My Own Ethnography

This coming week I will interview Jase Davis, a sophomore who traveled to Nicaragua in 2014 with the Dartmouth Men’s Lacrosse team on a program run by Bridges to Community. 

Some of the questions I plan to ask Jase include:

1. First off, where in Nicaragua did you go and what did you do there?
2. What was the goal of the trip?
3. Before traveling to Nicaragua had you ever taken part in a service trip?
4. Before traveling to Nicaragua did you know much about the country or the area you were going to travel to?
5. If not, do you think this took away from your experience?
6. Did you work with the Nicaraguans in the community you helped?
7. After the day was over, what did you do at night?
8. Do you feel you made a connection with the Nicaraguans you helped?
9. Do you feel that you had an impact on them? Do you feel they had an impact on you?
10. Have you kept in touch with any of the Nicaraguans from the trip?
11. Would you consider doing the trip again or traveling on another service trip to Central America?
12. We have discussed in our class the difference between voluntourism and service learning trips (then I will explain each). If you had to categorize your trip, which would you put it under?
13. Overall, what did you take away from your experience?

On Ethnography in General

In class, we have read and discussed ethnography in detail. There are many reasons people take part in ethnography, and several ways it can be done; researchers can use surveys, polls, and most importantly, face-to-face interviews.

While surveys and polls can be useful if one is interested in quantitative data, an interview allows the researcher delve into meaning behind results that may be collected using a quantitative method. These include: capturing oral tradition, understanding an underlying tradition or issue, investigating someone’s thoughts and processes, determining a solution to an issue, and creating a relationship or personal connection.

This last reason, creating a relationship or personal connection, may be the most important, and one that I am most interested in. In Robert Weiss’ Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies, he writes, “the interviewer and the respondent will work together to produce information useful to a research project.” An interview is not a one-sided process because both sides must work with each other in order to create something useful; if the respondent feels disconnected or uninterested, the interview will produce nothing productive for either side. Furthermore, because ethnography attempts to create a connection between both sides, it the interviewers job to ensure the respondent is not harmed or damaged by the interview; with this, too, comes the difficult, but important job of making sure the respondent is comfortable.

In my own interview, this last point is what I am most concerned about: making sure the respondent is comfortable, and not offended by any question. For example, questions like “Do you feel you made a connection with the Nicaraguans you helped?” may lead to uncomfortable responses if the answer if no; however, it is important to ask these questions because of the possible positive, valuable response that can result. While I do have these concerns, overall, I am looking forward to my opportunity to practice interviewing and ethnography.