Critical Ethnography

 

Critical Ethnography

Critical ethnography is a relatively new mode of qualitative investigation and one in need of further elaboration, discussion, and debate. Critical ethnography shares the methods of traditional ethnography, such as by seeking the emic perspective gained through intense fieldwork, but it adds an explicit political focus.

Critical ethnography has its roots in the well-established tradition of anthropological ethnography. Critical ethnography grew out of dissatisfaction with both the a theoretical stance of traditional ethnography, which ignored social structures such as class, patriarchy, and racism, and what some regarded as the overly deterministic and theoretical approaches of critical theory, which ignored the lived experience and agency of human actors.

The most notable publications influencing the uptake and development of critical ethnography have been Jim Thomas’s Doing Critical Ethnography, which outlined the theoretical underpinnings of critical ethnography, and Phil Carspecken’s Critical Ethnography in Educational Research, which provided a methodological theory of critical ethnography accompanied by empirical techniques, data, and findings.

Carspecken pointed to what he referred to as a social ontology tied tightly to critical epistemology. He described the social site of research as composed of social interactions between actors and the social practices that reproduce systemic relationships.

These interactions and relations occur within the context of economic, political, and cultural structures that integrate the particular social site, and the actors within it, within a society. These interactions, Carspecken noted, can be evidenced through objective, subjective, and normative truth claims inherent in all human interaction.

Critical ethnographic approaches necessarily rely on reflexivity of method and, as such, must recognize the interplay between the researcher and the participant, between data and theory, and between research and action. Critical ethnographic projects need to move beyond the interview-only study not only to engage participants in naturalistic dialogue but also to involve them as co-researchers with a stake in interpreting results and suggesting avenues for action.

The methodology of critical ethnography has emerged as a useful approach to explore many of the issues confronting contemporary society. Although there are a range of possibilities in terms of method, these need to be located within a robust ontology and epistemology to counter challenges posed by critics of openly ideological research. Although a single study might not achieve the structural change desired by either researchers or participants, adhering to the principles of critical research methodologies will enable both parties to identify and explore oppression and inequality and to move closer to emancipatory action.