 (preferred that you go in person; 885-6411 and medicctr@uidaho.edu; three day loan)

  • Graduate Student Presentation: Michelle - Davies chapter 5, and Katie - Rubin/Rubin chapter 6 - Feb 21; Katie - Rubin/Rubin chapter 7, and Michelle - Rubin/Rubin 8 - Feb 26; Michelle - Rubin/Rubin chapter 9, and Katie - Rubin/Rubin chapter 11- Feb 28   

      

• Formal Prospectus Due (hard copy)-  Date: Friday February 23 (by 6:00)   Location: Phinney Hall 116 (NOTE: late submissions will not be accepted without prior approval)

  • Prospectus Template

 

•  Field Research - Participant-Observation: Participating In Another's Story -  Dates:  to read on own time - not covered in class

  • Topics: observational techniques, participant observation, direct and reactive observation and unobtrusive observation, and field notes (for both participant-observation and interviewing)

  • Readings: Davies ch. 4, 6 and 7

  • Graduate Student Presentation:  

   

• Midterm Examination - Date: March 7 

 

• Interpretation and Analysis - From Gathering To Writing Culture: Interpreting Another's Story - Dates: March 19, 21 and 26

  • Topics:  field notes revisited; coding (heuristic and computer assisted coding and analysis of qualitative data, e.g., dedoose); orality and literacy; constructing the "text;" symbols and dialectics, "thick description" and the art of interpretation (Geertz); "grounded theory" (Davies), dependent and independent variables and doing some elementary stats; and issues of validity and reliability, as well as authenticity, trustworthiness and confirmability

  • Readings: Davies ch. 10 and 11; Rubin/Rubin ch. 12 and Appendix; review Frey pp. 125-130 (on Humanities Style Interpretation); Symbols and Coding; Interpretative Dialectic; Coding

  • Exercise #3  (do only exercise #3; nothing to turn in at this time)

  • Graduate Student Presentations: Ash - Rubin/Rubin chapter 12 - March 21; Ash - Davies chapters 10 and 11 - March 26

 

• Interpretation - From Writing To Representing Culture: Presenting Another's Story (and Your Own Story) - Dates: March 28, April 2, 4, 9 and 11

  • Topics:  "Word and Symbol Bridges" - 1) anchored to host community (using appropriate legitimizing criteria); 2) rendering accessible and knowing your audiences, including yourself (reflexivity); 3) relation between what said and how said: Style and Format - voice, story, text construction, metaphor, reflexivity, memoir, formal formats, experimental writing formats, and modes (print - narrative and poetic, video and still imagery, Internet, 3-D Virtual World.); Curriculum and classroom presentation and pedagogical considerations (what are the best-practice attributes for a classroom engaging in another culture, be it prehistoric or ethnographic cultures?); Final Thoughts an role of researcher, teacher, communicator and advocate.  

  • Readings: Davies ch. 12; Frey 199-210 (Sqigwts 3-D Virtual Reality) and 227-245 (A Healing Story), Final Thoughts 246-253  ; Rubin/Rubin ch. 13 and 14; Formal Writing Format; Review last sections of "Re-Telling the Stories of Others" pp. 11-13; NOTE: anthropologists, criminologists and sociologists (via canvassing the department) all consider the best qualitative ethnographic research is expressed in book-length manuscripts and few in journal articles; Consider the following examples:

    • Formal Style of Manuscript: AAA style of parenthetical documentation

    • Formal Style of Manuscript (Quick Tips): ASA style of parenthetical documentation (Full Guide $27 or $14 with membership)

  • Criminologist's use of ethnography (reliant on interviews, and a formal style of writing and formatting), in Street Codes as Formula Stories: How Inmates Recount Violence by Fiona Brookman, Heith Copes and Andy Hochstetler, that engages Elijia Anderson’s concept of “street codes” and “story telling” (formula stories) to examine how prison inmates in the UK construct narratives of violence (recommended by Brian Wolf)

  • Sociologist's use of qualitative interviews presented in an ethnographic format, Beauty in Places of Horror: Testimonies of Women Survivors of Clandestine Detention Centers in Argentina by Barbara Sutton (recommended Leontina Hormel)

  • An archaeological descriptive and "narrative creative-nonfiction" writing - Catherine Dickson's "Before Lewis and Clark: Native Americans at Wallula Gap"

  • Classic Ethnographic description - Clifford Geertz's "Balinese Cockfight."  What is it? (review for those who have read it or read, for those new to this quintessential and transformative anthropological text), and review/read from Carry Forth the Stories pp. 119-20

  • Ethnographic poetic style formatting, and review/read from Carry Forth the Stories pp. 104-108

  • Ethnographic collaborative-"narrative"-"polyvocality"- memoir/personal essay writing, from "If All These Great Stories Were Told, Great Stories Will Come" in Religion and Healing in Native America Crawford O-Brien ed. 2008 

  • Ethnographic Consideration in descriptive and narrative writing (review sections: Conceptual Framework, Poetic Style, Vignettes, Text as Map, and Frey's Voice - ultimately: reality of the Schitsu'umsh and of this book is the "world precipitated by the participation of its travelers, guided by the teachings of Coyote and Crane" i.e., transitory intersection of those participating, by they human, plant, animal and/or spirit, anchored to place-based oral traditions)   Missing the Mark? 

  • Ethnographic description and narrative via the Internet, web publication (Coeur d'Alene example - Felix and Camas) 

  • Ethnographic description and narrative via DVD ("Voices that Soar with the Eagles: Women Drumming in the Coeur d'Alene (Schitsu'umsh) Indian Tribe of Idaho," MA Anthro Thesis by Jennifer Gatzke 2008

  • Virtual World Technology - Interactive 3-D  Sqigwts Module, and review/read from Carry Forth the Stories pp. 199-210

  • A memoir "healing journey" and final thoughts on being an ethnographer.  Carry Forth the Stories pp. 227-245 and 246-253

  • An Indigenous " Classroom" - an example of Indigenous pedagogy in the academy, and review/read from Carry Forth the Stories pp. 96-99

  • Exercise #4  (DUE April 11, turn in hard copy of person interviewed in class and discuss during class)

  • Graduate Student Presentations: 

   

• Learning Outcomes  & Senior Survey

   

• Student Presentation of Final Projects (6 session, with 3-4 presentations each; Team = 20 min. and Solo = 15 min., with 5 min Q&A for each) - Criteria - Dates: April 16 - NO CLASS; April 18 - Michelle, Kaela, Jennifer, Ash; April 23 - John, Katie W., Scott, Marlen; April 25 - Josh, Jackie, Dace, Haley; April 30 - Kortni and Trevor, Saskia, Katy S.; May 2 - Emilee, Payton, Ty (and Frey on Final Exam)

   

• Posted Take Home Exam (to be reviewed in class) - Date: May 2. 

  • Final Exam (a hard copy of the exam can be obtained from the instructor upon request). Submit a hard copy, due by Friday May 11 by 5:00 pm in Phinney 116.     It can be submitted early.   (NOTE: this is a cumulative exam, covering the entire semester's materials).

   

• Project Due - Date: May 4 - Your hard-copy formatted (given the appropriate "how" in given the "what," ) project is due on Friday by 4:00 pm, at Phinney 116.  Note: please present your project in an appropriate professional format (AAA, ASA text, video, etc., and ranging from formal academic to narrative styles), and include the original or a copy of the signed Informed Consent Form, along with any IRB documentation, as an appendix in your project.  

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