assignments ENGL513 Composition Theory & Pedagogy:
ETHNOGRAPHY/CASE STUDY
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Lee Torda, PhD Interim Dean of Undergraduate Studies 200 Clement C. Maxwell Library 508.531.1790 Teaching Website: www.leetorda.com |
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Overview
Part of what this class is doing is trying to introduce you into what Compositionists care about, talk about, study and research. Another part of this class is to try to demonstrate to you how Compositionists go about doing research on the issues central to the field—and even what those central issues should be. That’s methodology.
We’ve looked a little at an example of archival research in our reading about normal schools. The kind of research you are probably most familiar with was prominently featured in the reverse annotated bibliography: essentially literature review. We will do a little exploration of what survey work (which is a kind of qualitative research) looks like, time permitting, and this next project demonstrates yet another way we create new knowledge in the field, also a qualitative method, ethnography.
Part One: Observation
Often ethnography, the major research method of anthropology, requires extensive periods of time—like years—to produce material. You embed your research self in a culture—variously defined—to observe. You live among the group—learn the language, learn the rituals, learn the lore, etc. And you pay attention. And, it goes without saying, you write down what you see. The role of the ethnographer is, thus, participant/observer.
That’s part one. What is hard about this part of the work, is that you are observing and not judging. Or, at least, you attempt not to judge or to make decisions about meaning—that’s probably a better way to put it, to put off making a decision about what you are seeing means.
Part Two: Reflection
Paying attention and making note of what you see is part one. Part two is where you make decisions about what it means. In an extensive ethnography you might look at what other ethnographers have to say about your culture. But, for our purposes, I’m asking you to reflect and comment on just what you see. Of course, that means that it’s hard to give you guidance about what you will actually say in the end. Your observations will largely dictate what you ultimately say.
However, there is of course, some ways you might shape your reflection, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
To support you in this work, we will be using Kakali Bhattacharya's workbook on qualitative research. We will do some reading in the class, and the text can serve as a guide for you as you do this work. It's an excellent sourcebook for folks who want to do classroom-based research now or in the future.
OPTIONS FOR WHERE TO CONDUCT YOUR OBSERVATIONS
You have three options for your conducting your observations:
I want to be clear that this is not a huge assignment and so you aren’t watching a bunch of classes or twenty students. You want to talk to one or two students. You want to watch one whole class. Trust me when I say that you’ll collect plenty of data in just one class period.
HOW TO SHAPE YOUR PROJECT
There are two ways to do this. You can look at the data that you’ve got and make decisions about what you see based on what you know and are learning about the field. So you might notice things about assessment, about process, about revision, about writer’s anxiety. You might have something to say about all or part of that.
Another way to do this is to ask yourself a question going in to the observations. So, for instance, you might go into a situation and ask something like: how do these writers deal with writing anxiety? Or how does this teacher use assessment in the class (as opposed to on individual papers)? How does this teacher give students access to process in different ways in the classroom?
WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR AS I OBSERVE
I locate your observations in different places:
Can you tell me what the space looks like over the time you are in it?
What does it look like and who is populating it? Where are the people? What do they look like?
Can you tell me what the space sounds like?
Who’s talking and when? What are they saying? Whose in charge of the conversation? What’s the tone? How does it shift?
Can you tell me what is happening in the space over time?
What’s going on? Who is in charge? Does that stay the same? When is it very active? When is it not? What artifacts are they engaging with?
THE REFLECTION
So I think that from that description, you’ll understand how to develop your reflection. You’ll use your observations to provide evidence for your claims (like you do all the time whenever you write anything, yes?).
People ask how much of observation versus reflection goes into this document. I think that the mean answer, though the right answer, is this: the right amount is the right amount. Another way to say it is that as you write, your observation will probably look like it is taking more space on the page. Your moments of assessment and reflection on those observations will be potent, but will probably take up less space on the page. But you will want to be very careful to make sure that you are using your observations judiciously--as evidence--for your larger analysis--and not only describing what you are seeing.
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED
Your Ethnography/Case Study is worth 15% of your final grade. In order to earn a "B" grade for that 15% you must:
In order to earn an "A" grade for that 15% you must:
In order to earn a "C" grade for that 15% you must:
Part of what this class is doing is trying to introduce you into what Compositionists care about, talk about, study and research. Another part of this class is to try to demonstrate to you how Compositionists go about doing research on the issues central to the field—and even what those central issues should be. That’s methodology.
We’ve looked a little at an example of archival research in our reading about normal schools. The kind of research you are probably most familiar with was prominently featured in the reverse annotated bibliography: essentially literature review. We will do a little exploration of what survey work (which is a kind of qualitative research) looks like, time permitting, and this next project demonstrates yet another way we create new knowledge in the field, also a qualitative method, ethnography.
