Tuesday, June 14, 2016

SLA2016 : Ethnographic Research Methods

Lighted Building in Philly
Michael Khoo:
Ethnography in the Academy
  • Ethnography as a method, which can be used to answer questions in different disciplines.
  • Methods
    • Qualitative / quantitative
    • Setting
    • Length/type of observation - multiple observations
    • Resource limitations
    • Theoretical approach
  • His method is an interpretative approach based on Clifford Geertz
    • You can't understand what people do until you see them do it in context
    • Lots of data gathering methods
      • Surveys
      • Interviews
      • Focus groups
      • Observation
      • Field notes
      • Audio/video recording
      • Material artifacts
      • ...and more...
    • Action research approach to generate both practical and theoretical outcomes
  • The researcher is an instrument. The research absorbs data by being there and can begin to analyze it.
  • Distinction between emic and etic perspectives
    • The subject's perspective versus the researcher's perspective 
    • Inside versus outside perspective
  • Case study
    • He is doing a project with the Drexel Library
    • Doing data gathering
      • Seating instrument 
      • Annotated map - asked students to mark where they like to sit and why
      • Surveys
      • Using this data they created heat maps
    • Interesting that "full" might be that seats at a table might be 50% occupied.  Students aren't going to sit at a table that they perceive as being full.
Carolyn Marconi:
Ethnographic Research as a Tool for Marketers
  • May not be as academically rigorous 
  • What is ethnology?
    • To the social scientist - the systemic study of people and culture
    • To a market researcher - A type of qualitative research conducted "in the field"
  • Examples of qualitative research methods
    • Interviewer led
      • Focus groups
      • In depth interviews
      • Telephone interviews
      • Online bulletin boards
    • Respondent led
      • "Ethnographies" 
        • Typically conducted one on one or tribes
        • Observational, but usually combines with questions/probes
        • Usually includes photos and/or video
  • Marketers want to talk to consumers in their native habitat
  • The use of ethnographic research is on the rise in corporations, enabled by technology
    • Self-ethnography
    • New York Times article "What do consumers want? Look at their selfies" - the app is "pay as your selfie" where you take a selfie doing specific tasks and you get paid.
  • Why do ethnographies?
    • What do people say they do?
    • What do people actually do? We sometimes don't know what we do.
    • Why do people do what they do?  What are the drivers?
  • Case studies
    • Diabetes
      • People who are using an insulin pump
      • Understand the impact of using an insulin pump among people with diabetes
        • 30 interviews
        • 2 hours each
        • 3 cities
        • Videotapes
        • Photos
        • A team of people/researchers
      • Understand the lived experience
      • Allow people to talk about delicate topics
      • Unexpected learnings 
    • Lip balm
      • Explore unmet consumer needs in the lip balm category
        • 30 female lip balm "heavy users"
        • Three day bulletin board focus groups 
        • Conducted online
        • Respondents made a short video shine which lip balm products they currently have on hand and where they store them (using a smart phone)
      • Many women said they were addicted to lip balm 
    • Breakfast
      • Uncover drivers of purchasing and serving frozen waffles among households with children
      • An immersion experience for members of the client marketing team as part of a two day brainstorming session
      • Method
        • In-home interviews among six families
        • Two consecutive mornings
        • Conducted in the home
        • 60-90 minutes each day
        • Videotaped
        • Photos taken by the moderator
      • How was breakfast organized?
      • Who made the breakfast?
  • It is one tool.  Not the only tool. 
Robert Harington
Ethnology: A Scientist Discovers the Value of the Social Sciences 
  • American Mathematical Society
  • Research on the the product MathSciNet
  • Methods
    • Interviews students, instructors, faculty
    • Across universities
    • Audio recorded
      • Transcribed, created excerpts, coded
      • Used web software called dedoose, dedoose.com
  • Findings - preliminary
    • Current awareness
      • Increased volume of literature over time
      • Mathematicians use online resources to set their work in a broader context
      • Monitoring of activity of other researchers in their field
      • Uncertainty about how to stay current
      • ArXiv is an essential awareness tool
      • Google and Google Scholar also common starting points
      • If you know about MathiSciNet, then it is a common starting point
    • Searching for a specific paper 
      • Theme of integrated resources came up
      • Networking - the erosnal touch remained important
    • Searching in an unfamiliar area
      • Google's ability to gather diverse materials useful for a broad search
      • Mathematicians are keeping relevant pages in Wikipeida up to date.  A useful resource.
      • MathSciNet is good for narrower and deeper searches 
    • General online searching and strategies
    • General observations
    • Make be making search to difficult
    • Need more integration
    • MathSciNet is not indexed by Google.



Updated: 06/17/2016

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