Ethnographic Interviews Research Articles

A Classroom Ethnographic Study on Silence among EFL Graduate Students: A Case Study

Miscellaneous investigations have been implemented to investigate the factor of silence among Asian students in the ESL and EFL contexts and has generated huge literature most of which is related to ESL/EFL students’ silence because of several cultural and social factors. The study in hand reports on an ethnographic investigation of silence attitudes among Sudanese graduate learners in the EFL graduate linguistics environments with their academic staff in Gezira University, Sudan. The study has exploited a previously developed ethnographic interview protocol as well as observations with EFL graduate students and teachers in the MA linguistics. The researcher has investigated the probable patterns of silence among Sudanese EFL learners, explored the reasons behind this phenomenon and has attempted to trace the cultural interpretations among Sudanese silence. The participants of the study were eleven first-year graduates of English (all 26-38 years old) and 6 professors. The whole sample of the study was from Gezira University situated in the central region of Sudan. Another important factor is that the participants of this study came from different parts of Sudan including Khartoum, Darfur, and Gezira State etc. All the participants have BA and BEd in English language enrolling in Gezira University MA Program. The results of the study representing sufficient empirical proof highlight/emphasize that the Face Negotiation Model (Ting-Toomey 1994; West and Turner 2010; Wang and Yang 2005) indicates that Sudanese students’ silence behaviors are reported to be determined Sudanese cultural factors including its notions of face, sense of impact and infrequent social interactions.

Youth’s individual language policy in shaping family-community citizenship

ABSTRACT This study examines minority youth’s daily language life in the family and ethnic community domains. It focuses on young ethnic minorities in a subtractive language context in Vietnam and how they construct their individual language policy through their language practices, beliefs and management in responding to language policies of the family and community of which they are members. Ethnographic interviews with college-age students were the main data sources. Findings suggest that the youth’s L1-oriented individual language policy was strongly informed by their family and ethnic community’s (in)visible language policies, peer culture and the culture of respect, as well as the broader local and mainstream social settings. The youth’s individual language policy reflected their awareness of family and community desires for them to speak the ethnic language and nurture positive L1 attitudes tying to their family-community citizenship. Developing young people’s sense of family-community citizenship through language, as well as building family – community partnership for conserving a common L1-priority policy among members, may be potential grassroots initiatives which can help effectuate minority language maintenance efforts.

Abstract 28: Social Dimensions of Sleep: An Exploration of Midlife Working-Class Women’s Experiences in Mexico

Sleep, one of Life’s Essential 8, is vital to midlife women’s cardiovascular health (CVH). However, achieving healthy sleep is complex. As a first step, it is important to understand the barriers and facilitators to achieve adequate and high-quality sleep among midlife women in a context-specific manner. To comprehensively address this issue, we employed a mixed-methods approach to provide a nuanced understanding of the ecologies and experiences surrounding sleep health among working-class midlife women from Mexico City. First, we utilized existing epidemiologic data on participants to describe sleep and its correlates in a study population (n=120) of women enrolled in a cohort study via objective and subjective standard sleep measures. Then, we used thematic analysis to analyze in-depth ethnographic interview data (n=30) to characterize self-described barriers and facilitators of sleep. Our findings revealed that a substantial proportion of midlife women experienced poor sleep quality, with 53% reporting short sleep duration and 43% experiencing insomnia-related difficulties over seven days. Epidemiologic data suggested poor sleep outcomes were driven by age, type of work/occupation, food insecurity, mental health issues, and diabetes status. Our ethnographic interviews demonstrated that study participants perceived their familial relationships and responsibilities as the prominent barrier to quality sleep, encompassing challenges such as insufficient sleep due to family obligations and sleep disturbances triggered by family-related stressors. Combining these methodological approaches underscored the strong social dimension of sleep, where good sleep hinged on completing household tasks and attending to family needs. In response to sleep deficits, women frequently turned to caffeine consumption and occasional napping as coping mechanisms and described using sleep facilitators, including remedies like teas or other “natural” products. This study highlights the intricate social drivers of sleep, termed the “Sociality of Sleep,” among Mexican midlife women and may demonstrate how sleep recommendations and hygiene principles are likely inadequate in relation to the complex social dynamics of sleep. These insights provide evidence for considering the social context when tailoring recommendations that promote healthy sleep within this demographic. Furthermore, the combined methodology employed in this research may serve as a model for future sleep health studies.

