Commentary # 4: 3/17/09

Bonnie S. Sunstein’s article was enthralling.  I could “see” the informant dance on the page in the arms of the researcher, swirling towards the reader, floating on the text…ending in our story; the ethnographical write-up. This image of the ethnographic write-up will be very helpful to my own note-writing and interpretation of my classroom observation.  I particularly like the idea that tension is not necessarily a bad thing if it exists as a productive part of the writing process. Both the researcher and informant experience this “liminal” (178) tension during the process of writing. I definitely experienced tension when observing class interaction and dynamics: it was fast-paced and I had a difficult time determining what notes to take.  I am now less focused on the words in my notes and am more focused on the mental picture I will take away with me.

Sunstein is telling a story about someone, the informant, and in the process the researcher feels guilt because observing is a form of voyeurism (177); voyeurism for the sake of teaching and disseminating knowledge both to the reader and the participant. The guilt the researcher feels is “an expression of a sense of responsibility for another’s (informants) well being” (Myerhoff 178).  I can relate to this sense of responsibility in my own observation and write-up.  I don’t want to be flippant when jotting down my notes; I wish to be generous and objective.  At the same time, I understand that my work as an ethnographer, like Sunstein’s, is made more difficult because the story we tell is a story written to someone, the reader, and this story needs to “convey information according to the conventions of an academic discipline” (179).  In other words, ethnography is rhetoric.