ED 635 Action Research

Unit 6: Qualitative ethnography

Unit overview

Recall that ethnography refers to a study of culture. Ethographies have been written of primitive cultures, indiginous tribes, high school football teams (Friday Night Lights), sex trade workers, truck drivers, country clubs... and schools and classrooms. What's important in an ethnography is to try to understand the ways of doing things... ways of talking, acting, dressing... as well as why people do those things in those ways! I would argue thinking about culture is critically important for teachers because I think we spend lots of time and energy trying to set classroom (and school) culture in ways that are aligned with our values and the values we want children to which we want children to subscribe. Think about this next time you hear a teacher or administrator say, "So-and-so... that's not how we do things around here!" Culture baby!

Moodle discussion

After reading each of the pieces carefully, consider each of the following questions and proceed to the appropriate Moodle discussion forum:

1. Begin by considering the Culture Builder piece... what are some of the characteristics of your school culture? What are the core beliefs, values, ways of talking, acting, teaching... are there myths and legends? Are there non-discussables? How do you think these things came into existence? Moving to the Nacirema piece... what are some of the core values and beliefs of these people? What's the point of this piece? Is it a piece of trustworthy research? Why or why not? Finally, on to the ethnographic analysis piece... do you think classroom culture is as important is this author thinks it is? Why or why not? What happens in a classroom when the teacher or students behave in ways that are not aligned with the existing classroom culture? What lessons can we learn from this?

Unit content

Download and read each of the following:

• The Culture Builder - read carefully
• Body Ritual and the Nacirema - read slightly less carefully
• Ethnographic analysis and digital video - read even less carefully but focus on ethnographic framework and data analysis

An interesting little piece on thinking different about something you already know about... similar to the Nacirema reading above... helps us see something familiar through new eyes! Click here.