Legal reality or legal mirage? Examining the relationship between police violence, legal consciousness, and the promise of civil legal justice

Race-and-class-subjugated communities continue to experience disproportionate police violence despite increased attention to this longstanding problem. This study examines how residents make sense of the legal issues that arise from these encounters and turn to civil law for assistance. I do so by unifying scholarship on police encounters, legal consciousness, and access to justice to consider the obstacles everyday people encounter when they consider filing a civil legal claim in the aftermath of police violence. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with 24 residents and two attorneys specializing in police brutality, I find that all residents, but especially those who sought civil legal justice, experienced what this study calls a legal mirage—which occurs when a knowable legal process exists to pursue one’s rights, but a variety of barriers (e.g., structural, human, financial) make that process unreachable. Three obstacles reinforced this mirage: difficulties obtaining competent representation, unresponsiveness when securing evidence, and frustration navigating municipal indemnification. I conclude by outlining the practical implications of this research for advocates looking to increase access to civil legal services and reduce police violence. Without these interventions, civil legal justice may remain elusive and beyond the reach of everyday people.

THE ROLE OF WOMAN IN BIRTH RITUALS OF KAZAKH AND TURKISH PEOPLE

This article delves into the captivating world of birth rituals in Kazakh culture, uncovering the rich tapestry of traditions, customs, and beliefs surrounding the sacred process of bringing new life into the world. Drawing upon ethnographic research, historical records, and interviews with Kazakh elders, this study aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of the significance and evolution of birth rituals within the Kazakh and Turkish community. The article begins by setting the cultural context of Kazakh society, emphasizing the deeply rooted respect for family, community, and spiritual connection. It highlights the fundamental role of birth in perpetuating the Kazakh lineage and its influence on the social fabric of the community. Moreover, the article delves into the historical origins of these rituals, tracing their roots back to ancient nomadic traditions and the interplay between Islam and local animistic beliefs. The subsequent sections of the article meticulously examine the diverse stages of birth rituals, commencing with preparations leading up to childbirth, followed by the actual delivery process, and concluding with postpartum practices. Each stage is scrutinized in terms of its symbolic significance, associated practices, and the roles of key individuals involved, such as midwives, elders, and family members.

“Don't fuss at our staff”: A moral economy of volunteerism in South Carolina safety net clinics

In South Carolina, a state that has foregone Medicaid expansion, working poor residents often rely on safety net clinics for medical care. This care often occurs far from major hospitals, in different, inferior, spaces where limited services are provided in lesser circumstances. The temporary and conditional aid provided in these clinics is meant as a last resort, but often serves as the only source of care for many working poor patients, who must manage the effects of sustained precarity and protracted immiseration with conditional aid provided by volunteers. Here I explore the function that volunteering plays in regulating patients' utilization, and ability to contest, the quality of safety net care. Using ethnographic examples and interview data I show how the needs of patients—referred to in the clinics as “clients”—are managed and contained by a moral economy of volunteer care. These reciprocal obligations of debt and duty preclude working poor patients from making demands of, or lodging complaints against, the free clinics' staff, due to their capacity as volunteers, and leaves the state's safety net effectively unassailable to accusations of inefficacy or neglect. Consequently, patients must defer care, ignore episodes of maltreatment, and ration and share prescription medications, lest they be considered recusant or deemed not sufficiently appreciative of the volunteer staff dedicating their time to them. As a result of this moral economy, the plight of the state's uninsured working poor residents goes under-recognized as the safety net absorbs their cases, hiding the attritional nature of the ostensibly free care they receive and ration.

Inhabiting Flyover Geographies: Flows, Interstices, and Walking Bodies in Karachi

Flyovers have featured in critical urban planning scholarship in the Global South as fetishized symbols of modernity, often fragmenting urban environments, fracturing space, exacerbating inequalities, and embodying “worlding”’ aspirations of city planners. Acknowledging the role of such infrastructure as technologies of (dis)connection in increasingly enclaved cities, I seek to situate the flyover, its material form, and attendant gaps, characterized by raised ribbons of “smooth” flows, leftover spaces, and proliferation of informal practices, as important sites of encounters. As such, I take “borderland urbanism” as an impetus to think flyover geographies anew by locating the flyover as a particular place in the city that is transient, contested, and constantly re-made. Through ethnographic vignettes and interviews, I sketch out everyday urban experiences over and under a flyover in Karachi, Pakistan. I illustrate how the flyover as a spatial and temporal leap is perceived and experienced by a range of differently mobile urban dwellers, paying particular attention to how walking bodies inhabit an infrastructural landscape that heavily privileges cars and motorcycles. Furthermore, I trace how life in the interstices under the flyover is assembled through social collaboration, resisting eviction, and a politics of visibility.

