Ethnography and your Placement

Ethnography is a qualitative research method used to study cultures, communities, or social phenomena by immersing oneself in the everyday lives of participants. It’s rooted in anthropology but widely used in sociology, education, communications, and other fields. Ethnography seeks to understand how people make sense of their world.

Ethnographers aim to answer questions like:

• What does this practice mean to the people involved?
• How do social norms shape behavior in this setting?
• What tensions or contradictions exist in this culture or group?

Like ethnographers entering a new field site, interns step into environments shaped by unspoken norms, rituals, hierarchies, and histories. An internship is an entry into a living culture and profession. Treat it like fieldwork. Your aim is to understand not only how people make sense of their work, how coordination happens, and what values guide decisions, but also how people enact the thing we call ‘work’. This will require curiosity, disciplined observation, and reflexive habits.

How to Observe

Ethnography is about deep observation. The researcher observes and sometimes participates in daily activities. Start wide, then narrow. In the first days, do descriptive observation: who interacts with whom, where conversations occur, how work moves across boundaries, what artifacts matter. Attend to language, rituals, and the layout of space or digital tools. Note timing and cadence: morning rituals, meetings, deadlines, rush periods, quiet hours. As you learn the terrain, shift to focused observation on recurring processes, such as how a new client is taken on, how people prepare for meetings, or how differences of opinion are resolved.  Use structured passes: one pass only for roles, a second for tools, a third for breakdowns and problem solving.

Remember you should observe not only what you see around you. Ethnographic researchers may also analyze texts, photos, tools, or other cultural materials.

How to Ask Questions

Ethnographers prefer open, neutral prompts about the work and context you are in. Ask for stories rather than opinions: ‘Tell me about a recent challenge in this type of work I will be doing.’ Use probes that surface tacit knowledge: ‘What would count as a red flag in this task?’ ‘What do new people usually miss about this?’ Employ contrast questions to reveal norms: ‘How is the ideal process different from what usually happens?’ Trace processes end to end: ‘Walk me through this from the first step to the final handoff.’ Invite examples and exceptions. Replace ‘why’ questions that can feel accusatory or cut off conversation with ‘what led to’ or ‘how did you decide.’ Close the loop by summarizing what you heard and asking if you captured it accurately.

Sample Questions:

• Can you walk me through a typical day of someone with this job, or that would be doing this type of task, here?
• What do outsiders misunderstand about the culture here?
• How has your perspective on (what it means to do a good job, leadership, the organization’s mission) changed over time?

How to Take Notes

Rich, descriptive notes should be written daily, capturing what was seen, heard, and felt.

Types of Notes:

• Descriptive: What you see, hear, smell, touch, taste.
• Reflective: What you feel, think, question, or interpret.
• Jottings: Quick notes taken in the moment.
• Expanded Notes: Written soon after, fleshing out jottings with context and analysis.

Tips:

• Record sensory details and emotional reactions.
• Include quotes and spatial or time-based arrangements.
• Write soon after observation to preserve accuracy.
• Accept that your notes are subjective—they reflect your lens, and that’s okay if you recognize this.

How to Reflect on Bias

Ethnographers reflect on their own biases and how this affects the research. Seek disconfirming evidence. When you form a hunch, look for cases that do not fit it. Triangulate across conversations, documents, and behavior. If possible, do light member checking by paraphrasing what you think you heard and inviting correction: ‘Here is what I took from that meeting. Did I miss anything important?’

Approaching your internship like an ethnographer means committing to a deeper kind of learning. Your placement approach should value attention over assumption, reflection over reaction, and curiosity over certainty. You are not just there to perform tasks; you are there to witness, question, take measured risks and grow. By observing thoughtfully, you begin to understand not only the culture around you, but also your place within it, within your profession, and within work at large.