On Conducting Ethnography

Conducting interviews is a great way to learn about someone. It’s something completely different from textbooks and research articles. Through an interview we are offered a more personal insight into a people’s culture.

Ethnography is especially useful when we want to provide service in another country. We, as the volunteers, often feel that those who are being served will have a lot to learn from us, but it is actually the other way around. Of course, there will be some things that we can teach them, but the overall impact rests in us. We are the ones who will be doing most of the learning. The community being served will teach the volunteers many things about their customs and culture when they visit, but it is also our responsibility as visitors/volunteers to do our research beforehand, and part of this lies in ethnography. Although I will not be going on the trip, I will interview a former CCESP participant to learn a little about her experience and about the culture in Nicaragua from her perspective so that I can be better informed before I visit.

I realize that the interview with the former CCESP participant will not provide me with as much insight as an interview with a Nicaraguan would, so if I ever do visit Nicaragua in the future I plan to interview a Nicaraguan. With interviewing, however, there is a lot of responsibility that lies in my hands. I have the power to control the interview but I would never learn anything from that. This is why when I conduct my interview with the CCESP participant and with a Nicaraguan, I will base my next question on the previous answer that the interviewee gives. (I will have a set of questions ready in an order that flows well just in case). I also like to make people feel comfortable. I think that if the interviewee is comfortable with me and the surroundings, then his answers to my questions will be more honest and enriching.

The reason why we conduct interviews is not just because we want to learn more about a certain topic/issue, although that can be true in some cases. The reason why ethnography is important is that we get to inform ourselves about a people’s culture and pass it on to someone else. I think that is the ultimate goal. It is our responsibility to take what we learn about a community and its culture, and share it with others (perhaps here in school) so that they too will also be well informed and not remain ignorant to the cultures that exists around them.

As I prepare for my interview, I keep all of these things in mind. I will try to establish a good relationship with my interviewee from the start, but most importantly I will take what I learn and share it with my family, friends and other student here at Dartmouth. I believe it is our responsibility to be well informed about other countries and we should be open to learn from them. 

Some questions that I will ask:

What got you interested in participating in a service trip in Nicaragua?

What did a typical day look like for you and for a Nicaraguan?

What can we learn from the Nicaraguans?

What is a big problem that local communities in Nicaragua face, specifically the one you visited? How can we help?

7 thoughts on “On Conducting Ethnography”

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