Paper Example on Ethnographic Research: Studying Childhood Development in Schools

Ethnographic research is the study of people live, although it is well suited in the study of childhood development children in schools. The sociologist uses ethnographic methods to study child behaviors and attitudes and to understand the social interactions of children in society. It is well equipped to capture the stages of childhood development (Tickle, 2017). Ethnographic methods are a research approach that helps sociologists and other researchers to analyze people in their cultural setting, their needs, ways in which they interact with one another in their social and cultural environment. The ethnographic techniques are longitudinal, qualitative, inductive, and exploratory (Tickle, 2017). They can obtain efficient data and detailed descriptions of a small area appropriately.

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Ethnographic research is a qualitative research that involves observing variables in their environment to achieve a targeted outcome. It has its roots in ethnography, which consists of the study of lives people (Tickle, 2017). The sociologist of childhood uses ethnographic methods at the early stages of child development because it helps in acquiring information and data about child habits through participant observation or interviews of individual children or groups of children. It is essential in determining social behaviors and social interactions. The sociologist researchers use routines to understand children's specific knowledge and to affirm the effects (Pham, 2018). Childhood is necessarily social, not about adult but other children. The sociologist childhood researchers use ethnographic methods to study the effects of societal forces on childhood because children are both affected and affecting the social structures. This paper discusses why sociologists of childhood tend to use the ethnographic method of research giving examples of aspects of children that lend them to use ethnographic research and what the least intrusive mean in this context.

Ethnographic methods are used to understand and observe how children spend their time in schools. It involves depth-observations for a prolonged period, which is accompanied by various forms of interviews, such as children groups, individual focus-document analysis, and data prompts (Tickle, 2017). It is a method of research used by sociologists to study children in their interactive environment. Ethnographic methods enable sociologists to identify unexpected issues in childhood behaviors (Pham, 2018). It delivers a detailed and faithful representation of childhood behavior at an early age. It is subjective to nature; thus, it can be used to analyze childhood attitudes and emotions efficiently.

The use of ethnographic methods offers sociologists of childhood research opportunities to understand the macro and micro levels of child care practice (Pham, 2018). The child care centers are places where exercises, such as cultural values and family systems, are practiced, for example, in schools. The micro levels in children involve giving voice to children's concerns and provide a detailed description of how children live in their childhood. The researcher uses interviews with children or a group of children using artwork or observation using cameras to give detailed information about childhood development. The macro-level methodology involves the study of the traces of structural change in children's lives, such as the family structure of children (Pham, 2018). Sociologist uses the macro methodology to study the structure of child family distribution of resources using a comparison of children's experiences. The descriptive data which result from the ethnographic study can be used by sociologist to understand the socio-cultural practices and development that are used in child care.

Sociologists of childhood use ethnographic methods because they are accurate and efficient research methods (Queiros, Faria & Almeida, 2017). It determines the social aspect of childhood development historically and social life and changes. It enables researchers to understand the history of childhood as a series of closer approaches between child and adult; hence youth can be historically and culturally compared. From a sociological perspective should be established as an independent category in the social order that enables the sociologist to study their requirements for rights.

Sociologists of childhood use ethnographic research methods of research to children because it can be used as intermediaries between parents and children (Queiros, Faria & Almeida, 2017). The children know about the research, and they give their opinion. The children share their views about the research to improve the quality and outcomes of analysis studies. Sociologists use schools to collect data about children because, in schools, children are less worried about adults and their parents, which improves the quality of data collected.

Ethnographic research methods account for the behaviors of a group of children in the study. It reveals the interrelation between a group of people and provides context behavior (Queiros, Faria & Almeida, 2017). The group behaviors include peer cultures, adults, the relation between child-adult and peer group relations. These group behaviors depend on the age of participants in groups. Children tend to work in good relationships in groups of children compared to child-adult groups.

The ethnographic method of research gives a voice of understanding to the respondents who are children and adults (Pham, 2018). The sociologist allows the children to speak about their culture and social life. The sociologist understands the children's or group participant's point of view and their rights. It enables the researcher to understand deeply the perception of children allowing children to have health interaction outside their groups and culture.

