1,721,067 research outputs found
Participant observation and field notes
No full textThis chapter describes the use of participant observation and field notes as central methods in ethnographic research. It provides a historical perspective on the development of these methods in anthropology and sociology. It goes on to describe how to do participant observation, exemplified using a recent research project the author carried out in a school. Access, observation and discussion with research participants are described, and common challenges are explored, including ethical dilemmas. The importance of reflexivity and awareness of one’s own position as a researcher is underlined. The chapter goes on to discuss decisions which need to be made around how to take field notes, addressing both practical and ethical issues and explaining the important role of field notes in developing reflexivity. Recent studies in linguistic ethnography are described, showing how they draw on participant observation and field notes to support their claims. Critical issues and debates are identified around the researcher-generated nature of field note data, and balancing the value of recorded language data and data from participant observation. The chapter identifies the value of team ethnography in addressing some of these issues, and argues that future research needs to address these concerns directly
Literacy Studies
No full textThis chapter provides an introduction to literacy studies and its connections with linguistic ethnography. It gives a brief history of the development of a social practice approach to literacy, showing the importance of ethnographic studies within this history, and explains key terms such as ‘literacy event’ and ‘literacy practice’. It explores challenges common to literacy researchers and other linguistic ethnographers, for instance in conceptualising the relationship between local and broader contexts. It describes research methods commonly adopted in literacy studies and demonstrates their close connection to those of linguistic ethnography, highlighting, in particular, the influence of discourse analysis, the importance of reflexivity and the developing significance of digital technologies in literacy research. The chapter argues that given the central place of literacy in contemporary society, it would be hard to imagine a linguistic ethnography which was not at some point obliged to engage with literacy practices. Finally, it opens up potential new theoretical directions for the future development of both literacy studies and linguistic ethnography more generally, identifying the potential of post-humanist approaches which start from the premise of the entanglement of humans with the world around them and which do not limit agency to the human alone.link_to_subscribed_fulltex
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