Groenewald (2004) explains that ethnography is a qualitative research method that has its roots in the discipline of anthropology, According to Creswell, anthropologist virtually immersed themselves into diffiferent communities in order to study their ways and beliefs of hence the concept of culture is of central importance. Groenewald explains that culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, practices, language, norms, rituals, and material things that group members use to understand their world. Creswell (2006) adds that besides examining shared patterns of behaviour, an ethnographer also explores issues such as power, resistance and dominance, hence data collection in an ethnographic study is extensive, involving prolonged time in the field in order to be able to render a thick description.
Ethnographies cannot be completed in brief enquiries: an ethnographer needs to spend long periods of everyday time in the field in order to understand the research focus and produce the type of ‘thick description’ so central to ethnographies. In order to capture a way of life it is necessary, as Henning et al (2004) and Mason (2017) suggest, to get to know the ‘people and their practices as these occur as everyday actions’, then recreate for the reader the shared beliefs, practices, behaviours of a group of people (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993) which in this study is a group of primary school girls aged 12-14 years. Being an educator in the research
5The girls in this study were 12-14 years old.
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site has afforded me the privilege of engaging in what Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2006) call
‘naturalistic observations’ of my respondents as they went about their daily lives in Westhills Primary School. I was an insider, and this allowed me privileges such as being able to sit in the staffroom and observe teachers complaining about learners, and my presence did not bother them. I also sat in at management meetings and therefore had a good knowledge of how the school functioned and if there were any problems or major concerns. I was also privy to how the school handled some problems and challenging situations. I do, however,
recognise that the concept of insider and outsider is subjective. I was an insider because of my location within the school and because I live in Reservoir Hills, but I was nevertheless still an outsider to my respondents’ lived experiences of gender and sexual violence.
Prior to proceeding with the study, I conducted a literature review of other ethnographic studies that engaged in same or similar methods to my study (Hamilton, 2014; Hunter, 2005;
Mayeza, 2015; Morojele, 2009; Renold, 2005). The literature was consistent in that a multi- modal approach is optimum for engaging children in research on sensitive issues.
In reading on ethnography, I was drawn to South African born anthropologist Monica Wilson’s groundbreaking research conducted in the Eastern Cape (1931-1933) among Mpondo people [a South African ethnic group] that elicited great respect among academic communities, notably of which was the admiration and praise for her immersion and her careful and sensitive analysis of the culture that she sought to study. Her ethnography in Tanzania, was similarly praised for her attention to detail in her fieldwork that presented a deep and rich insight on the status of Nyakyusa [an African ethnic group] women in Tanzania (1935-1938). Through her studies, she was able to dispel many myths surrounding African society that emerged from historical anthropology writings about colonial rule and apartheid.
More recently, Mark Hunter’s ethnography ‘Love in the time of AIDS’ (2005) conducted in Mandeni, a growing industrial town in South Africa, provides a powerful and moving analysis of how the forces of apartheid, social and cultural norms around gender, sexual intimacy and love drive this pandemic. His insider status (he lived in Isithebe, a shack in an informal settlement amongst the people) and his ethnographic lens captures the life, the Lettie and the sorrow, the trials and the tribulations of the people, and in fact, the very essence of life in Mandeni. Field notes give a graphic and beautifully rendered description, account and analysis of his observations, and interactions with the people in Mandeni. Hunter is however,
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cognizant of the power that an ethnographer possesses by virtue of being ‘different’. He notes this when he is asked to transport a sick girl to the hospital: the mother reasons that they won’t be turned from this particular hospital because he is ‘white’ is a stark reminder of our powerful status as researchers. Hunter’s study elevates our simplistic understanding of transactional sex as just an exchange for money or materiality and the root cause of HIV and AIDS. Both Wilson and Hunter’s studies have its roots in cultural anthropology, and through the documentation of observations, people’s views, thoughts and opinions, actions and through looking and hearing the natural (people in their daily lives), both Wilson and Hunter have written beautiful and profound ethnographies.
In this study, I have cited and drawn on educational ethnographic studies conducted by Renold (2005), Morojele (2009) and Mayeza (2015). All of these studies have particular relevance for my study since they were all conducted in primary schools and the researchers’
interests corroborated with my own interest in studying gender, sexuality and primary school children. Emma Renold’s book ‘Girls, boys and junior sexualities (2005) was a constant companion throughout my studies. The book, based on her PhD study, explores young children’s cultural worlds in two schools in England. Her rich and textured descriptions and analysis of the school culture, the school context and the children’s cultural world draws us into the schools and the personal and cultural domains of the children. Data, collected mainly through participant observation and interviews is extensive and analysed so deeply, that one images oneself to be actually observing and interviewing the children. Renold’s study has shaped my thinking about young children’s sexuality in a deep and philosophical way. As I explained earlier in Chapter 2, I found theory confounding and struggled to make the connection with Butler’s theory on gender performativity, sexuality and young children.