The ethnographic method of research is a reliable data correction method of study. The sociologist of childhood obtains reliable data through interviews, child groups, and peer groups (Queiros, Faria & Almeida, 2017). The children are willing to provide correct answers to the research question about a particular issue to the researcher because others do not influence them. It enables the researcher to collect reliable data that can be used to analyze issues affecting childhood development by sociologist researchers.

The aspects of childhood that led sociologists to ethnographic research are their behavior, experiences, child care, and social interaction with others. The ethnographic study of youth is based on field observation of the behavior of children activities, skills of children at a particular place and time, which is influenced by institutional or cultural sociologists; it is possible to identify the children's behavior because they are open and honest.

The sociologist uses ethnographic research to determine the cultural ways of life of the children. For example, they are using the analysis to identify the cultural roles of different gender in society. It enables the sociologist to identify peer culture, which is shared primarily through face-to-face interaction. The research can obtain quantitative data on peer influences to form friendship groups (Gullov & Skreland, 2106). For example, the sociologist can organize good relation between children by organizing play and assigning roles each child should play based on a particular situation they experience. It enables the children to cope with the actual social status they are facing. The sociologist is likely to generate appropriate data because it is easy for children as groups to influence the event and the meaning of the situation.

In this context, the least intrusive means the understanding of children's behavior when collecting data from children through observing, survey, and interviewing. It is the method of collecting childhood data by sociologists without interfering with the subjects (Gullov & Skreland, 2106). The sociologist collects data on childhood behavior through observation and children's participation to give their opinions about their rights without interfering with their relationship in their groups, parents, and cultural ways of life. It requires the sociologist to conduct his study without interaction with the children. For example, from the reading material provided, the sociologist can research the behaviors of children through observing them in play because they are less pretentious compared to adults.

The researcher uses the least intrusive method to evaluate the behavior of children. For example, when assessing the willingness of the child or group of children to take part in research and their responses about their experience. In this context, the observation ethnographic research studies are least intrusive compared to the other research methods. The sociologist watch and records the children's behaviors based on their experiences and cultural way of life (Gullov & Skreland, 2106). The research question should be the least intrusive, which means they should not be too long. For example, the sociologist can use art and play to identify particular behavior in children, which may not be identified using other methods of ethnographic research.

The disadvantages of ethnographic methods are expensive, protracted, and challenging (Queiros, Faria & Almeida, 2017). The sociologist researchers require extensive training on ethnographic data collection methods, such as group participants and interviews. The researcher requires discipline on the alternative techniques on data collection and analysis, the language they will use to interview children on their social life, and their culture. They need to build trust with the children because children are sensitive to the issues affecting them. Usually, it is not common for researches to ask subjects about their experiences, but it is necessary for research with children. When the trust is built, the researcher spends time in participant observation and other data collection methods.

The ethnographic method of research is time-consuming. The sociologist researcher has to spend a lot of time learning childhood behavior and their social life. The analyses of observation method data are involved, which may lead to wrong outputs of the research study (Queiros, Faria & Almeida, 2017). Some children may not be willing to answer the question because of the fear of the researchers to investigate their culture.

The ethnographic methods are dependent on the researcher's observation and interpretation, which leads to difficulty when checking the validity of the research (Gullov & Skreland, 2106). The sociologist of childhood may fail to make a proper observation of children's behavior and the individual participants during data collection, which may contribute sparse data and difficulty in checking data validity.

It is challenging to select a representative sample using ethnographic methods. The ethnographic research depends on a qualitative study, which is making it hard for a sociologist to choose a representative sample (Pham, 2018). For example, using ethnographic observation methods in childhood in schools, the children may have different experiences, cultural ties, and behavior, which make it hard for the researcher to collect data.

Conclusion

The ethnographic research depends on children's openness and honesty to provide feedback to the research questions provided by the sociologist researcher (Queiros, Faria & Almeida, 2017). If they have a lousy relationship with children, it will be difficult for the sociologist of childhood researchers to understand their way of life and culture. When they noti...