Loo Seng Piew
School of Educational Studies
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Penang, Malaysia

Date: 26 October 2001
Time: 11.00-11.30

Ethnography is a holistic research approach in which naturalistic techniques are integrated to study a problematic phenomenon for the purpose of generating and testing grounded theory in a socio-cultural situation. In essence, ethnographic research is founded on the modern philosophy of phenomenology. Phenomenology is a 20th century philosophical movement that describes the structures of individual experience within a cultural context as the said experiences present themselves to consciousness, without recourse to theory, deduction, or assumptions from other disciplines such as the natural sciences. Instead of attempting to equate individual consciousness as the sum of its parts, phenomenological psychologists consider the individual consciousness as a gestalt, i.e., a unified whole. On this basis, ethnographic studies employ an interpretive approach in which the researcher seeks to understand the subjective meanings, within a specific socio-cultural context, that underlie the actions of individuals in the phenomenon under study. This paper discusses how grounded theory is generated from qualitative data through the process of progressive focusing in ethnographic studies. It also discusses how research data should be analysed, interpreted and validated consistent with the ethnographic research design. Validation in ethnographic studies is largely achieved through the process of triangulation. Based on personal field experience, the researcher shows how grounded theory can be generated and validated in ethnographic case studies.