Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Although people held different views about ideal school size, the issue of size
was a critical focal point shared by all—from student to superintendent.
Triangulation can produce conflicting results, requiring additional data and
an effort to reconcile the information. For example, in a controversial study of
an environmental health and safety department, one senior member of the
department resigned, alleging intimidation, cover-up, unethical behavior, legal
violations, and mismanagement. I was asked to interview and survey all the
members of the department. One health and safety employee said there were no
legal violations in his survey and initial interview responses. However, after
probing during the interview, he provided a long list of exceptions to his state-
ment. He was distinguishing between code violations and violations of law. The
school was interested in code violations since it was an environmental health
and safety program. I then reclassified his response in the affirmative for those
interested in whether there were any legal violations (and explained why he
thought there were no violations). I learned in the process how environmental
health and safety officials organize their world and use language. Triangulated
data provide a handle that aids the ethnographer in grasping a community's
fundamental ideas and values. (See Flick, 2009; Flick, Kardorff, & Steinke,
2004; Webb et al., 2000, for a detailed discussion about triangulation.)
PATTERNS
Ethnographers look for patterns of thought and behavior. Patterns are a form
of ethnographic reliability. Ethnographers see patterns of thought and action
repeat in various situations and with various players. Looking for patterns is a
form of analysis. The ethnographer begins with a mass of undifferentiated
ideas and behaviors, and then collects pieces of information, comparing, con-
trasting, and sorting gross categories and minutiae until a discernible thought
or behavior becomes identifiable. Next the ethnographer must listen and
observe, and then compare his or her observations with this poorly defined
model. Exceptions to the rule emerge, and variations on a theme are
detectable. These variants help circumscribe the activity and clarify its mean-
ing. The process requires further sifting and sorting to make a match between
categories. The theme or ritualistic activity finally emerges, consisting of a
collection of such matches between the model (abstracted from reality) and the
ongoing observed reality.
Any cultural group's patterns of thought and behavior are interwoven strands.
As soon as the ethnographer finishes analyzing and identifying one pattern,
another pattern emerges for analysis and identification. The fieldworker can then
