Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research

Ethnographer's Toolkit #1

by Margaret Diane LeCompte, Jean J. Schensul

The Ethnographer's Toolkit series begins with this primer, which introduces novice and expert practitioners alike to the process of ethnographic research, including answers to questions such as who should and can do ethnography, when it is used most fruitfully, and how research projects are carried out from conceptualization to the uses of research results. Written in practical, straightforward language, this new edition defines the qualitative research enterprise, links research strategies to theoretical paradigms, and outlines the ways in which an ethnographic study can be designed. Use Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research as a guide to the entire Toolkit or as a stand-alone introduction to ethnographic research.

Genres: Design, Research, Ethnography, Research Methods, Anthropology

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2010

About the author

Margaret D. LeCompte is Professor Emerita of Education and Sociology at Colorado University, USA. She is internationally known as one of the leading proponents of qualitative and ethnographic research and evaluation in education. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters on research methods in education and the social sciences, her research also includes studies of school reform and school organization, and of at-risk, ethnically diverse, gifted, artistically creative, and language minority students. A critical theorist trained in action research and the interactionist tradition, her fieldwork includes a five-year study of school reform and culture on the Navajo Nation in the United States, a longitudinal study of programs for urban American Indian children in the Southwest, and an ongoing study of identity construction among middle school children in an arts enrichment public school. She has won the University Press of America award for Outstanding Research Article in 1994 and the American Educational Studies Association (AESA) award for Outstanding Book in 1986.

Dr. LeCompte is a member of numerous professional organizations in education and anthropology and was president of the Council on Anthropology and Education of the American Anthropology Association. She serves on several editorial boards as well as committees for the American Educational Research Association. She served as editor of the journal, Review of Educational Research from 2003-2006.

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

helpful textbook for research design

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic review of how to conduct ethnographic research