Thursday, April 5, 2012

4.5 Ethnography

Final DA Projects are Due next Thursday.


Notes from class 


Ethnography
Participant observation = researcher is in the research situation
Purpose = to represent the perspectives of insiders to the culture you are studying
Ethnography is made of “thick description”
Purpose to understand values, identities, beliefs, cultural practices
Often move between reflective and objective perspectives
Characteristics of ethnographic writing
First person
Starts with an arrival story => sets up what the ethnographer will learn

What might you notice when you take ethnographic notes
Who talks
Who has power
Culture= clues to classroom culture are:
Way you talk
Way you look
Way you are dressed
Diversity
Similarities /differences among students
Indications of trust
Associations – relationships
Gender dominance
Individual agendas versus group agendas
On-topic versus off topic participation
Tone of voice, eye contact, body language

Ethnographic activity
In the class presentation on ethnography I directed you to Alsop's classification of the different ways ethographies are of interest in English Studies (119).
1. as literary works (ethnographies as a literry genre)=> like Diane Bell's book
2. as a form that contributes to and shapes other genres: novels (like Moby Dick), auto/biography - like Grealy's book
3. As a tool for studying writing process and literacy learning
4. as a tool for studying cultural behaviors and groups surrounding reading and writing



I said I would give a presentation on that classification - and that after the presentation you would work in groups to classify six books in the categories we discussed.  
AND - all the while you would be taking ethnographic notes to characterize the Discourse community/social dynamic of our class.


You did a GREAT job on this.  I was interested in some the following: 

  • that most of you took notes ACROSS groups rather than on dynamics within your own group
  • your observations about the teacher's use of humor + sharing personal information as contributing to the class dynamic (as we noted in our discussion - humor is dangerous + two edged)
  • your identification of different sub-groups within the class
  • different levels of participation

pretty interesting.


For next week:
We will start with Courtney + Krystina's presentation, then cover interviewing.  ALso - we are going to spend some time making sure all of you are started with your research projects.


Read: Visual Literacy for All:  A Fourth-Grade Study of Alice in Wonderland  http://www.readingonline.org/articles/voices/edinger/,  Griffin in Griffin
Blog 9: Final DA project + send your Final DA project to course email

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