Examining pastor-prophet authority in neo-Pentecostal deliverance practices in Ghana

ABSTRACT A popular and growing feature of contemporary neo-Pentecostal Christianity in Ghana are regular deliverance practices in search for solutions to diverse forms of existential predicaments, known in Pentecostal diction as afflictions. Pastor-prophets have become very popular for these practices with thousands of deliverance seekers attending one deliverance service or the other in search for solutions that these pastor-prophets proffer. Using ethnographic semi-structured interviews, this article examines the phenomenon of deliverance practices within neo-Pentecostalism in Ghana, and particularly focuses on the authority of pastor-prophets around which the activities of deliverance evolve. Findings indicate that supernatural authority and attaining of breakthroughs over life’s predicaments, become the barometer and legitimacy for the authority of pastor-prophets.

‘I want to go home’: a comparative study of unsafe and safe spaces in two Swedish school-age educare institutions

ABSTRACT In Sweden, many children between the ages of 6 and 9 years attend Swedish school-age educare (SAEC) institutions before and after school, when their parents work or study. This study aimed to explore and compare safe and unsafe spaces in children’s everyday lives at SAEC institutions. Ethnographic fieldwork, including observations and interviews with the staff and children, was conducted at two different SAECs. Using space, agency, and violence, this study explores how the staff relates to safe and unsafe spaces in children’s everyday lives. Findings revealed differences in how everyday life plays out in the two SAECs, where unsafe spaces, with a risk of violence, more frequently exist in one SAEC than the other. The manner in which staff members perceived safe and unsafe spaces also impacted how children’s agency emerged in different spaces. The study findings have important implications for politicians and decision-makers.

Equity and Access to Higher Education for Rural Uyghur Students in China: A Consideration of Policy and Structural Barriers

This article examines the impact of rural origin on higher education access among one ethnic group, the Uyghur, a Muslim minority group who reside mostly in China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Uyghur university students, graduates, and the faculty who teach them. Since the time of the research, changes in China and in XUAR have impacted education policies, many of which had been developed to provide ethnic minorities in China with better access to higher education. This article discusses some of these policy changes to illustrate that the ways in which policy issues are framed also defines what constitutes the “problem” and thus also constrains the debate.

Finding the self in role-playing games: Weaving myth, narrative, and identity

ABSTRACT This article discusses the limitations of hero’s journey by Joseph Campbell with reference to traditional storytelling, offering examples from role-playing games (RPGs) as alternative modes of engagement with symbolism and archetypes. The hero’s journey represents the development of the individual to maturity as a result of confrontation with their unconscious shadow side. While this trajectory reflects the human experience, it centers an idealized young male hero who becomes singularly important to saving the world from a villainized monstrous other. Other characters in the story are marginalized and decentered, invalidating other important archetypal characters such as the Heroine, the Mother, the Witch, the Trickster, the Sage, and the Divine. This article will discuss the ways in which analog RPG narratives can offer the general benefits of active, mythic, and ironic imagination. Integrating ethnographic interviews with 4 experts in the field, the article outlines critiques of the hero’s journey and discusses the wide variety of archetypes explorable within these alternative story structures, even in traditional role-playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons & Dragons. The article will emphasize how players can use these experiences to shape their own narrative identity into more empowering structures of belief and life roadmaps regardless of the type of character they embody.

Belonging in the “Big Picture”

What makes recognition of veterans “authentic,” and how does authentic recognition shape and establish “war veteranship” among wounded veterans? Through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this article explores how Danish wounded veterans experience and evaluate official recognition ceremonies. We demonstrate that recognition ceremonies alone do not establish effective recognition. Rather, for recognition to be perceived as authentic, it must be mutual, grounded in the moral originality of the recognizers, and manifested in words as well as actions. Authentic recognition, we argue, establishes a reciprocal relationship between wounded veterans and the state, which positions veterans as valuable contributors to society. Conversely, the absence of authentic recognition generates experiences of misrecognition and invisibility, leading in some cases to wounded veterans feeling “like immigrants” in their own country.

