11.27 Ethnography

Today's class focused on ethnographic research.  We used ideas and practices from Robert Emerson's Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes as a basis for our discussion, and throughout our talk you connected what the issues and strategies Emerson described to your experience with the 911 oral histories we did at the beginning of the term, the discussion where we analyzed classroom culture in terms of the way we talked and the classroom set up, questions and "tools" presented by Gee, and the sample ethongraphic writing and field notes (jottings) I presented as handouts.

Emerson set up his piece by noting that participation, observation, and writing are each components of ethnographic research - and that in practice these three components are essentially inseparable.  He notes that choices about how and what to observe will shape (and are shaped by) how we choose to participate, and that the writing necessary to put our observations in to language will influence both the experience of participating and of observing.

We looked at the three examples of ethnographic description from Emerson's essay and noted his characterization of them as (respectively) focused on:

• physical descriptions of environment/elements of the experience
• moment by moment accounts of what happens (chronological)
• a shifting perspective that "spotlights" characters or scenes

These three different perspectives (and the many possible other perspectives) for turning experience into writing select for certain kinds of information and "reduce" or leave out other information.  Because experience is so rich and messy - it is inevitable that much will be left out.  The ethnographer's job is to document as much is as possible (or as is relevant to his/her purpose) from multiple perspectives so as to create a "thick description" of the cultural meanings associated with the people s/he is studying.  These perspectives will necessarily include the ethnographer's reflections on his or her feelings, assumptions, values, and beliefs and how those feelings etc influnced his/her observations & participation.

Emerson pointed out that ethnographers need to observe a wide range of events, interactions and physiccaly features and that his definition of what ethnography was and how it worked had 4 important implications for ethnographers.

1. What is observed is inseparable from assumptions about what is important and the way the world works
2. Fieldnotes should pay deep attention to the values and meanings of the people studied
3. On-the-spot fieldnotes are essential
4. Fieldnotes should detail interactional processes

We then looked at the sample write-up of an event by a student ethnographer in light of questions raised by Emerson's discussion of ethnography.

• which perspectives/approaches to observation did this ethnographer step into? 
• what did she document?  what did she leave out?
• what were her assumptions associated with this event - and how did those assumptions shape what she included/left out of her write up?

We did not spend much time discussing the "how to" section on jottings.  If you do ethnographic work - pay attention to the suggestions for what to attend to/write down, and for HOW to create your jottings.  The sample jottings (by another student ethnographer from another "event") show on-the-spot jottings followed by "head notes" composed immediately after the event was over.  This student (like the other writer) shifted among perspectives and created a fairly rich picture and "feel" for what happened.  

For next class:

Blog 22:  Post your data so far.  If you have not yet collected your data = post as soon as your data is available. 

We will have a workshop on analyzing your data.  I will talk about how the data sections (methods + data analysis) of the research essay should be organized. Bring whatever data you have so far and we will workshop your material.  See you Thursday!