Part One: Observation
Often ethnography, the major research method of anthropology, requires extensive periods of time—like years—to produce material. You embed your research self in a culture—variously defined—to observe. You live among the group—learn the language, learn the rituals, learn the lore, etc. And you pay attention. And, it goes without saying, you write down what you see. The role of the ethnographer is, thus, participant/observer.
That’s part one. What is hard about this part of the work, is that you are observing and not judging. Or, at least, you attempt not to judge or to make decisions about meaning—that’s probably a better way to put it, to put off making a decision about what you are seeing means.
Part Two: Reflection
Paying attention and making note of what you see is part one. Part two is where you make decisions about what it means. In an extensive ethnography you might look at what other ethnographers have to say about your culture. But, for our purposes, I’m asking you to reflect and comment on just what you see. Of course, that means that it’s hard to give you guidance about what you will actually say in the end. Your observations will largely dictate what you ultimately say.
However, there is of course, some ways you might shape your reflection, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
To support you in this work, we will be using Kakali Bhattacharya's workbook on qualitative research. We will do some reading in the class, and the text can serve as a guide for you as you do this work. It's an excellent sourcebook for folks who want to do classroom-based research now or in the future.
OPTIONS FOR WHERE TO CONDUCT YOUR OBSERVATIONS
You have three options for your conducting your observations:
- You can watch one class of a colleagues. In truth, I think this is the easiest option. If you want to come watch me teach you are welcome to do it. I can hook you up with another faculty member in the department teaching first year writing as well.
- You can do an auto-ethnography of your students in your own classroom. I think that this can be doable, but it can also be hard to observe when you are your own thing that you are observing. It can be hard to be neutral.
- You can do a “case-study” of one or two students. You would identify a few interview questions about writing process and interview one or two students.
- You can do a combination of 2 and 4.
- You can do either 1 or 3 or a combination of 1 or 3 in a site of writing that is not a classroom--so a writing center (which we have on the BSU campus), a resource room, a writing group, a book club, a coffee shop where a lot of people are writing (might be harder to do at this moment), a worksplace setting that is not a classroom where writing is happening.
I want to be clear that this is not a huge assignment and so you aren’t watching a bunch of classes or twenty students. You want to talk to one or two students. You want to watch one whole class. Trust me when I say that you’ll collect plenty of data in just one class period.
HOW TO SHAPE YOUR PROJECT
There are two ways to do this. You can look at the data that you’ve got and make decisions about what you see based on what you know and are learning about the field. So you might notice things about assessment, about process, about revision, about writer’s anxiety. You might have something to say about all or part of that.
Another way to do this is to ask yourself a question going in to the observations. So, for instance, you might go into a situation and ask something like: how do these writers deal with writing anxiety? Or how does this teacher use assessment in the class (as opposed to on individual papers)? How does this teacher give students access to process in different ways in the classroom?
WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR AS I OBSERVE
I locate your observations in different places:
Can you tell me what the space looks like over the time you are in it?
What does it look like and who is populating it? Where are the people? What do they look like?
Can you tell me what the space sounds like?
Who’s talking and when? What are they saying? Whose in charge of the conversation? What’s the tone? How does it shift?
Can you tell me what is happening in the space over time?
What’s going on? Who is in charge? Does that stay the same? When is it very active? When is it not? What artifacts are they engaging with?
THE REFLECTION
So I think that from that description, you’ll understand how to develop your reflection. You’ll use your observations to provide evidence for your claims (like you do all the time whenever you write anything, yes?).
People ask how much of observation versus reflection goes into this document. I think that the mean answer, though the right answer, is this: the right amount is the right amount. Another way to say it is that as you write, your observation will probably look like it is taking more space on the page. Your moments of assessment and reflection on those observations will be potent, but will probably take up less space on the page. But you will want to be very careful to make sure that you are using your observations judiciously--as evidence--for your larger analysis--and not only describing what you are seeing.
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED
Your Ethnography/Case Study is worth 15% of your final grade. In order to earn a "B" grade for that 15% you must:
- Keep and turn in a "research notebook"
- Participate in the ethnography/case study workshop as a writer and a reader of other people's writing
- Complete the reflective work pre and post workshop.
- Turn in your completed ethnography/case study by the due date on the syllabus.
In order to earn an "A" grade for that 15% you must:
- Do all of the things you are required to do for the "B" grade.
- Be able to identify, in your final draft, ideas, concepts, theories we are learning in our class as you see them playing out in your site.
- Be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your methodology using the Bhattacharya readings we did in class.
In order to earn a "C" grade for that 15% you must:
- Turn in your completed ethnography/case study by the due date on the syllabus.