A bite sized introduction which is inevitably reductionistic

Ethnography has various facets (Walford, 2008) and each journal article or book tells a different tale about it. There is a wide-ranging discussion about the nature of ethnography, which, for a novice researcher, makes the matter difficult to navigate (Conteh, 2005 et al.; Delamont, 2009; Hammersley, 1992, 2003; Hammersley & Atkinson, 2009).

During an introductory ethnography seminar I was confronted with the following statement:

The prime ethnographic skills cannot be communicated or learned in the seminar room or out of the textbook. Students can be prepared, forewarned, or educated in ethnography, but the only way to learn it is to do it. (Ball, 1990, pp. 157-158)

Troman and Jeffrey (2006, pp. 34–35) suggest the following three principles of ethnography firstly fieldwork needs to take place over a period of time so that contradictory situations can emerge. Secondly, the research has to take into account the cultural context of the research site and the position the participants hold in this context. Thirdly, the research ought to include theoretical perspectives during research and analysis. The main points I take out from this are to permit enough time at the research site to encounter ambivalent patterns of behaviour. Acknowledging the process of data collection, and rewriting as analytical process that establishes the dialectic between the researcher, the data, and the field.

• Atkinson, P., Coffey, A., Delamont, S., Lofland, J., & Lofland, L. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of Ethnography. London: Sage.
• Ball, S. J. (1990). Self-doubt and soft data: social and technical trajectories in ethnographic fieldwork. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 3(2), 157–171.
• Hammersley, M. (1992). What's wrong with Ethnography? Oxon: Routledge.
• Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (2009). Ethnography. Principles in Practice. (3rd Ed.). London: Routledge.
• Troman, G., & Jeffrey, B. (2006). Time for Ethnography. In G. Troman, B. Jeffrey & D. Beach (Eds.), Researching Education Policy: Ethnographic Experiences. (pp. 22–36). London: Tufnell Press.
• Walford, G. (2008). The Nature of Educational Ethnography. In G. Walford (Ed.), How to do Educational Ethnography. (pp. 1–15). London: The Tufnell Press.