Renold, however, in the most simplistic yet powerful way helped me understand how masculinities and femininities are reinforced, contested, demystified and even detoppled as children negotiate and claim their gender and sexual identities. Renold dispels many myths about young children’s sexuality, showing that children themselves are active constructers of knowledge, recognising that children are powerful beings and their knowledge is shaped by their very own beliefs of what it means to be a boy or a girl.
Emmanuel Mayeza’s school ethnography conducted in a Township primary school near central Durban, South Africa provides a detailed appraisal of his ethnography (Mayeza, 2015). Mayeza, in seeking to explore how young children (6-10 years old) understandings of
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gender shaped peer relationship and play during break time adopted a child-centred approach to his study, fusing traditional ethnographic methods such as observer, participant, talking and interacting with the children, drawings and telling stories. He draws on a series of interesting examples to demonstrate how he was both included and excluded by the children he sought to observe. For instance, he explains that the title of ‘coach’ that the children conferred on him both included and simultaneously excluded him from the game, illustrating the power differentials that comes to the fore in qualitative research and especially in research with children. According to Mayeza, the title of coach privileged a hegemonic masculinity since the boys identified him as a strong male, ‘knowledgeable and an authority in soccer’
(Mayeza, 2018: 131) and therefore, as one of them. However, he notes that the title of coach also worked to reinforce the power and authority of adults over children hence he positioned himself as if he was not so knowledgeable about soccer and shifted authority to them. I think that this was very clever of Mayeza, as it allowed the children to regain power and even to elevate themselves both in the eyes of Mayeza and their peers (boys and girls]. Mayeza also informs us that he avoided being called ‘Sir’ or ‘Mr Mayeza’ by asking that the children call him ‘Emmanuel’. An interesting point that Mayeza makes relates to the difficulty that presented in observing and talking to children. He explains that children are often on the move, hence he had to also be constantly on the move, grasping and taking advantage of the opportunities to engage in informal conversations with the children. In August 2016, Mayeza presented a paper from his PhD study at the 1st South African National Conference on
Violence in Johannesburg [Gauteng]. I attended his session. His presentation was received with much interest and generated a long discussion [approx. 35 mins]. Key to this discussion was his critical analysis of how power is woven into children’s construction of gender. In my ethnography, my respondents often called me ‘mam’, which I tried to discourage, but they often forgot. I think that because I was in the school for such a long time, and because I had also taught many of them in the FP, habits were hard to break. In one instance, a respondent referred to me by my name ‘Patsy’. I think she found this easy to do because at this particular interview the girls were talking about their teachers and about being accused of consuming Hunters [an alcoholic drink] and about being deliberately inattentive in class, so maybe calling me ‘Patsy’ at this particular group discussion was part of her defiance at what she may have perceived to be an unjust accusation by her teachers.
Pholoho Morojele’s rich ethnographic study conducted with grade seven learners (11-15 years old) in primary schools in Lesotho drew on his life experiences as a person who grew
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up in Lesotho (Morojele, 2009). Rich descriptions of the Basotho culture and traditions reflect how deep seated beliefs on culture and gender manifest in the subordination of girls [and women] and the marginalization of girls [and boys] who transgress gender norms. His study highlights biological essentialism and the socialization process as key to maintaining cultural constructs of gender and age. His study also demonstrates the malleability of patriarchy, explaining that girls are able to contest unequal gender norms in nuanced ways without disrupting the Basotho culture. Morojele positions himself as a ‘hybrid’ (p. 100), explaining that he is both an insider and an outsider to the research process. He compares his outsider position ‘to those of colonist researchers in the early 1900’s who sought to explore distant and exotic cultures whilst recognizing his position as an insider [a Basotho].
Creswell (2006) maintains that data collection in an ethnographic study is extensive,
involving prolonged time in the field and Henning (2004) supports that ethnographies cannot be completed in brief enquiries, instead an ethnographer needed to spend sufficient
‘everyday’ time in the setting in order to be able to render a thick description. In the next section I talk about how the methods I choose for my study aligns with ethnography and qualitative research methods.