Keri Ortiz

5870

Dr. DeVries

February 24, 2009

Ethnographic Research

In the chapter titled “Ethnographic Research” author Victoria Purcell-Gates gives the reader an overview of the process behind ethnography and a few different approaches as observed by Purcell-Gates in several well-known ethnographic studies that a researcher may take. From her summary of the topic one can conclude that ethnographic literacy research involves the study of all aspects of literacy, “development, instruction, learning, and practice,” as it happens “naturally” (92). Throughout the chapter the author refers to the process of becoming literate as “natural.” I believe that she is using a basic definition of literacy, the ability to read and write. In this case I do question her use of the word “natural” because for some there is nothing “natural” about the process of learning to read or write.

Another section addressed some of my questions about ethnographic research and data collection. It has been my experience that when a new element, in this instance an observer, is added to a classroom, it changes the way that the students and, whether or not they recognize it, the teachers act. I have been the observer, the distracted student, and the instructor. As the student, it was always in my mind that our class was being observed and while it didn’t have much impact on my behavior, I was distracted, constantly thinking about the stranger in our midst. As the instructor, I am never as at ease with my students as I usually am when there is one of my peers in the room. I do not prepare more or turn up my level of professionalism, but I am different. According to Purcell-Gates, the observers are most effective when they assume the identity and practices of the group they are observing and participate fully in the target cultural group. The goal of this assimilation is to become as “unobtrusive as possible” (102). In the classroom, Purcell-Gates recommends becoming a fixture in the classroom so that students begin to see one as a part of their surroundings and establishing oneself as an “non-participatory” observer. However, in the example, the author cites research where when working with children a researcher adopted this stance of non-participation. I wonder why this was deemed effective because a sure way to get children to notice you and to pay attention to you is to ignore them and do things, like writing in a notebook that they don’t know about. The author of the research even noted that her ability to write without looking at the paper was “a feat that never fails to impress first graders” (103). To come to this conclusion, she must have observed their response to her in some way, and so she was noticed in the classroom.

Is there a way to have no effect on the subjects that one is observing short of hidden video surveillance, two way mirrors with audio, or going into the target group undercover? Purcell-Gates presented two methods of lessening the effects of an observer on the target group but not eliminating them.