Commentary Ten: Stoller
Ethnography/Memoir/Imagination/Story
According to Stoller, there is not “one best way” to write ethnography. Stoller states that “Each body of ethnographic material is unique and therefore requires a specifically contoured textual strategy…there are key elements that are necessary if ethnographers want their works to be read by a wide range of readers over a long period of time” (180).
I can related to the conversation between Stoller and Adamu Jenitongo at the beginning of this essay: Stoller: “But how do you know what is worth doing” and “Can you ever avoid taking the wrong path?”
Jenitongo: “No you cant’, my son. It’s very easy to take the wrong path and waste your time and energy. We all make those choices. But if you are patient, life will tech you what is important and you can concentrate your energies on that.”
Many times I feel like I have been wasting my time as I follow the trail of research for a term paper. Many times I almost have gotten to the end of the paper and decide that I should have gone in a different direction with it. Then, I stop and say to myself: “It is not a waste of time to delve into unfamiliar territory. The experience, excitement, and knowledge is always worth it.” It might take me longer to re-draft my paper, but what I learned in the process is always valuable to me. I can use that information for another topic, for a conversation with a colleague, for a lesson for my “kids.”
During these last days of this semester, I also feel like I have wasted valuable time observing, perhaps what I should not have been observing and not observing what I should have. And again, I have to remind myself that it was all “good” practice and all a good experience. I have learned to take less written notes and more mental notes. I have learned to be a “participating observer” and have peeked the curiosity of many Professors I have observed. They are wondering what am I looking for? You see, they have not had the fortune of taking a class in ethnography such as this.
I feel similar as you Maria. I wonder how well my observations went. Did I observe what I wanted to observe? Was I truly conducting ethnographic research correctly? And I think the answer is – as you elluded to – there is no right way to do it. I think what you observe is what you are supposed to observe. Our notes will get better with practice. None of us are seasoned professional ethnographers, but we are learning.
Albert Einstein has observed that “the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” Maria, you and Ned are on to something. You learn more by observing with an “open” mind. You get out of it what you put into it. Ethnography is difficult work and it takes years of practice. Stoller is a good ethnographer, but he didn’t start like that. Stoller started like we have: by observing and writing about what we saw.
This was like reading about my own struggles. Now that my portfolio is in, I wonder if my observations were adequate. I realized that what I wrote down wasn’t nearly as detailed or dynamic as what went on in the classroom. However, if I wrote down every minute detail, I feel like I would have lost the tone and atmosphere of what happened.