Abstract
Ethnography is a core methodology in anthropology and other disciplines. Yet, there is currently no scholarly consensus on how to teach ethnographic methods—or even what methods belong in the ethnographic toolkit. We report on a systematic analysis of syllabi to gauge how ethnographic methods are taught in the United States. We analyze 107 methods syllabi from a nationally elicited sample of university faculty who teach ethnography. Systematic coding shows that ethics, research design, participant observation, interviewing, and analysis are central to ethnographic instruction. But many key components of ethical, quality ethnographic practice (like preparing an IRB application, reflexivity, positionality, taking field notes, accurate transcription, theme identification, and coding) are only taught rarely. We suggest that, without inclusion of such elements in its basic training, the fields that prioritize this methodology are at risk of inadvertently perpetuating uneven, erratic, and extractive fieldwork practices.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 401-412 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Human organization |
Volume | 81 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2022 |
Funding
We acknowledge the United States National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program grant (Award SBE-2017491) to the NSF Cultural Anthropology Methods Program. This material is based upon work supported by (while serving at) the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Keywords
- ethnography
- fieldwork
- participant observation
- qualitative research
- research methods
- teaching
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- General Social Sciences