Reflective Blog and Field Notes/Memos

To me this reflective blog that we are working on during the semester seems like doing field notes and analytical/reflective memos that are done in ethnographic research and field studies.  In ethnographic studies, there are certain terms and expressions that are used, for example, discovery where everything is seen in context, it is naturalistic, in-depth and rich.  Also, the ethnographer learns from people and I feel that this blog is a way of learning that has a parallel with continuously reflecting and writing fieldnotes that are done during fieldwork.  Ethnographics emphasise obervational evidence and various forms of memos and field notes, such as reflective, analytical and observational. 

Writing field notes on a regular basis, which include observations, impressions, feelings, thoughts, hunches, questions, among other things is akin to this reflective blog and I think it is really good practice for preparing fieldnotes in a qualitative field study because in qualitative research the research is the research instrument. 

Moreover, that fact that qualitative research is an iterative process and is based on emergent ideas identified, this blog helps us to think, write, analyse and refine so that we develop our emergent ideas. As a result, there is a lot of data in ethnograpic research because not only do you have the primary and secondary of sources as well as data collected from interviews, documents and transcripts, but also you have your own data that is created when you write reflective and analytical memos based on the data you collect. 

Context is imperative because it allows you to give interpretation and therefore meaning to the raw data you collect.  One thing I like about qualitative research, especially in ethnographies and grounded theory is that with the knowledge of what happens in the field you can challenge assumptions.  That is, ethnograhy/field studies leads the researcher to question what we 'take for granted'.  In particular, I read the term 'taken-for-granted' assumptions in a qualitative field study - Chua and Mahama (2007) and at the time I was a little uncertain as to why this expression was used - but now I get it.  Myers (2009, pg. 93) indicates then ethnographic research is the appropriate research method for studying organizational culture, and "organizational culture includes not just the explicit values and behaviours of the members of an organization, but also taken-for-granted assumptions that are virtually impossible to discover if you are there for only a short time".  Ethnographic research is the only method that enables a researcher to spend a considerable amount of time in the field so that you can uncover the unwritten rules of how things work - these unwritten rules are rarely verbalized.  This is like the tacit 'rules of game' that we need to uncover for our academic discipline.