re: Teaching ethnographic methods
peter.manning@ssc.msu.edu
Fri, 12 Jan 96 10:39:27 EST
Ruth, I understand that Howie Becker ran such a coourse as a writing
fieldnotes course. I suspect one needs to have a written proposal on what
will be done; frequent reading of notes with students; focusing and aiming
them (no studies of student union coffee bars..life is too short to waste it
on trivia).....I think reading should come after the first half of the course
so that they experience some settings first. I also think some kind of
formatting instructions help-what kinds of fieldnotes there are, how to keep
them, nuts and bolts about computer use and files; and how to analyze
fieldnotes. Too much emphasis is placing on getting out, qual vs. quant
approaches, the need to see things first hand as opposed to analytic work.
How (techniques) useful to check fieldnotes and observations is critical.
The Loflands' book remains the best although I almost totally disagree with
their strictuiral functional taxonomic approach to analysis......
Oh well....I never have taught it so can offer advice with impunity.
Peter Manning