Ethnography Research means trying to understand behavior and culture by going out and talking to people wherever they are, while they’re doing whatever it is they do. It means entering someone’s world for a while, be it in my case six months to a year. I have been inspired by the major difference between ethnography and other types of research in the literature I have reviewed. Ethnography research will allow my researchers to get up close and personal to our research participants. We will spend time with elders in the natural context of their daily lives. We will interview and talk to individuals and families about broader issues. We will document how Elders culturally-designed role as advisors and supervisors of younger children, boys and girls, believes that community programs should first acknowledge the role and experience of senior women and then explicity involve them as partners and resource persons in all programs dealing wiht health, nutrition, early childhood education and hygiene. As Africans we are known for our strong orientation to collective values, particularly, a collective sense of responsibility. My research has discovered that research has largely ignored, misunderstood, or disregarded the value of African indigenous communities collective ethic. Therefore, the Collective Ethic will be my African Centered Paradigm. Elders: A Cultural Resource for Promoting Sustainable Development research study. The collective ethic recognise that survival derives from group harmony and all actions are within a collective context, which seeks to maintain the harmony and balance of an interrelated and essentially egalitarian system. My research study will be an Afrocentric method, however, my purpose is not to denigrate Western methodology, but to re-examine and complement any thinking that attributes undue Western superiority at the expense of neglecting African thought. The Afrocentric method can be used as a complement to qualitative research methods. I plan to contribute as much as possible toward a purposeful accomodation of those issues or problems that researchers currently face in researching indigenous African culture.
Judi Aubel is a specialist in community development and health in developing countries, and is Executive Director of the Grandmother Project. http://www.grandmotherproject.org/current_activities.php
Respecting the Wisdom of Elders: Elders: A Cultural Resource for Promoting Sustainable Development by Judi Aubel,Executive Director of the Grandmother Project http://blogs.worldwatch.org/transformingcultures/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Elders-Aubel.pdf
UNESCO Universal Declaration of Cultural Diversity unanimously adopted by the 31st session of the General Conference of UNESCO, Paris, 11-2-2001 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001271/127162e.pdf