"He Has Rescued Me from Danger"

The Ethio-South Sudanese border is characterized by instability and conflict. Most populations in this area have experienced violence and displacement and face ongoing insecurity and political inequality. During my fieldwork in the region, several composers gave accounts of how composing and singing Christian songs provided them with comfort and hope in times of hardship, particularly following episodes of violence. Using ethnographic research and interviews as primary methodologies, this article explores how these individuals use religious music-making as a means of coping and resilience in the wake of trauma. The primary goal of this article is to provide a platform for their stories. The secondary goal is to explore resonances between their accounts and scholarly observations about potential roles of music-making in trauma resilience across disciplines. I focus particularly on themes of embodied music-making, community connection, and spirituality. All point to the same phenomenon: that music can play a role in human resilience and meaning-making. Finally, I make suggestions on how to enhance mental health care in culturally-relevant ways in a religious society such as in Ethiopia, as well as draw out cross-cultural implications for mental health care in the western system.

Changing ideologies about Arabic in Turkey and the consequences in Antioch

Arabic was unwanted by the designers and founders of the Republic of Turkey (founded in 1923) and prohibited in public space in the 1980s. Its status started changing in the late 1990s and 2000s, when it became increasingly offered in state education as a foreign language. By looking at the place of Arabic and the impact of the language policies of the Republic of Turkey then and now, the aim of this article is to investigate the consequences of these recent changes on the language ideologies of Turkish citizens in southern Turkey whose inherited familial language is Arabic but who are experiencing language shift to Turkish, the national language. Rooted in the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, this article, based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted in Antioch, shows that due to their religious and language background these citizens have lengthy experience of minoritization. Qualitative analysis of their language ideologies shows on the one hand a desire to maintain Arabic, but on the other hand conflicting views about the variety of Arabic they speak and a tendency to be influenced by pro-Turkish language ideologies. The paper concludes by re-evaluating the language shift they have experienced.

Advance care planning with older Norwegian adults in their homes: a narrative ethnographic study

BackgroundThe aim of advance care planning (ACP) is to enable patients to define and discuss their values and preferences to ensure that the care they receive is consistent with their needs and wishes. Most studies of ACP with older adults focus on conversations conducted in institutions. This study aimed to explore how ACP with older patients is carried out and experienced by healthcare professionals when the conversations occur in their private homes.MethodsThe data were obtained from participant observations of ACP conversations in the homes of eight older patients with advanced cancer, which also involved relatives and healthcare professionals. Additionally, ethnographic interviews were conducted with the healthcare professionals. We undertook a narrative analysis of what was said, and how the individuals acted and interacted.ResultsThe home influenced both the substance and form of the ACP conversations. The patients and relatives welcomed the healthcare professionals as guests and were encouraged to share their perceptions of their current situation, joys and worries. Their values were often implicit in their stories about past experiences. The planning mainly focused on life-prolonging treatment and the preferred future place of care. Several patients were not ready to discuss one or more ACP issues. The palliative-care-team physician addressed the patients’ readiness for ACP by asking for permission to move on to a different topic, shifting between serious and lighter topics, and using elements from the home as ‘door openers’ to continue conversations. ACP conversations were an essential basis for future palliative care and cooperation, giving important additional information about the patient and their relatives.ConclusionConducting the ACP conversations in the patients’ homes ensured a homely atmosphere that facilitated a caring approach when sensitive issues were discussed, and in turn supported the identification of important personal values. The healthcare professionals expressed that the ACP conversations represented an essential common reference point and provided a shared awareness of the expected disease trajectory and the values, preferences and needs of the patient. These findings are particularly important given that many older patients struggle to verbalize or form an opinion on issues affecting their future.

Learning in Transit: Crossing Borders, Waiting, and Waiting to Cross

Recent U.S. policy changes have contributed to longer waiting periods for migrant families in Mexican border cities. This study centers on four Honduran families enrolled in the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy, also referred to as ‘Remain in Mexico,’ while undergoing prolonged waiting periods in the Mexican border town of Monterrey, Nuevo Léon. Centering on young people’s voices, we ask what they learn during this prolonged period of transit. Through ethnographic and digital participatory storytelling interviews, we illustrate how children learned about the politics of border crossing through fraught interactions with im/migration officials, prolonged periods of immobility, and evolving understandings of legality. Building on theories of ‘border thinking’ and ‘politicized funds of knowledge,’ we highlight ways that young people employed their evolving understandings of national borders and the legal contours of their transborder asylum process, while protecting themselves and their families from danger and discrimination. We argue that transit is not simply time that young people are forced to endure; rather, the experience of forced transit is constitutive of young people’s learning about state power and their evolving understanding of borders, rights, and belonging.

"We have to … work for wholeness no matter what": Family and culture promoting wellness, resilience, and transcendence.

