ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book is about learning to do research variously called "ethnography", "naturalistic studies", "qualitative research", and "case studies". Reasonable people disagree about the definition of ethnography. Traditionally, in anthropology, ethnographic studies had a host of characteristics including the use of participant-observation to study a community for an extended period of time, a holistic approach, the portrayal of the community from the perspective of the participants, a focus on culture, and a focus on context. Moreover, ethnographic methods can be distinguished from other approaches such as survey or experimental research. In order to begin the research process, the researcher must choose a question to explore. The question chosen must address the concerns of the researcher and must be answerable within the setting in which the research is to be carried out.
