Unequal Childhoods - Annette Lareau [245]
8. Indeed, the follow-up does not meet the definition Michael Burawoy gave to ethnographic revisits: “An ethnographic revisit occurs when an ethnographer undertakes participant observation, that is, studying others in their space and time, with a view to comparing his or her site with the same one studied at an earlier point in time, whether by him or herself or by someone else.” “Revisits,” p. 646.
9. Mitchell Duneier, “Transparency in Ethnography.”
10. At the time, I was at Temple University, where I regularly taught a class of 110 students, with the equivalent of one 20-hour per week teaching assistant. I taught one weekly discussion section, and I did one-third of the grading of essay midterms, papers, and finals. At the University of Pennsylvania, where I teach the same kind of course, I have two teaching assistants, each working twenty hours per week, and a smaller enrollment (100 students).
11. See Mario Luis Small, “How Many Cases Do I Need?,” on the size of projects.
12. Although beyond the scope of this chapter, there have been new calls for “scientific standards” in qualitative research. See reports by the Sociology Program of the National Science Foundation: Charles Ragin, Joane Nagel, and Patricia White, Workshop on Scientific Foundations of Qualitative Research; and Michèle Lamont and Patricia White, Workshop on Interdisciplinary Standards for Systematic Qualitative Research; as well as the critical essay by Howard Becker, “How to Find Out How to Do Qualitative Research,” on these NSF reports. Some researchers have responded to this pressure for standards by assembling very large-scale qualitative interview studies (e.g., 300 cases) where the principal investigator herself or himself does proportionally little interviewing. In addition, many of these studies do not include any participant-observation. With this approach, qualitative researchers are seeking to avoid the limitations of qualitative research (i.e., small, purposive samples). But, too often, the results of these kinds of large-scale studies are unsatisfying; they do not provide the “thick description” that is a hallmark of ethnographic work; see Clifford Geertz, Interpretations of Cultures. Nor do they provide sufficient attention to the meaning of events. For a critical assessment of these issues, see Annette Lareau, Doing Ethnography in the Real World. Of course, there are many different types of qualitative work; see the review of various approaches in Denzin and Lincoln, SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, as well as discussions of ethnography in Smith, Institutional Ethnography; Shulamit Reinharz and Lynn Davidman, Feminist Methods in Social Research; Hammersly and Atkinson, Ethnography; Iddo Tavory and Stefan Timmermans, “Two Cases of Ethnography”; Michael Burawoy, The Extended Case Method. See also Elinor Ochs et al., “Video Ethnography and Ethnoarchaeological Tracking”; Stephen A. Matthews, Linda M. Burton, and James Detwiler, “Geo-ethnography.”
13. In developing and sustaining ethnographic relationships, it is helpful to bring food, provide reciprocity in some way, or (if possible) offer an honorarium for participation. If cost is an issue, there are also inexpensive options such as framed photos, CDs burned at home, or photo albums.
14. I taped conversations, conducted separately, with Wendy Driver, Ms. Driver, Mr. Handlon, and Ms. Yanelli. Mr. Yanelli refused to be taped, although he did listen