ABSTRACT

The perspectives of parents, educators, and employers have been studied, but central actors have been left out of the study of youth employment. Only an ethnography of workplace can accurately capture why young people do what they do. The most important thing that ethnographers can do is to keep their eyes open. Most research methods we have discussed in the text so far–experiments or survey methodology, for example–start the data collection process with a very distinct hypothesis. Researchers looking to replicate Alan Peshkin's work should take that into account. In addition, many ethnographers believe that honestly telling the reader about their experience requires that they insert themselves into the narrative. Ethnographies have many advantages. Most important, they allow researchers to get very rich and detailed information. In addition, ethnographies help researchers build grounded theories and capture the authentic perspectives of the subjects being studied.