Sociocultural, mental, behavioral, and physical factors are interrelated associates of chronic health conditions-such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease-all of which are disproportionally high and drive much of the mortality and morbidity for Indigenous peoples. Indigenous worldviews conceptualize health holistically, with inseparability across social, spiritual, cultural, familial, mental, behavioral, physical, and social dimensions of wellness. Food, family, and culture are fundamental to Indigenous wellness. The purpose of this article is to use the Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT) conceptualization of relational wellness to honor urban and rural U.S. Indigenous perspectives that highlight the intersections of family, culture, physical health, spiritual, and mental health to promote resilience and wellness. This research focused on interconnections between wellness, culture, health, and family. Thirty-one critical ethnographic interviews used a life-history approach with methodology following an Indigenous toolkit for ethical and culturally sensitive research strategies, such as building upon cultural strengths, engaging in long-term, relational commitments with communities, incorporating storytelling and oral history traditions, centering Indigenous methodologies and preferences, working with cultural insiders, and prioritizing the perspectives of Indigenous peoples. Emergent themes included: (a) roots of Indigenous wellness: cultural values promoting balance and connection; (b) practicing resilience: family transmission of health information; and (c) wholistic mental wellness and resilience, with the subtheme culture and wellness. Interventions can be developed in collaboration with tribes for optimum efficacy and cultural relevancy and can approach wellness holistically in culturally relevant ways that center foodways, culture, family, and spirituality.

NGOs' Role in Sustaining Indigenous Knowledge in RuralBangladesh: Agriculture, Healthcare, and Disaster Management

This paper explores the indispensable role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in cultivating, applying, and conserving Indigenous knowledge within rural Bangladesh. It scrutinizes how NGOs sustain Indigenous knowledge by focusing on pivotal sectors like agriculture, local medicine, and disaster management. Employing qualitative methodologies—such as ethnographic interviews, focus group discussions (FGD), and case studies—the research was conducted in the Gabura union, Bangladesh, using primary and secondary data sources. The literature review underscores the significance of Indigenous knowledge in agriculture and disaster management while identifying gaps in comprehending knowledge conservation dynamics and the NGO's impact on Indigenous knowledge. It highlights how locals employ Indigenous Knowledge to combat natural disasters, particularly in agriculture, healthcare, and disaster management. Furthermore, it explores NGOs' active roles in preserving and leveraging Indigenous Knowledge, emphasizing its integration with modern scientific knowledge and significance in rural life. The study delves into Gabura residents' strategies for cyclone resilience, such as seeking refuge on embankments, relocating to higher ground, and preserving seeds and dry food. It emphasizes NGOs like BARCIK and their initiatives—Paramela and Kaviraj Mela—along with resource person engagement and safeguarding local knowledge endangered by globalization. BARCIK's training in disaster management, advocacy for traditional agricultural methods, and promotion of indigenous remedies in healthcare are highlighted. Ultimately, the paper underscores NGOs' significant contributions to fostering and applying Indigenous knowledge for sustainable rural development. It emphasizes the institutional processes in defining knowledge and the NGO's role in its reproduction.

There won’t be a free Belarus without a free Ukraine: motivations of Belarusian volunteers fighting for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian war

ABSTRACT This study examines mobilization motives of Belarusian volunteers participating in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. With an objective to provide an additional explanation as to why individuals mobilize to fight in armed conflicts outside their countries of citizenship, we demonstrate that the pursuit of political objectives in foreign fighters’ home countries may function as an important – yet largely overlooked in the extant literature – mobilization incentive. The need to obtain military training and combat experience required to achieve those political goals may serve as an accompanying motive of becoming a foreign fighter. We draw our empirical data from in-depth ethnographic interviews with members of Belarusian armed formations involved in frontline operations in Ukraine. Alongside its contribution to the understudied topic of Belarusian volunteers in Ukraine, this study has broader implications for research on mobilization motives and objectives of foreign fighters.

Taking a chance on China: African student‐entrepreneurs in greater Zhejiang Province

AbstractDriven by macro‐level investment and strategic competition, engagement between China and African countries has expanded significantly in recent years, giving rise to increased migration flows between the two regions. Wary of Beijing's growing influence on the continent, Western scholarship and media often portray China as extractive and neo‐colonialist, whereas Africa and Africans are depicted as passive and lacking agency. This study examines an important yet understudied group operating at the crux of contemporary Sino–African relations that challenges these assumptions: young, African student‐entrepreneurs studying and working in China. Drawing on data from 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with African student‐traders, as well as Chinese university administrators, students, and officials, this study finds that African student‐traders have developed a set of strategies that allow them to navigate, exploit and reconfigure Chinese structures as they pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations, suggesting that the Sino–African relationship is far from one‐sided.