Ethnographic studies of children: the difficulties of entry, rapport, and presentations of their worlds
Titel:
Ethnographic studies of children: the difficulties of entry, rapport, and presentations of their worlds
Auteur:
Knupfer, Ann
Verschenen in:
International journal of qualitative studies in education
Paginering:
Jaargang 9 (1996) nr. 2 pagina's 135-149
Jaar:
1996-04
Inhoud:
This essay examines the entire process of doing ethnography with children, from observation and interviewing to transcribing and writing the final ethnographic account. In particular, this article examines three difficulties that researchers encounter when doing ethnography with children: (1) how do ethnographers enter the children's worlds' (2) to what extent do we as researchers observe and participate, thus changing the children's worlds; and, (3) how do we write the ethnography to most fully present the children's perspectives. Since there are particular cultures where we may violate an adult-specific role by participating in children's events, ethnographers need to be careful about how our social and cultural constructions of childhood frame our social interactions in fieldwork. In terms of the ethnography itself, our notions of authorship and authority may obscure the children's narratives or meanings, which are often polymodal and neither linear nor sequential. Examples from the author's fieldwork with Chinese children in America, as well as the work of other anthropologists, are used to illustrate the above difficulties. The essay concludes with recommendations for doing ethnography with children.
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