Methodology The researcher used an ethnographic approach as a part of her research methodology along with a range of qualitative data collecting techniques with greater emphasis on unstructured interviews. The roots of ethnography can be traced back to anthropological studies of small, rural and often remote societies that were undertaken by researchers such as Radcliff Brown, Malinowski in the early 1900s. This methodology was later adopted by the Chicago School of Sociology. Ethnography aims to provide a rich and holistic insight into people’s views and actions as well as the nature (i.e. sound, sight) of the location they inhabit through the collection of detailed observations and interviews. [Hammersley, 1995].While discussing the role of an ethnographer, Clifford Geertz in his work ‘The …show more content…
It is more like an informal conversation with the respondent. Foley and Valenzuela in their work Critical ethnography: The politics of collaboration (2005) describe the use of a conversational style of interviewing as the suggested technique to learn about the respondents and about their personal lives as it increases the respondent’s participation in the conversation unlike the conventional forms of interview. The researcher conducted interviews with participants in their first language. Usually, open-ended questions were used to generate discussion (e.g., tell me about yourself, your friends), and more specific and direct questions were asked to probe when the respondents demonstrated difficulty in understanding the essence of the questions and were unable to providing details (e.g., how many friends do you have; what do you like about your friends; what do you do with your friends). The researcher welcomed their narratives and encouraged adolescents to share stories that provided greater insight into their