Methodology in the analysis of classroom discourse 2002 (original) (raw)
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Ethnography and Ethnomethodology, 2023
The Special Issue on Ethnomethodology and Ethnography was developed out of a series of panels at the 2019 conference on 'Practices' of the 'International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis' held in Mannheim (Germany), from 2 to 5 July. These aimed at reconsidering, empirically as well as theoretically, the important and foundational relationships between Ethnography and Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (EMCA) that often have been problematized and sometimes even considered antagonistic. This theme not only generated many more submissions than could be accepted, but it also drew a big audience and much interest, especially among EMCA scholars working ethnographically. It further stirred ongoing in-depth discussions that contributed to this volume. Considering contemporary developments within the diverse field of Ethnography, on the one hand,that partly grew out of specific concerns such as sensory, digital, feminist, and post-colonial researchand current studies in EMCA, for example, on media, technology, and social inequalities, on the other hand, it seems that mutual overlaps and their potentials have partly been overlooked, underconceptualized, and at times perhaps even obscured or misunderstood. The timeliness of these discussions and their underlying theoretical issues are at the heart of this volume. Combining the efforts of the initially independent panels (by Yaël Kreplak and Alex Dennis; and by Christian Meier zu Verl and Clemens Eisenmann) has proven very productive. In view of the wide interest, we decided to publish two special issues, the first of which was published with Ethnographic Studies in late 2020 (Meier zu Verl et al., 2020) and we are very pleased to finally make the second volume available here with Qualitative Research. The collected papers in this volume explore in-depth the relationships, entanglements, and subtle, but important differences between Ethnography and EMCA in their theoretical, methodological, and empirical grounds. The individual contributions show in different and complementary ways, how these relations address foundational problems and concerns of qualitative methodologies more generally as well as their particular solutions to issues in the ongoing discussions of contemporary qualitative research. Many of the issues raised, such as questions on situatedness, reflexivity or positionality, can be traced back to earlier debates, starting from the 'value judgment controversy' (Werturteilsstreit) in the 1900s, the 'positivism dispute' (Positivismusstreit) in the 1960s, the 'Crisis of Representation' in Ethnography in the 1980s, or the debates on Editorial Qualitative Research
Conversation Analysis as Research Methodology
Applying Conversation Analysis, 2005
The aims of this concluding chapter are to tie together a number of themes which have emerged from the chapters in the collection and to reflect on the processes of research manifested in the chapters, positioning these in relation to linguistic and social science research paradigms. A frequent complaint by researchers outside CA is that CA practitioners tend not to make their methodology and procedures comprehensible and accessible to researchers from other disciplines. It has sometimes been acknowledged by CA practitioners (Peräkylä 1997) that more could be done in this respect. A full explication of CA methodology and procedures would start with a discussion of the ethnomethodological principles underpinning CA. Considerations of space prohibit such a discussion here; however, see Bergmann (1981), Heritage (1984b) and Seedhouse (2004). Similarly, this chapter cannot provide an introduction to CA methodology; however, see Hutchby and Wooffitt 1998; Psathas 1995; Seedhouse 2004; ten Have 1999. In this first section I will focus on two areas relevant to this collection, namely the CA view of language and the emic perspective. 2 CA's origins in sociology and specifically ethnomethodology entail a different perspective on the status and interest of language itself from that typical of linguistics. CA's primary interest is in the social act and only marginally in language, whereas a linguist's primary interest is normally in language. In descriptivist linguistics, the interest is in examining how aspects of language are organized in relation to each other. CA, by contrast, studies how social acts are organized in interaction. As part of this, CA is interested in how social acts are packaged and delivered in linguistic terms. The fundamental CA question 'Why this, in this way, right now?' captures the interest in talk as social action, which is delivered in particular linguistic formatting, as part of an unfolding sequence. The CA perspective on the primacy of the social act is illustrated by chapters in this collection. For example, Gafaranga and Britten found that general practitioners systematically use different 'social' opening sequences to talk different professional relationships into being and hence to establish different professional contexts. This is an example of CA analysts' interest in linguistic forms; not so much for their own sake, but rather in the way in which they are used to embody and express subtle differences in social actions with social consequences. The distinction between emic and etic perspectives is vital to the argument in this chapter. The distinction originated in linguistics and specifically in phonology, namely in the difference between phonetics and phonemics. Pike's definition of etic and emic perspectives broadened interest in the distinction in the social sciences: The etic viewpoint studies behaviour as from outside of a particular system, and as an essential initial approach to an alien system. The emic
ETHNOGRAPHY IN ESP: THE QUEST FOR A "THICK" DESCRIPTION
ESP Malaysia, 1993
Ethnography has, as its central tenet, the belief that the context in which the behaviour occurs has a significant impact on that behaviour. This paper is based on a ten-week ethnographic study of a specific discourse community-the Display Monitor Department of a Japanese multinational manufacturing company. The study investigated the communicative events in that community, and the rules governing them. Complete participant observation was the research method employed for data gathering purposes. The findings indicate the significant influence of the management culture on the organisational communication. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications the findings have on classroom pedagogy.
Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
1987
By the end of this chapter you will be able to: • Outline the theoretical underpinnings of the ethnomethodological and conversation-analytic challenge to social research. • Understand the practical and methodological basis by which these related approaches seek to study human interaction. • Identify and comprehend a number of key studies which highlight how both approaches operate in 1 practice. • Critically evaluate the practical strengths and limitations of both approaches. • Engage with the ethical issues raised by both approaches. Ethnomethodology: 'qualitative experiments' Sociology, but not as sociologists know it! Ethnomethodology, according to Graham Button (1991: 1) represents 'a foundational respecification of the human sciences'. It may be seen as sociology, but not as sociologists know it. Ethnomethodologists refuse to get to grips with what has traditionally been seen as 'the problem' and have adopted methods appropriate to dealing with 'their' respecification of the problem. Ethnomethodology seeks to find the methods used by 'members' in everyday interaction which achieve the sense of order often called 'society' (hence 'ethno' methods). Ethnomethodology's focus upon the achievement of a sense of order through the actions of participants in that interaction requires an empirical focus upon the micro-processes of everyday life. Ethnomethodology does not seek to explore macro patterns of social 'structure' and seeks to exclude from its 'explanations' of events all attributions of prior or unobservable 'social processes and forces'. In drawing upon external 'causal explanations' from beyond the data at hand to the researcher, the conventional social researcher stands accused by ethnomethodologists of engaging in a deception. Conversation analysis emerged out of the ethnomethodological challenge to mainstream sociology. Harold Garfinkel and a circle of students and colleagues in California founded ethnomethodology in the 1960s. Garfinkel's Studies in Ethnomethodology, published originally in 1967 (reprinted in 1984), represents the definitive founding text. Garfinkel's early work on suicide and mental illness set his approach on a collision course with the founder of sociological method, Emile Durkheim, whose use of variations in suicide statistics represented perhaps the most influential foundation of sociological method. Garfinkel adopted a number of innovative research strategies in order to explore the methods actors use in everyday interaction to build and sustain the sense of social order commonly perceived to exist before the interaction. Durkheim used suicide statistics as a resource for exploring the social forces 'causing' suicide. Garfinkel wanted to know how the statistics were put together. Garfinkel suspended judgement over any relationship between the figures and a supposed 'real' level of self-inflicted death. Such was the nature of Garfinkel's challenge to conventional social research, both as an institution and as a set of methods. 2 Ethnomethodology still generates extreme reaction. In some quarters it is a heretical nonsense, while in others it has achieved an almost cult-like status. With its own agenda, language and methods of practice, ethnomethodology still appears 'strange' to those schooled in other ways of researching. This, combined with a certain insularity amongst its core adherents, means that the insights gained within ethnomethodology are poorly communicated. Here, it is shown how ethnomethodologists work.
Ethnographic-based discourse analysis: Uses, issues and prospects
Advances in discourse studies, 2008
This chapter considers the potential of ethnographic-based discourse analysis for studying learning and knowledge-making in school and workplace settings. The chapter describes the uses of the methodology, discusses five related issues, looks at two of the author's own ethnographic studies for illustrative purposes, and reflects on future prospects for ethnographic-based discourse analysis.
Ethnography and Discourse Analysis
Este artigo examina a relação entre etnografia e análise de discurso. Começa delineando a variação considerável nos tipos de trabalho que se abrigam sob um desses termos. Similitudes e tensões entre essas abordagens são assim investigadas. O que tem sido descrito como a 'recente crítica radical de entrevistas' é usado como um modo de explorar as orientações colidentes de alguns tipos de etnografia e análise de discurso. Esta avaliação crítica está fundamentada em argumentos que podem ser encontrados dentro da etnografia, mas também têm sido motivados por algumas formas de análise de discurso. Na parte final do texto, sugere-se, que há boas razões para qualificar os argumentos construídos na crítica radical e que o valor da prática analítica discursiva é mais bem compreendida dentro de uma visão etnográfica menos restritiva. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: discurso, etnografia, entrevistas. * Uma primeira versão deste artigo foi apresentada em um seminário na Faculdade de Ciências Sociais da Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdã, Holanda, em outubro de 2004. Agradeço aos participantes naquele seminário e, especialmente, ao Harry van den Berg, por suas contribuições à minha reflexão sobre estas questões. Unido. Sua pesquisa inicial foi em sociologia educacional, no entanto, a maior parte de seu recente trabalho está relacionado a questões metodológicas em torno de pesquisa educacional e social. Atualmente, dedica-se a dois projetos de pesquisa, respectivamente, um relacionado com a representação de resultados de pesquisa na mídia de massa e o outro com a natureza de comunidades de pesquisa. Seus mais recentes livros
Handbook of Classroom Discourse and Interaction, 2015