Discussion 1: Reflecting on Your Experience

I want to understand the world from your point of view. I want to know what you know in the way you know it. I want to understand the meaning of your experience, to walk in your shoes, to feel things as you feel them, to explain things as you explain them. Will you become my teacher and help me understand?

James P. Spradely, The Ethnographic Interview

In completing your Immersion Experience, you observed an event or gathering of a particular group, completed a dialogue, and crafted an analysis and presentation of your insights and findings. This week, it is time to step back and reflect on the process itself and how it may help you understand other cultures in general in the future.

To Prepare:

• Review this week's Learning Resources, focusing on the opportunities and challenges of integrating immersion experiences and ethnographies in human and social services practice.

• Reflect on the experiences you had and information you collected while completing your Final Immersion Project experience. Are there changes in your thought processes, awareness, or behaviors as a result of the experience?

Post a brief description of the culture or population group in which you immersed yourself. Next, explain how the Immersion Experience assisted you in understanding and respecting other cultures in general.