Key Assessment EDUC 355: Ethnographic Research
What is ethnography?
Ethnography is the study of
people in their own environment over a given course of time through methods
such as observer-participant and face-to-face interview.
create a fictional rofile of a student in 3 or 4th grade, create a mock analysis
The 355 Ethnography Project
Over the course of the
semester you will engage in ethnographic research to understand urban students’
perspective on current issues that are critical to urban education. You may
choose to observe the student(s) in multiple settings over the course of the
semester or one setting. Your observation space can be a school yard, community
center or recreational area. The goal is to immerse yourself into your
participant(s) lives and understand the educational issues that are relevant to
their lives.
After several sessions of
observation, you will conduct face-to-face interviews to hear directly from
your participants. After completing your interview(s) and analyzing the data,
you will write an ethnographic research paper that both shares your findings
and provides a comparative analysis of your research findings and texts studied
over the course of the semester. Your goal is to understand if the issues
voiced by students align with those addressed in various text and address any
areas of needs and/or gaps.
The Process
Step 1 Research Question
Create and define your
guiding question. A central question and thesis statement guides a good
ethnographic research paper. The aim is to write a concise and clear overview
of the focus of your research, such as a description of the behavior or values
of a particular social group. In our case, please remember that your focus is
to investigate. Clarify why this
selected question is important and worthy of investigation.
Step 2 Observations
Select your observation site
and begin the participant observer process. Be sure to take detailed notes
during this stage.
Step 3 Interview Questions
After you have observed your
participants to the degree that you have gained a comprehensive cultural
understanding of your participants, create a list of interview questions. Questions should be open ended and allow
participants to fully express their thoughts and range of feelings, experiences
and emotions.
Step 4 Interviews
Conduct face to face
interview(s) with your participants. Be sure to conduct interviews in a space
that is comfortable to your participants and one which is an environment
conducive to safely and provides an opportunity for all to engage in rich
dialogue. Decide ahead of time if you will tape record the interview.
Step 5 Data Analysis
After interviewing your
participants you will analyze all collected data i.e. field notes, observation
notes, interviews and all pertinent materials. Your analysis will allow you to
organize your research findings into themes from which you can then form a
theoretic understanding of current issues in urban education informed by real
students.
Step 6 Write an
ethnographic research paper
Your paper must include:
Introduction
Introduce your reader to the
research topic that you have explored. Why does your topic matter? What is the
relevance? Explain why you selected the topic that you did. Synthesize relevant
literature (research) and discuss particular gaps. What research question
guides your study?
Methodology
A description of what you did
during your research and how you did it. Include your ethnographic method, such
as participant observations or interviews, and why you chose this method. Data
should also be included when putting the paper together, such as how many times
you visited a particular site and how many people you interviewed.
Findings
Use evidence taken directly
from your research field notes to report your findings and to back up any
assertions you make. Remember to attribute any quotes or ideas to the
participants in your bibliography. In this select you will report your finding
in a raw form without interpretation, just the facts. Be selective with your material by only
including relevant information to prevent your paper from becoming trivial or
floating off-topic.
Discussion and Implications
Discuss and interpret your
findings. Interpret and evaluate the
research. This consists of two parts. Analyze the raw data to make conclusions
about your research. Look for any emerging patterns, trends, beliefs or processes.
Then evaluate your research methods. Consider the strengths and weaknesses in
your methodology and data collection, and any possible limitations of the
study. If your findings do not answer your research question (as in step one),
make some recommendations for further study. In addition, address any
similarity or differences between your findings and class texts, papers must
include at least 7 texts used in class, one text must address historic context.
Address research gaps based on your research and highlight students’ position
in contrast to policy makers, educators and other practitioners. Did you find
that students’ issues differed or were similar to those expressed in the
literature? Where should urban education go from here?
Conclusion
Sum up your research paper
concisely.
References
APA format, alphabetized with
hanging margins
Appendix
E.g., Interview Questions
