Ethnography, traditionally, would be the description of the culture (or subculture) using the methods of data collection used by Anthropologists.
Recently, this term has come to mean both description and analysis of the data, and the term "culture" has been expanded to refer to bounded social settings like schools, classrooms, and other spaces where people gather to engage is some kind of discrete activity (pick¬up basketball, eating lunch, napping, primping in the bathroom, etc.)
1. When you plan the write-up of your work use the following categories.
A. An introduction
B. A rich description of the context that you are studying
C. A discussion of the data collection methods that you will be using
D. Initial patterns, interesting questions, things that are puzzling that might inform the further collection of data
E. Discussion of any academic sources that are informing your current thinking about this project.
Here you should first go to the class text so the group looking at bathrooms should look at what the book has to say about elimination, those studying the cafeteria might look at Economic Systems, and those looking at pick-up basketball would look at Expressive Culture. Use the book as your first academic resource and build out from there.
The book and the reading you do should also support the theoretical lens through which your work is being done whether it is critical race theory, gender, language and ideology, or any of the other theories we run into that figure prominently in the field
F. Findings from your research . What are the implications, if any, and what did you learn about culture from your close examination of this space and activities? Did you have "oho" moments where something clicked and you began to understand something new about your research context. Did any of your findings have implications for changed practices in BHCC that would improve life for students, the institution, and the culture.
2. When you are doing ethnography you want to discuss data collection techniques and how you think they will help inform your question or questions. Here are some of the techniques you might use:
A. Observations. Often referred to as field notes. They are normally written, taped, or video-taped. Pictures are also used to support field notes. After recording they are usually "fleshed out" or expanded, and usually on the same day to collect and/or recapture nuances of the social event observed. These include description of events, portraits of participants, the reconstruction of dialogue, and description of the physical setting.
B. Jnterviews. Interviews with participants, (usually students in this case) elicit information about attitudes, beliefs, and rationales for why people are doing what they are doing. Some people use very structured formats and some use more free-flowing interview techniques in the belief that it encourages people to open up more
C. Surveys These are usually a series of questions given to a number of people to get baseline data for what a particular group of people think. For example, you might ask students "what do you think is the purpose of homework?" In the cafeteria you might be asking, "How many times a week do you use the cafeteria?" Why do you use the cafeteria?"
D. Student work. If you are looking at a classroom collect student work during the period you are examining. You might be interested in group work, students working on revision, or classroom-based discussion. All of these are connected directly to some kind of student work that can be collected.
E. Review of texts, There will often be texts and signage associated with a particular space and particular activity. How does this text inform and interact with the ways students appropriate the space?
F. Room sketches and the oreanization of ,.p. ce, This is very important in ethnography. Draw the space and spend some time in talking about how the space interacts with the activity, the appropriation of that space by students, and both official and unofficial rules for that activities and how the space is used.