scholarly journals Examining the Strengths and Limitations of Ethnographic Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-558
Author(s):  
Natalie-Jane Howard

Ethnography offers a holistic approach to qualitative researchers in educational contexts and appeals to scholars who wish seek to reveal rich narratives through their immersion in specific domains. This review paper examines the mobilization of the ethnographic research approach reported in studies from two distinctive learning contexts: an elementary school and a vocational college. Employing the specific evaluative criteria of Punch (2005), the desk-based study draws on existing literature to document the strengths and limitations of ethnographic method and reportage to reveal edifying insights to novice and experienced qualitative researchers who may be contemplating an ethnographic study in the future. The review reveals how extensive ethnography lends itself well to presenting thick descriptions in rich narratives to demonstrate high veracity. In contrast, this research approach may be limited in its verisimilitude, especially if ethnographers abridge their methodological and analytical descriptions and fail to acknowledge reactivity

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-99
Author(s):  
Louise Hesseldal ◽  
Lars Kayser

There is an ongoing debate about how best to organize healthcare innovation. This article introduces and illustrates an alternative way of doing so by studying an emerging informal and inter-organizational network (IION) in practice. Taking an ethnographic research approach, the authors propose the concept of a potluck feast to de-scribe the nature of an IION and the dynamics within it. The relationship between the project and the actors is explored by introducing Steven Brown’s reading of Michel Serres’ concept of the parasite. The unique way of organizing healthcare innovation studied in the article involves an open, sharing approach, where everyone makes themselves an open resource for the project and where the contribution is determined by the actors’ own motivation rather than regulated by a formal setup and contracts. The article argues that the ethnographic research approach is useful to explore the emergence and dynamics of IIONs. In this way, this article contributes to the field of healthcare innovation and how to organize it, and may inspire those who are already in or intend to study this field.


Author(s):  
M. Şükrü Hanioğlu

This chapter discusses Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's childhood in the ancient Macedonian capital of Salonica. The future founder of the Turkish Republic was born one winter, either in 1880 or in 1881. His upbringing was more liberal than that of most lower-class Muslims. No one in his family's circle of friends and relatives, for instance, practiced polygamy. Likewise, his father reportedly drank alcohol, which was abhorred by conservatives. The confusing dualism produced in Ottoman society by the reforms of the nineteenth century had its first imprint on Mustafa when his parents entered into a heated argument about his education. There is little doubt that Mustafa Kemal's deep-seated predilection for new institutions and practices owed much to his years as one of a handful of students in the empire who had their primary education at a private elementary school devoid of a strong religious focus.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 235-245
Author(s):  
Ikhwandi Arifin

This paper discusses the importance of the students ‘character building in the level of primary school/Islamic elementary school to face the globalization and information era. Education is the process of determining the nation’s character. Good or bad character of the nation in the future will be determined by the present quality of education. Building the character through Tahfidzul Quran learning approach is expected to be the main foundation to improve the degree and prestige of learners as the asset of the nation. This study aimed to describe the process of Tahfidzul Quran learning which included planning, organizing, doing action and monitoring the important role of learning itself to build the learners’ character, especially in Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Istiqomah Sambas Purbalingga.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Tiernan ◽  
Jane O’Kelly

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the attitudes and impressions of pre-service Further Education teachers towards enterprise education. It also looks at the potential impact on their future teaching practices and aspirations. This study builds on the literature in this area by bringing a teacher education focus and by providing views from the underserved further education sector.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research approach was used to evaluate pre-service further education teachers' understanding of and attitudes towards, enterprise education. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 15 students in their final year of an initial teacher education degree.FindingsFindings emerged through constant comparative analysis of interview transcripts. These findings indicate that exposure to enterprise education greatly increased understanding of its importance and relevance, while also encouraging pre-service further education teachers to recognise the benefits of incorporating enterprise education into their classrooms of the future.Originality/valueWhile there is an array of literature on entrepreneurship and enterprise education outside of business contents, very few studies exist, which examine enterprise education in an initial teacher education context. Fewer still examine enterprise education from the perspective of further education. This study provides a unique qualitative view of pre-service further education teachers' impressions of enterprise education and their aspirations for the future.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-214
Author(s):  
P. Chemineau

The future livestock systems at the world level will have to produce more in the perspective of the population increase in the next 30 years, whereas reducing their environmental footprint and addressing societal concerns. In that perspective, we may wonder if animal health and animal welfare, which are two essential components of production systems, may play an important role in the stability of the three pillars of sustainability of the livestock systems. We already know that objectives driven by economy, environment and society may modify animal welfare and animal health, but is the reverse true? The answer is yes and in 11 cases out of 12 of the matrix health-welfare×3 pillars of sustainability×positive or negative change, we have many examples indicating that animal health and animal welfare are able to modify, positively or negatively, the three pillars of sustainability. Moreover, we also have good examples of strong interactions between health and welfare. These elements play in favour of an holistic approach at the farm level and of a multicriterial definition of what could be the sustainable systems of animal production in the future which will respect animal welfare and maintain a good animal health.


Organization ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren McCabe

The literature on organisational culture suggests that ceremonies or rituals reinforce control. By contrast, this article contributes to the literature on resistance, culture and ceremony by arguing that ceremony can also be understood as a form of resistance. It does so through drawing on ethnographic research, first, to explore how a ceremonial 1-day rally during an academic dispute was productive for frontline employee resistance (ceremony as resistance). Second, it considers how such resistance can also be productive in generating consent, for it is infused with and reproduces established norms, subjectivities and power relations (resistance as ceremony). Finally, it is asserted that resistance can be productive in fostering a subjectivity characterised by stability and instability and so practices such as a rally are necessary to try to stabilise both the organisation and the subjectivity of resistance. The article therefore illustrates the ambiguity of productive resistance which has been neglected to date. These insights and arguments indicate that all forms of workplace resistance are decaf, for they are imbued with the context and norms through which they arise. Nevertheless, resistance remains dangerous for those in positions of authority because it means that power is never totalising and so outcomes continue to be uncertain.


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