Ethnographic research articles

Pmc3100516an overview of ethnography in healthcare and medical education researchleigh goodson and matt vassaroklahoma state university center for health sciences, tulsa, ok, ponding ponding email: o@uthor information ► article notes ► copyright and license information ►received 2011 jan 8; accepted 2011 apr ght © 2011, national health personnel licensing examination board of the republic of koreathis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly article has been cited by other articles in ctresearch in healthcare settings and medical education has relied heavily on quantitative methods. However, there are research questions within these academic domains that may be more adequately addressed by qualitative inquiry. While there are many qualitative approaches, ethnography is one method that allows the researcher to take advantage of relative immersion in order to obtain thick description. The purpose of this article is to introduce ethnography, to describe how ethnographic methods may be utilized, to provide an overview of ethnography's use in healthcare and medical education, and to summarize some key limitations with the ds: ethnography, qualitative research, medical education, healthcareintroductionresearchers from the social science disciplines are able to take advantage of a wide array of research methodologies. Hence, research designs are primarily aimed at describing the context or group of ll [1] cites these three types of designs: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. The type of research method used is referring to the method used to collect the data.

Ethnographic methods qualitative research

Qualitative research, whether standing alone or in a mixed method, adds rich information to any investigation otherwise not discoverable. These are not competing but rather complimentary ative research is often overlooked as an option when considering the methodological approach to a research question. This is especially true in academic domains such as medicine where evidence-based practice has emerged as a popular treatment philosophy based largely on the quantitative research tradition. Ethnography is one qualitative approach that involves relative submersion into the setting to be studied, and is an appropriate methodology for a wide variety of research topics within healthcare and medical education. While, to some extent, ethnography has been applied in healthcare settings and in the medical education environment, we feel that there is a general lack of research employing this methodology. At times, deficits in particular research methodologies within various academic domains may be attributed to a general lack of knowledge regarding the methodology itself or ways in which the method may be applied.

Therefore, the purpose of this introductory paper is to explain ethnographic methodology, discuss how the method may be used, provide a discussion of ethnography's use in healthcare and medical education, and briefly summarize some key limitations with the method. Since ethnography is a method not easily summarized in a single paper, we are writing a series of articles to follow which will address specific aspects related to conducting ethnographic begin by describing ethnography, synthesizing the works of leung [2], savage [3], lecompte and schensul [4], pope [5], and atkinson and pugsley [6]. Leung [2], for example, discusses ethnography as a social research method occurring in natural settings characterized by learning the culture of the group under study and experiencing their way of life before attempting to derive explanations of their attitudes or behavior. Savage [3] notes that ethnography may also require historical research prior to beginning actual field work. In terms of time considerations, ethnography is a research method characterized by long-term fieldwork since thick description of the participants and setting may only be acquired from sufficient exposure to them. These include: 1) being carried out in a natural setting, not in a laboratory; 2) involving intimate, face-to-face interaction with participants; 3) presenting an accurate reflection of participant perspectives and behaviors; 4) utilizing inductive, interactive, and recursive data collection to build local cultural theories; 5) using both qualitative and quantitative data; 6) framing all human behavior within a sociopolitical and historical context; and 7) using the concept of culture as a lens through which to interpret study y, in order to fully understand ethnographic methodology, it is necessary to briefly describe the fundamental ideas and guiding principles of ethnography which have been derived across the many academic disciplines that make use of its application.

