Institutional ethnography, autoethnography, and narrative: an argument for incorporating multiple methodologies

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the methodological issues arising from both my research aims and my research context of a western national defence force. First, I discuss the uniqueness of my research context and the issues that arise when organizational access is required from a hierarchical government institution. Second, I discuss the main tenets of institutional ethnography (IE) as developed by Dorothy Smith, exploring how it was ideal for my research at the same time as it presented specific methodological challenges. Third, I explain how I overcame these challenges by using autoethnography and narrative as methods to obtain entry-level IE data. I argue that research methodologies are constantly evolving. Researchers must continually push methodological boundaries in order to address research questions that cannot be explored with traditional methods.