LESSON 3 - What is Cultural Research: Ethnography & Observation

What is Cultural Research?

Grounding ourselves to the culture and arts of a community, region or to a
large extent the country requires the field of research especially when
aspects of culture and arts have not been documented or lacks
documentation. Steven Miles (2006) defines cultural research as “a cross-
disciplinary endeavor that applies a range of methods concerned with
researching the ways in which social groups express their place in the world
and hence the ‘meaning’ of culture in all its diverse forms.”

You have an experience in doing research before although this is limited to

a particular topic. In the weeks to come, you will learn basic methods in
doing cultural research specifically the use of cultural mapping to be able to
document the culture and arts practices of your community.

• A cross-disciplinary endeavor that applies a range of methods

• Concerned with researching the ways in which communities/groups
express their knowledge of the world
• Focused on the ‘meaning’ of culture in all its diverse forms.

Cultural research can be conducted by various disciplines depending on

the focus of your study:
• Meaning of culture: Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology, History
• Elements of culture: Anthropology, Sociology, History, Geography,
• Expressions of culture: Arts, Humanities. Linguistics
• Functions of culture: Education, Psychology, Social Sciences, Political
Science

Emic, Etic, Etmic

• emic and etic refer to two different approaches to researching human
beings.
• emic approach (sometimes referred to as “insider,” “inductive,” or
“bottom-up”) takes as its starting point the perspectives and words of
research participants.
• An etic approach (sometimes referred to as “outsider,” “deductive,” or
“top-down”) uses as its starting point theories, hypothesis, perspectives,
and concepts from outside of the setting being studied.
 Kinds of Cultural Research

When conducting research on culture and the arts, we can do it in two major forms,
qualitative or quantitative research. The definitions to guide you are as follows:

a. Qualitative research is research using methods such as participant observation or

case studies which result in a narrative, descriptive account of a setting or practice.
(Parkinson & Drislane, 2011)
b. Quantitative research is ‘Explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that
are analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics) (Aliaga&
Gunderson, 2000)

Tatlong antas ng kultura

ANG KULTURA AY PARANG CAKE .....

1. Worldview/perception
2. Values/attitude
3. Expressions, symbols, skills

Ang iba’t ibang dimensyon ng kultura

 Research Methods in Cultural Research

A. ETHNOGRAPHY
Ethnography is used by researcher to explore a cultural group. They live
with the people, or spend a lot of time with them. For someone like you in
the community, you have learned about your culture because you have
experienced this yourself. This is somewhat a form of ethnography. This time
knowing that you are going to research about your community, makes it more
than just an immersion or experience, it becomes a form of ethnography

B. INTERVIEW
This is a method of data gathering where you ask a person or persons
about the phenomenon you wish to study or document. Interviews can be
informal or formal. Informal interviews are unstructured, open-ended
conversation in everyday life. It is just like having a chat with the person but
with a direction, that is you want to answer the questions of your research.
Formal interviews use structured question and answer form. Prior to going
into the field the researcher prepares a set of questions that he would like to
ask the respondents.
Interviews may be conducted one-on-one or in a group. A group
interview has advantage over the individual interview owing to the collective
nature of Filipinos, who usually prefer to speak in a group. When
interviewing two or more informants, we call this the focused group
discussion (FGD). During the FGD, participants may freely answer the
questions posed by the researcher/s. It is important during FGDs that there
is a document or to write the participants’ responses.

C. HISTORIOGRAPHY
Local history is conducting research about the history of a place or art
practice. Writing about history is the field called historiography. According to
UP Baguio Local History Guidelines, there is value to local as summarized by
the following points:
• Local histories are building blocks to the writing and appreciation of
national history.
• Local history writing has the comparative advantage of available and
accessible experts, sources of information, and evaluators of historical
accuracy. Local histories should ideally written by the local people.
 .
• Local histories depict the basic organization of our society, the practical
elements and patterns of social relations and support systems, the
beneficial features of the local or indigenous knowledge system, etc. All
these can be harnessed as elements of historical knowledge that the
community can use in facing the challenges of the present and future
• Immediate users of local history are the members of the community who
are accountable to the larger society for their historical accounts.

Ethics of Cultural Research

Ethics are norms or rules that should be followed when doing research.
The rules ensure that the rights of participants are safeguarded. The
following are general ethical guidelines when doing any form of cultural
research:

1. What is the importance of observing ethics in research?

2. Cite examples or cases (you can research on this) where ethics
were not observed. Discuss in class the impact for its non-
compliance in observing the rules for research.

Consent
• Obtain informed consent Can be verbal or written
• Includes the overview of the cultural mapping: purpose, the
people/agency conducting the research,
• Clarify if there are concerns or issues
• The use of and access to, research results should be agreed (genuine
custodianship)

Behavior & Personal Integrity in Cultural Research

• Be open and honest
• Be flexible
• Invest time and resources in building trust
• Acknowledge the informants
• Consultation & negotiation should always be maintained
• The research community should benefit from and not be disadvantaged
by the research project
Respect
• Put local values, needs and concerns first
• Prioritize the local toponomy
• Ensure the outputs of the mapping process are understood by all
concerned
• Recognize the diversity and uniqueness of the people as well as
individuals
• Respect intellectual and cultural property rights of your participants

Anticipate Consequences
• Do your best to recognize that you are working with socially
differentiated communities and that your presence will not be politically
neutral
• Avoid raising false expectations
• Avoid exposing people to danger
• Avoid outlining boundaries except if this is the specific purpose of the
exercise
• Be careful in/avoid causing tensions or violence in a community
• Do not use the practice to support the forced displacement of people.

On the Use of Technology

• Consider using spatial information technologies that can be mastered by
local people after being provided sufficient training
• Select spatial information technologies that are adapted to local
environmental conditions and human capacities
• Stimulate spatial learning and info generation rather than mere data
extraction for outsider’s analysis and interpretation.

Management
• Focus on local and indigenous technical management and spatial
knowledge
• Observe processes

Outcomes
• Map making and maps are a means and not an end
• Ensure that the intellectual ownership is recognized
• Have the practice to validating the data to local community members and
experts in the given field
Temporality
• Be ready to deal with new realities which will emerge from the
process
• Review and revise the maps

Rights
• Ensure defensive protection of traditional knowledge (TK) or
measures that ensure that IP rights over traditional knowledge or
IKSP are not given to parties other than customary TK holders
• If applicable, do your best to ensure positive protection of TK, or
the creation of positive rights in TK that empower TK holders to
protect and promote their TK

The Challenges Posed by a Community-based Research

• We want to tell our stories: rewriting and re-righting of history
• We would like our worldviews, indigenous knowledge system
and practices be brought in the forefront
• We want methods sensitive to the community
• We need to recover our language
• We see the value of looking at alternative ways of knowing
(theorizing) and doing (application)

https://www.google.com/search?q=ethnographic+research+of+the+philippines&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjHpceJyY_rAh
WHA5QKHWy4DnIQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=ethnographic+research
ACTIVITY 3 – Cultural Research

NAME:_________________________________________________
ACADEMIC TRACT________________________DATE

1. Identify a problem or issues in your community and think for a possible

ethnographic research title.
2. Search and make a research proposal.
3. Submit your work in a short band paper, computerized.

Due date:_____________________