Atkinson and pugsley [6] nicely summarize these ideas which have been succinctly stated in table 1fundamental ideas underlying ethnographyuses of ethnographyethnography is a useful qualitative approach to address a particular type of research question. Lecompte and schensul [4] suggest that ethnography should be used to:Define a problem when the problem is not yet a problem when it is complex and embedded in multiple systems or ify participants when the participants, population sectors, stakeholders, or the boundaries of the study population are not yet known or y the range of settings where a problem or situation currently occurs when not all of the possible settings are fully identified, known, or e the factors associated with a problem in order to indentify, understand, and address them either though research or intervention studies, when they are not nt a fy and describe unexpected or unanticipated measures that match the characteristics of the target population, clients, or community participants when existing measures are not a good fit or need to be questions that cannot be addressed with other methods or the access of clients to the research process and its s:article | pubreader | epub (beta) | pdf (305k) | citationshare. 3 free articles raphic research: a key to the march 2009 traditional market researchers, who use highly targeted questions to extract information from customers, corporate ethnographers observe and listen in a nondirected way. The ethnographic work at my company, intel, and other firms now informs functions such as strategy and long-range raphy is the branch of anthropology that involves trying to understand how people live their lives. Unlike traditional market researchers, who ask specific, highly practical questions, anthropological researchers visit consumers in their homes or offices to observe and listen in a nondirected way. Ethnographic research showed so much potential that intel set up a business unit to concentrate on processors and platforms for home ly, intel ethnographers have veered into strategic questions.

By understanding how people live, researchers discover otherwise elusive trends that inform the company’s future strategies. Version of this article appeared in the march 2009 issue of harvard business article is about e of charleston raphic raphic research: find ces for ethnographic research projects at the college of ch compliance @ ght, permission & citing ic search complete comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary database containing thousands of full-text peer-reviewed journals. Includes thousands of peer-reviewed and full-text journal in a wide variety of pological index online index to journal articles and films held at the royal anthropological institute in cooperation with the anthropology library and research centre at the british museum. Covers all branches and areas of pological index online index to journal articles and films held at the royal anthropological institute in cooperation with the anthropology library and research centre at the british museum. Pao provides researchers with access to more than 200 years of t muse - premium collection muse offers complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies in the humanities and social y and anti-slavery: a transnational archive part i the first part of slavery and anti-slavery: a transnational archive contains more than 6,000 books and pamphlets, more than 60 newspaper and periodical titles, and a dozen major manuscript ogical abstracts an index to over 1,700 journals covering the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The journal advances the association's mission through publishing articles that add to, integrate, synthesize, and interpret anthropological knowledge; commentaries and essays on issues of importance to the discipline; and reviews of books, films, sound recordings and rly journal concerned with ethnology in the broadest sense of the term.

The editor welcomes manuscripts that creatively demonstrate the connections between ethnographic specificity and theoretical originality, as well as the ongoing relevance of the ethnographic imagination to the contemporary pology and welcomes contributions from all major fields of anthropology and from scholars in other social science disciplines, as well as the humanities. Whether working with life histories or demographics, poetics or nutrition, artistic expression or scientific writing, this journal strives to maintain a focus on the human actors pological pological quarterly, also known as aq, is a peer-reviewed journal published by the george washington university institute for ethnographic research. While continuing to publish outstanding, original, data-driven articles that advance ethnography and anthropological theory, aq also asks intellectuals to contribute to on-going public debates relevant to contemporary experiences and public debates. An online service of aaa, anthrosource offers access to more than 100 years of anthropological al hes ethnographic writing informed by a wide array of theoretical perspectives, innovative in form and content, and focused on both traditional and emerging topics. It also welcomes essays concerned with theoretical issues, with ethnographic methods and research design in historical perspective, and with ways cultural analysis can address broader public audiences and butes to the cumulative development of cross-cultural ethnographic data with detailed recordings and analyses of culture and society. It is devoted to communicating what is new and worthy in scholarly approaches to this field with well chosen, carefully edited, instructive articles to readers in diverse fields of the human l of linguistic journal of linguistic anthropology (jla), a publication of the society for linguistic anthropology (sla), publishes articles and other materials based on anthropological study of language and language-related issues—particularly ethnographic research concerned with the relationships among language, society, and l of the society for visual ts research on visual studies, broadly conceived.

