15
Ethnography in the Social Studies Classroom: Tips for Teachers A presentation by Katie McNamara

Ethnography in the Social Studies Classroom: Tips for Teachers A presentation by Katie McNamara

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Ethnography in the Social Studies

Classroom: Tips for Teachers

A presentation by Katie McNamara

Presentation Overview

How do we define Ethnography?

The Ethnographic Process

Ethnography as a learning tool

Ethnography as an assessment tool

Ethnography as a tool for social action

Examples of Ethnographic works for classroom use

Concluding thoughts/ artifact distribution

What is Ethnography?

Ethnography is a means to report graphically and in writing the culture of a certain people

A qualitative research method which was initially associated with Anthropological research and aims to study “cultural phenomena”

Has since been adopted by many other fields including sociology, psychology and even the business world (ethnography as market research is becoming more and more widely used)

Ethnographic research has an extremely wide scope. Where there is culture, there can be ethnography

Ethnography can be transmitted in written form through books, papers, dissertations

It can also be transmitted through visual or auditory means through the use of video, photography or “photo-voice” projects, or interviews with different individuals of a certain culture

The Ethnographic Process

Passive & active

subjects

Participant Observatio

n

Structured & unstructured

Surveys, questionnaire

s

Interviewing

• Incorporating historical research

• “coding”

Making & Using

Records

Some Famous Ethnographic

Endevours Margaret Mead: Coming of Age in Samoa

William Foot Whyte: Street Corner Society

Ethnography as a Learning Tool

Ethnographies can be integrated into a wide-range of topics:

Just a few possibilities include:

Familial traditions amongst different cultures

Homelessness

Counter-culture

Youth, coming-of-age

Criminology, gangs, crime, prison

Social determinants of health

The workforce

Social media – This is an emerging ethnographic field!!!

Religion

Consumerism/ consumer-trends

Ethnography can be integrated into classroom learning and activities in a multitude of ways

Just a few possibilities include:

Films

Text analysis

Online research

Group work analysis

Debates

Social science research

Exploring social and cultural issues

Encouraging critical thought

Exploring ethical issues (research ethics, market research ethics)

Ethnography as an Assessment Tool

Allows students to learn about society & culture first-hand while meeting curriculum expectations

Having students perform their own “mini” ethnography is an ideal way to integrate the inquiry process into the classroom while meeting the social science research expectations for the social studies courses

A fantastic way to allow students hands-on experience within the qualitative inquiry process

Some Ideas…

Have students “learn from someone else’s experience” by pairing students up with another student in their class and having them preform a mini-ethnography on the other student’s family and culture

Have students observe the culture of their school

Cafeteria, another classroom, the hallway, the gym etc.

Have them record what they see

This can be as simple or involved a project as you choose to make it

They can complete part or all of the typical ethnographic process

Have students create a “photo-voice” project by taking pictures of the world around them and analyzing what they have seen further

Ethnography as a Tool for Social Action

Most authentic and reliable social ethnographies will use their observations and conclusions to make recommendations for social policies or programs that would assist the area of society they have studied

Presenting students with a summary of such an ethnography and having them take part in letter-writing pertaining to the issue explored is a way to bridge classroom and community and make real connections between ethnography and its role in social change

Conclusion

Ethnography is an extremely valuable field to incorporate into social studies curriculum

It is a field that is constantly growing and developing meaning that there is constantly new information being discovered and published

Allowing students the opportunity to “get their feet wet” with their own mini-ethnographies allows them the opportunity to explore the qualitative inquiry process while learning more about one another and the world around them first-hand

Some Considerations

Ethnography is, unfortunately, more prevalent in higher education circles than secondary. It is very difficult to find ethnographic resources aimed at the high school age group

Often difficult to find explicitly Canadian ethnographic content

Becomes the teachers’ role to paraphrase or break down ethnographies to a level their students will understand and apply clearly to the material they are covering