Co-constructing the field for a critical ethnography of immigrants' experiences in a Canadian Francophone minority community

When conducting ethnographic research, immersion into the field and participant observation are essential characteristics of the methodology. As more traditional forms of ethnography have evolved over time to include contemporary approaches (institutional ethnography, feminist ethnography), so too have the fields where such research is undertaken. Indeed, the field itself is now recognized as a construction rather than a naturally occurring space. This article discusses the approach taken to co-construct the field for a critical ethnographic study of immigrants' experiences within a Canadian Francophone minority community. It addresses how the researcher made key decisions shaping who the study population would be, and in collaboration with the participants then decided how and where data generation would occur.