The Bangkok research expedition is an amazing example of doing ethnographic research. There are several principles that can be drawn from their examples.
1) The project is well organized. In order to yield the best result, the team has been trained to meet the needs. It can be seen on the training schedule table (133). The foundations, team building, research skills and cross-cultural immersion paved the solid foundations for the future field work.
2) Spiritual needs are well handled. We know for sure that the Thailand people have spiritual needs. However, we tend to neglect the needs of the team members. This team tried to shepherd and care for the team members. Because the workers are more important than …show more content…
We can have a lot of materials but do not have useful tools. This team tried to have this end result in their minds during the planning stages. Thus, they can really design the project with purposes.
Dream Project
I have been working with the Chinese students and scholars in USC. If I have the opportunity to form an ideal team. I will try the following strategies.
1) Team building: The team should be a combination of introverts and extroverts. Sometimes it is hard for me to initiate the spiritual conversations. I am ok with social chatting. But I felt uncomfortable talking with people about spiritual things before having a close relationship. Thus, it will be good if we have team members that can start conversations and others can join in to dive into the topics.
2) Team training: Chinese students are very diverse concerning their religious backgrounds. However, most of them were trained by the modern communism system. If possible, we would have the team members understand the thinking pattern of the communism. Chinese culture is another area that need to be explored.
3) Incarnational research: Participant observation is an ideal way of doing ethnographic research. If possible, we would have the team members live within the university apartments. They can communicate with the interviewees