The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research

Abstract

Ethnography is a qualitative technique researchers use to study people in their own environment through participant observation and face-to-face interviewing. It involves witnessing and/or interacting with the participants in their natural settings, in their cultural context, and then creating a narrative description of that culture against a theoretical background. Ethnography is applied in various social sciences. It is challenging and has many difficulties since it is time-consuming and requires highly qualified researchers due to the critical nature of involving diverse people to gain trust. Although the study among minorities in Malaysia is still at the elementary stage, ethnography is gaining pace. This qualitative study aims to 1) analyse the unexpected challenges faced by the researchers during the ethnography research among minority ethnicities in the Malaysian context and 2) to record methods to be applied. The study used purposive sampling to study three minority ethnicities in Malaysia; the Baba and Nyonya, the Chetties and the Iban communities. This research highlighted the ethnographer’s unexpected challenges in gaining trust to gather experience throughout the ethnography study. Conducting ethnographic research can be subject to unexpected circumstances such as the movement control order during the pandemic, the lack of trust between the researcher and the participants, and the language barrier. Several processes are involved to establish the confidence and to gain the trust of the participants. This study reveals the unexpected challenges of conducting an ethnography study among minority ethnicities in Malaysia and the methods such as digital, field and photos to overcome them.