Within its scope, the journal encompasses both the study of visual aspects of human behavior and the use of visual media in anthropological research, representation and teaching. Anthropology seeks to be a leading voice for scholarly research on the collection, interpretation, and representation of the material world. Through critical articles, provocative commentaries, and thoughtful reviews, this peer-reviewed journal aspires to cultivate vibrant dialogues that reflect the global and transdisciplinary work of museums. Situated at the intersection of practice and theory, museum anthropology advances our knowledge of the ways in which material objects are intertwined with living histories of cultural display, economics, socio-politics, law, memory, ethics, colonialism, conservation, and public ts original articles, commentary, discussions, film reviews, and book reviews on anthropological and ethnographic anthropology review (publisher site). Its field of inquiry is open to all cultures, regions, and historical es coverage of research in all branches of semiotic is an international peer-reviewed electronic journal on the semiotics of mind, consciousness, language and l of computer-mediated -based, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Its focus is social science research on computer-mediated communication via the internet, the world wide web, and wireless technologies.

Acceptable formats for submission include original research articles, meta-analyses of prior research, synthesizing literature surveys, and proposals for special ational forum publishing high quality, original research into the theoretical development of communication from across a wide array of disciplines, such as communication studies, sociology, psychology, political science, cultural and gender studies, philosophy, linguistics, and al studies in media es a home for scholarship in media and mass communication from a cultural studies and critical perspective. The database contains full text from 370 journals, including: american journal of speech-language pathology, american speech, child language teaching & therapy, journal of speech language & hearing research, language & speech, language speech & hearing services in the schools, quarterly journal of speech, and more. Cmmc is a valuable resource for speech and language l of communication es communication and mass communication phenomena within cultural and historical , culture & es a major international forum for the presentation of research and discussion concerning the media, including the newer information and communication technologies, within their political, economic, cultural and historical es the relation between cultural practices, everyday life, material, economic, political, geographical, & historical ational journal of cultural all areas of pology and education -reviewed journal that publishes scholarship on schooling in social and cultural context and on human learning both inside and outside of schools. Articles rely primarily on ethnographic research to address immediate problems of practice as well as broad theoretical questions. The journal publishes empirical articles of general theoretical, comparative or methodological interest to students and scholars in sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and related fields. Language in society aims to strengthen international scholarship and interdisciplinary conversation and cooperation among researchers interested in language and society by publishing work of high quality which speaks to a wide audience.

In addition to original articles, the journal publishes reviews and notices of the latest important books in the field, book notes, and occasional theme and discussion zational y of management academy of management journal (amj) is the flagship empirical journal in management, and has been indispensable reading for management scholars for more than five decades. Amj articles test, extend, or build theory and contribute to management practice using a variety of empirical methods (e. Of management journal of management studies (jms) is a globally respected, multidisciplinary journal with a long established history of excellence in management research. Jms publishes innovative empirical and conceptual articles which advance knowledge of management and organisation broadly defined, in such fields as organization theory, organizational behaviour, human resource management, strategy, international business, entrepreneurship, innovation and critical management studies. Jms has an inclusive ethos and is open to a wide range of methodological approaches and philosophical ative research (multidisciplinary). Research (qrj) is a bimonthly peer reviewed journal that publishes original research and review articles on the methodological diversity and multi-disciplinary focus of qualitative l of contemporary l of contemporary ethnography (jce), published bi-monthly, is an international and interdisciplinary forum for research using ethnographic methods to examine human behavior in natural settings.

The journal publishes refereed research articles that experiment with manuscript form and content, and focus on methodological issues raised by qualitative research rather than the content or results of the research. The journal offers both theoretical and analytical research, and publishes manuscripts based on research methods such as interviewing, participant observation, ethnography, historical analysis, content analysis and others which do not rely primarily on numerical ogical sociological quarterly is devoted to publishing cutting-edge research and theory in all areas of sociological inquiry. The journal publishes research that develops interactionist theories, generates new methodological directions and ideas, and studies substantive topics from the interactionist perspective.