Ethnographic Madness

I thought Heath's reflections on things she would have done differently was illuminating. I was surprised that she said she would have eliminated the section section of the book, because I found reading about teacher strategies very intriguing. The idea of re-reading one's work with new eyes is important, because as researchers we have to look back on our previous work with a critical lens. I found this interesting while working on my QP because Peter Elbow spends considerable time in later works explaining prior works. I think it is important as researchers to realize that we are always works in progress.

Some important points from the article:
1. Heath notes that other researchers made her consider just how important her own backbground was to the writing. I think our class discussion reflected a desire to know more about her and her methods. I do think an appendix listing the methods she used would be incredibly helpful to unraveling some of the complexities of ethnographic research.
2. The idea that she had multiple roles that sometimes overlapped was important, particularly as we consider doing ethnographic research in the classroom. It is never possible to eliminate our student self or our teacher self when we do research. Instead, we have to do our best while trying to look outside of our own expectations nad experiences.
"Stepping entirely out and away from any of these roles and their associated value systems was impossible, as was any strict separation of these roles" (Heath, p. 259).
3. "Unless it is in a specific delimited comparison of events, behaviors, or values held by two or more groups, good ethnography should not describe what people do not do; to use such negatives is to suggest that they should be doing something other than what they do" (263).

Culture as a Verb - On Ethnography

The idea of culture as a verb continues to reverberate with me. On page 8, heath and street outlien what it means for culture to be seen in this new way. Basically, I get that culture is dynamic, and it allows ethnographers to view culture as everchanging. I'd like to look more at how culture as a verb influences the ethnographic process. In a longitudinal study, this concept could actually make results difficult to report, as things may change drastically over the period of study. Of course, this could be an interesting phenomenon, but challenging at the same time.

Teachers as learners (Ch 8) - Ways with Words

The switch from ethnographer learning to ethnographer doing was an interesting transition, and I was curious as to how much of this time was overlapping. I found the writing here to be very interesting, as she carefully discussed the innovative teaching strategies being implemented, while at the same time wove in the challenges students continued to have.

I think it was important for her here to give the very explicit explanations she provided as well as how students reacted. One of the most important things I learned from these sections were that all students respond differently, and we must find ways to adapt our teaching methods. Segregating students from various backgrounds is obviously not possible or desirable, so we must integrate these things into our classes to best serve all students, and to help students learn to see the world in new ways. These section was also particularly important to me because I have been doing my project research on academic literacies. When I first started the program, this would not have been my area of interest, however, I have come to see how important it is to help students understand their contexts and the choices they are making to become a part of that context. Further, it is important for teachers to see what they are doing in the context of the social, political and economic, and to value the adaptations that are required of students. Further, we must determine how to best adapt what we do to make explicit to students what may be implicit.
Some of these things for the students were understanding expectations for politeness, understanding interpreting indirect requests. Further, children had to "learn school." Teachers were now attempting to merge home and school reading. Some even went so far as to have students bring in things they would need to read (warranties, government papers, etc) and used those as exercises in school. This seemed so obvious, yet completely opposite of what most often happens in school. They were making reading MATTER. Further, students began to like writing and reading when it was connected to their lives.


Some important notes:
"they learned to believe that their students could learn, and that they could learn from their students" (314)

On Ethnography

I found this book to be very engaging and helpful on both a theoretical and a practical level. I kept finding myself marking pages and ideas, and trying to consider how the process of ethnography fit with the research ideas that have been stewing in my brain over the past year. I wanted to highlight some of the important concepts that I found the book.

"A broad effort for ethnographers of classrooms should go to identifying conventions that students learn that parallel (and often originate from) those of "real" life." 20

"Relflexivity, rather than innocence, characterizes contemporary ethnography" (34)

"Most ethnographers stick with questions of who, when, what, where, and how. The fundamental challenge to ethnographers is to lay out what is happening. Why questiosn are teleological in nature and resist proof by empirical means" (35).

The emic v. etic perspective has become particularly important in considering ethnographic research. The different perspectives allow researchers to look at situations from a variety of ways, and to consider information that they may not be able to understand from an outsider's point of view.

Finally, decision rules constitute and important part of research and can be found on p. 46

Literate v. Illiterate

During my course of reading ways with words, it has become clear that Heath is clearly defining literacy as reading and writing. In fact, one chapter is entitled "literate traditions." I think it would be fascinating to trace the definition of literacy and see how Heath's own book may have changed how people view literacy, and the fact that it is socially situated and contextualized.

Prologue Chapter 1 & 2 - Ways with Words

The first two Chapters of Ways with words provided the context and framework in which Heath's ethnography was done. In the prologue, she makes some important statements about adapting to their environment and the main question/frame for the study.
"What were the effects of preschool home and community environments on the learning of those language structures and uses which were needed in classrooms and job settings?"
She talks about her processes (interviews, observations, audiotape, looking at artifacts).
Finally, she talks about why this can provide insight into ethnography but it can't be considered a model because of the time when the study was done, and because of the length of time she spent there.
She explains her personal connections to the area.
Ethnographies of communication - "focus on each of the communities in which the chidldren are socialized as talkers, readers, and writers"
She also explains how the study moved from the ethnographer learning to the ethnographer doing. Further, she utilized maps to map it easier to understand her context and geography.
I found the history of the area, including the mill and agriculture's parts in the residents lives to be crucial to understanding the community.

Important things to consider in upcoming chapters:
Respectables, transients, no counts
Old timers v. new comers
sex-segregated roles and conversations
importance of school
lack of connection b/w school and home

On writing fieldnotes

This was an interesting article that discussed the choices an ethnographer makes, both explicitly and implicity.
"what the ethnographer does at the word processor and what he or she does in the field have a meaningful interaction" 87.
"Ethnography places much discretion in the hands of the researcher" 87.

Practical considerations for note-taking
1. whether or not the researcher can take notes in the field
2. focus narrows over time
3. influenced by the audience

The ethnographers background and tacit knowledge influences their notetaking
"ethnographers can start by describing whatever observaions struck them as the most noteworthy, the most interesting, or the most telling" 89.

Ethnographers use a salience hierarchy (which is subjective_ to determine what they take note of. Cases may be salient because:
1. "deviant with resepct to their tacit expectations"
2. "deviant just with respect to others observed"

Researchers may document ommissions or what did not happen to draw attention to what did happen.