Abstract
Team ethnography is becoming more popular in research. However, there is currently limited understanding of how multiple ethnographers working together actually share their experiences of conducting team ethnography. There is also an associated lack of explanation regarding how evidence and conclusions are drawn from such collective endeavour. This article attempts to address this absence of detail regarding the practice and conduct of team ethnography. In the following account, the authors present details of the design, development and application of ‘team ethnography visual maps’ and the collaborative reflexivity that took place within ‘team ethnography data sessions’ that were each embedded within a mixed methods study of frontline services located in six different National Health Service Trusts throughout England (UK). After a presentation of the ethnographic methods and analyses that occurred as part of team ethnography, they are then discussed in terms of their applied and academic value from a methodological perspective.
Highlights
In this contribution to Ethnography’s Kitchen, we aim to provide critical reflections on the practice of fieldwork with particular reference to the operational aspects of team ethnography
We provide a short overview of the mixed methods study that utilised a team ethnography approach and introduces the audience to the numerous ‘academic’ and ‘applied’ teams that were involved in the main study
In the fourth section we provide a discussion on the applied and academic value of ‘team ethnography visual maps’ and ‘team ethnography data sessions’ from a methodological perspective. In the latter sections, we provide an insight of how team ethnography may work in practice, including a discursive account of the methodological innovation associated with such teamwork
Summary
Erickson and Stull (1998) describe ‘team ethnography’ as shared research that is completed by multiple people as part of a joint venture They define team ethnography as a research process that emphasises close collaboration between researchers involved in fieldwork, analysis and interpretation of ethnographic data. In any study containing multiple sites accessed by several ethnographers there is a need for the ethnographic object to be consistent across the team conducting fieldwork (cf Cassell et al, 2017) due to the inevitable variation in individual perception and interpretation of a given field Such standardisation aims to identify a common ethnographic object that seeks to record/observe key actors within and across all sites. This visualisation of observation and performance drew inspiration from a form of mapping normally conducted in the field by lone ethnographers; namely ethnographic mapping
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