The Role of the Ethnographic Interview in POS

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The Role of the Ethnographic Interview in POS

• Michael G. Pratt
• University of Illinois _at_ Urbana-Champaign

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Orientation Towards the Researched (Pratt, 2003)

• Distant-close (seeing vs. doing)
• Surface-deep (how much of self or how many
  selves you need to draw upon)
• Ethnographic interviews involves a close deep
  access to others in a research context

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Whats Positive about Ethnographic Interviews?

• Affirms informants (not subjects or respondents)
  by placing him or her as expert rather than
  interviewer (e.g., empowering nurses,
  normalizing distributors)
• Therapeutic for informants you may be the only
  one listening! (e.g., a woman her puppy, that
  could be me)
• Inspirational / re-energizing for researcher
  (e.g. current study)

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How Ethnographic Interviews Lead to Exemplary
Research

• Engages all senses
• Provides unique window onto sensemaking and the
  creation of meaning
• Allows researcher opportunity to view and
  experience emotions along with informants
• If done on site provides insight into how
  doing influences feeling, thinking and being

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Where to Look / What to Do?

• Some favorite authors
• A Classic Spradley (1979) The Ethnographic
  Interview
• Grand tour questions (e.g., describe a typical
  day)
• Mini-tour questions (e.g., describe doing an on
  call)
• Example questions (e.g., can you give me an
  example of taking a history?)
• Experience questions (e.g., what kind of
  experiences have you had in surgery?)
• Native language questions (e.g., whats a
  cabbage?)