TUGAS RESEARCH II

                                                                                                            ANI ISMAWATI

                                                                                                            (102120109 / 7C)

Ethnography research according to Cresswell

Creswell (1998)described that an ethnography is a description and interpretation of a cultural or social group of system. The objects of observations or under examinations include observable and learned patterns of behavior, customs, and ways of life. As a process, ethnography involves extend observations of the group, most often through participant obsevation, in which the researcher is immersed in the day-to-day lives of thepeople and observes and interviews the group participants. Ethnographers study the meaning ofthe behaviour, the language, and the interaction among members of the culture-sharing group,

Cresweel (1998)explained that the ethnography study looks at people in interaction in ordinary settings and attempts to discern pervasive patterns such as life cycle, events, and cultural themes. The ethnographer gathers artifacts and physical trace evidence, find stories, rituals, and myths, and or uncover cultural themes. To identify the cultural patterns , the ethnographer enganges in extensive work in the field, gathering information through pbservations, interviews, artifacts and materials, the researcher needs to be sensitive to the issues, such as :

1. Gatekeepers : the access to the group.
2. Key informants : the individuals who provide useful insights into the group.
3. Reciprocity between the investigator and the subjects being studied.
4. Reactivity : the impact of the reseacher on the site and the people being studied.

The ethnogrphy is challenging to use for the following reasons :

1. The researcher needs to have grounding in cultural anthropology and the meaning of a social-cultural system as well as the concepts tipically explored by ethnographers.
2. The time to collect data is extensive, involving prolonged time in the field.
3. In the many ethnographies, th narratives are written in a literary, almost storytelling approach, an approach that may limit the audience for the work and may be challenging for authors accustomed to traditional approaches to writing social and human science research.
4. There is a possibility that the researcher will “go native” and be unable to complete the study or be compromised in the study. This is but one issue in the complex array of fieldwork issues facing ethnographers who venture into an unfamiliar cultural group or system.

Creswell (1998) also described the general structure of ethnography as follows :

1.    Introduction : problem and questions.
2.    Research procedures : ethnography, data collection, aanalysis, outcomes.
3.    Description of culture.
4.   Analysis of cultural themes.
5.  Interpretation, lessons learned, questions raised.