Essential Ethnographic Methods: Observations, Interviews, and Questionnaires (Ethnographer's Toolkit) [Paperback]

Stephen L. Schensul (Author), Jean J. Schensul (Author), Margaret D. LeCompte (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0761991441 | ISBN-13: 978-0761991441 | Publication Date: August 19, 1999

Book Two of the Ethnographer's Toolkit series provides the reader with an introduction to participant and non-participant observation, interviewing, and ethnographically informed survey research, including systematically administered structured interviews and questionnaires. These essential methods are the basic building blocks of data collection, providing researchers with tools to answer key questions: "What's happening in this setting?"; "Who is engaging in what kind of activities?"; and "Why are they doing what they're doing?" The authors describe when and how to use these basic techniques and offer numerous examples of how these methods have worked in community-based research, action research, participant action research and mixed method projects.

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About the Author

Stephen L. Schensul: University of Connecticut Medical Center
Jean J. Schensul: Institute for Community Research, Hartford
Margaret Diane LeCompte: University of Colorado, Boulder

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Altamira Press (August 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761991441
• ISBN-13: 978-0761991441
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ethnographer in training Review, August 5, 2002

By 

Kent Rasmussen (North Dakota, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Ethnographic Methods: Observations, Interviews, and Questionnaires (Ethnographer's Toolkit) (Paperback)

Over all, the book is well laid out, and the information is quite accessible. Example numbers and graphics set off the numerous case studies. Key points are given in italics and indicated with a graphic in the margin, where the reader will also find critical definitions and cross-references to chapters in other volumes in the series.

This volume provides good introductory material on ethnographic fieldwork techniques. The methods are not given in isolation, but in relationship to theoretical models, and in terms of how operationalization may be done. Methodology is presented as coming directly from a theory, and feeding directly back into a modification of that theory, whatever that theory happens to be. The authors also clearly present the need for making observations operationalizable, allowing for observations to fit into a quantitative analysis that reflects the reality observed in a manner that is valid and reliable.

Before moving to a direct discussion of the techniques, the authors give some needed practical information on getting to the field to do the research (chapter 4). This teaches the student how to avoid another common pitfall: having the technical tools to do the fieldwork, but not being able to get to the field or to survive there long enough to do the research.

The next 140 pages of the book (chapters 5 to 9) give the basics of several types of ethnographic methodology: exploratory or open-ended observation; in-depth, open-ended interviewing; semistructured interviewing; structured ethnographic data collection (ethnographic surveys); and using archival and secondary data.

The book finishes with two chapters (10 and 11), one on sampling, and the final one on validity and reliability. The volume ends with five full pages of references, and an eight-page index, which is subcategorized for easy reference.