Levels of knowing in ethnographic inquiry

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Abstract
Many texts that offer guidance to beginning researchers suggest that the competent ethnographer, while attempting to portray participants’ ways faithfully and accurately, should also demystify the research process through open revelation, self‐monitoring, and self‐evaluation. This paper illustrates the complexities of ethnographic inquiry by examining critically a study of literacy‐related activities of nursery school children and their teachers. Four stages of researcher development are proposed and described as a heuristic device in order to trace and expand issues germane to ethnographic research. The paper attends to some current concerns about contemporary discourse on research methodology, particularly how to make sense of the content‐specific issues that surface as a result of research, and also the experience itself of doing the research.

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