Another technique of gathering qualitative data that has resulted in another form of understanding children’s meaning of the word friend was researched by William Corsaro, cited in Brownlow. He used an approach where a comprehensive amount of observations were conducted while amongst a group of participants. This ethnographic approach explored the dimensions of friendship less formally, as would happen in an interview or even in the essay format, and showed how Corsaro could collect data...
Another technique of gathering qualitative data that has resulted in another form of understanding children’s meaning of the word friend was researched by William Corsaro, cited in Brownlow. He used an approach where a comprehensive amount of observations were conducted while amongst a group of participants. This ethnographic approach explored the dimensions of friendship less formally, as would happen in an interview or even in the essay format, and showed how Corsaro could collect data without needing to quantify his findings. Corsaro found himself observing the way children speak and behave towards each other and through a first-hand account was able to identify cultural norms of conversation which differ in places like the U.S. and Italy. This approach points to issues that need further study such as the acknowledgement of differences in culture and how communication is portrayed. The difficulty however is the ethnographic approach takes a long time for the researcher to develop, as relationships need to be established with the participants if they are to be a constant part of the group for meaningful observations.
