Exam Prep: Ethnography and Research Methods
Assignment & Feedback: Qualitative Critique
Students were required to select qualitative articles for their assignments; selecting systematic literature reviews or quantitative articles will result in significant point loss.
The core objective of the assignment is to critique qualitative research.
General Feedback: Ensure all sections and directions are followed, including the AI attestation which many students overlooked.
Article-Research Question Connection: It is acceptable if the connection between chosen articles and developing research questions is weak. The article should be generally related to the research topic of interest, but doesn't need to address the exact same question.
Expectations for Final: The transition from draft to final involves expanding upon submitted work, incorporating feedback received on grades.
Draft Return: Drafts will be returned tomorrow (Thursday, date not specified), with a new deadline for the final submission: next Friday at .
The rubric is now posted on Brightspace.
Quiz Information
The next quiz will be held a week from Wednesday (date not specified).
A study guide will be posted today (Tuesday, date not specified) after the slides are covered.
Material Covered: The last new material covered on the quiz will be from Wednesday's lecture. Generally, anything from lectures and readings is fair game, but students should focus on lectures and slides as indicated in the study guide.
It is unlikely that content from readings not covered in slides/lectures will be on the quiz.
Students do not need to study specific case articles (e.g., the Blumenthal article on cell phone data for wealth property rates) that were used as examples of methods.
Quiz Structure: Approximately questions, mostly multiple-choice. About one-third will be short answer questions, such as rewording a flawed research question or interview guide question.
Review Session: A week from today, there will be practice questions and time for Q&A on content and slide clarifications.
Format: The quiz will be closed book, meaning no notes, notebooks, or external resources. It focuses on application rather than memorization, mirroring class discussions.
Students can provide feedback on exit tickets if anything about the quiz is unclear.
Class Participation & Teams
Purpose of Teams: Teams were created to increase participation and reduce waiting time for volunteers, making the discussion more efficient.
Participation Policy: No one is required to participate, but those who wish to can, even if their team isn't randomly called.
Finding Team Names: Team names are available on Brightspace in an Excel spreadsheet (e.g., "The Curious Trio").
Goal of Participation: To ensure the instructor understands student grasp of concepts, aid in synthesizing and applying topics, improve attention and focus, and break lecture monotony.
Team Selection: A random number generator will select a team to answer prompts or questions (e.g., "Does anyone from the Green Gorillas want to provide an answer?").
Incentive: Extra credit on attendance grade may be awarded for team participation (carrot, not stick).
Icebreaker Activity: Students discussed challenges of doing ethnographic research about people they know, with one team suggesting not getting the full story. This leads into the topic of ethnography.
Ethnography: Introduction & Key Concepts
Definition: Ethnography involves deep immersion in social settings for an extended period to understand unique human phenomena.
Advantage: It allows researchers to observe and understand group dynamics and interactions directly, which is impossible with surveys, administrative data, or even interviews that rely on reported interactions.
Influence: Ethnography has been highly influential in both social sciences and policy-making.
Examples of Influential Ethnographies:
Mary Pattillo: Ethnography on the Black middle class in Chicago, examining intersectional identities.
Annette Lareau: Work in families () observing families from different social classes and racial identities from toddlerhood through high school, focusing on parenting strategies across socio-economic classes.
Kathryn Edin & Luke Shaefer: ( extit{2 \text{ a Day}}) documenting the survival strategies of families living on approximately dollars a day after the 1996 welfare reform.
Matthew Desmond: () on eviction in Milwaukee, considered one of the most influential ethnographies of the century.
Data Collection Method: Primarily participant observation, where researchers observe behaviors, norms, and processes, taking notes that are later analyzed. Interviews and document analysis are also often included.
Ethnographic Data Collection: Field Notes
Data Type: Ethnographic data is primarily narrative data.
Field Jottings:
Definition: Brief, informal notes taken on the fly (e.g., in a notebook, on a phone, napkin, or hand) to jog memory.
Example: Victor Chen's jottings during interviews and observations of long-term unemployed individuals following the Great Recession ().
Audio Recording: Useful for capturing informal interviews, as seen in Matthew Desmond's work, enabling researchers to record conversations that become more formal without prior planning.
Field Notes:
Contrast to Jottings: Field notes are more coherent, detailed narratives, typically written immediately after leaving the research site (e.g., in a car).
Thick Description (Clifford Geertz): A key concept, emphasizing the need to not only describe observed behaviors but also to embed them within their full context, including other people, the environment, and their historical, social, and cultural meanings.
Five Big Picture Things to Capture in the Field:
Space: Describe objects, components, and characteristics of the setting, and how these features might influence interactions (e.g., a real estate meeting setup designed to guide interaction).
People: Note who is present, their perceived goals, attire, and how they present themselves to indicate status or role.
Action and Behavior: Document what people are doing, verbal communication, and nonverbal interactions, intuiting their underlying intentions.
Emotions: Observe and note exhibited emotions based on facial expressions, tone of voice, and contextual cues.
Rules and Norms: Identify the explicit and implicit rules, structures, and expectations governing behavior in the environment (e.g., how people interact on a city sidewalk).
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