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2020/2021

School Ethnography

Code: 101247 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology OT 3 0
2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Silvia Carrasco Pons
Email:
Silvia.Carrasco@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Other comments on languages

The subject has readings in English, Spanish and Catalan

Prerequisites

Previous knowledge of Anthropology of Education

Objectives and Contextualisation

"We suggest that the development of Anthropology of Education as a stimulating field of Anthropology will be enhanced if we withdraw from current trends that are more or less adapted to the definition of anthropological research by pedagogues and return to traditional anthropological ethnography" (Ogbu, 1993: 147).


The subject School Ethnography delves into the process of production and communication of empirical knowledge generated by Anthropology of Education, and other social sciences that have adopted it as a method, and focuses on the study of the goals, processes and contexts of transmission and acquisition of culture related to formal education and its hegemonic expansion, as well as other formal and informal contexts in which learning takes place, from a critical and comparative perspective.


The training goals of this subject are the following three:
Learning to READ school ethnography
Learning to DO school ethnography
Learning to WRITE school ethnography

Competences

    Social and Cultural Anthropology
  • Apprehending cultural diversity through ethnography and critically assessing ethnographic materials as knowledge of local contexts and as a proposal of theoretical models.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Producing cultural diversity materials that could have a critical impact on the common sense conceptions.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the history of anthropological theory and the genesis of its basic concepts.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing a contemporary fact from an anthropological perspective.
  2. Analysing data critically from anthropological investigations and reports.
  3. Applying the knowledge of cultural variability and its genesis to avoid ethnocentric projections.
  4. Assessing critically the explicit and implicit theoretical models in the ethnographic materials.
  5. Engaging in debates about historical and contemporary facts and respecting the other participants' opinions.
  6. Explaining the work's results narratively in accordance with the critical standards of discipline and bearing in mind the different target audiences.
  7. Identifying main and supporting ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  8. Identifying the contemporary interdisciplinary tendencies shared by the Anthropology and social disciplines related to the corresponding field.
  9. Identifying the recent disciplinary developments and the correlation between the anthropological theory and the social disciplines related in their historical development and the current interdisciplinary tendencies.
  10. Identifying the sociocultural variability in specific ethnographic contexts.
  11. Integrating interdisciplinary approaches on the fields of education, sex/gender systems and social inclusion-exclusion systems.
  12. Interpreting the cultural diversity through ethnography.
  13. Theoretically analysing ethnographic examples of cultural diversity in the fields of education, gender and inclusion-exclusion systems.

Content

I. Introductory sessions:

-School ethnography and ethnography in anthropology and other disciplines; thematic scope and relevant questions for an ethnographic approach to research problems in the field of education

-Classical school ethnography and critical ethnography of education: continuities and methodological changes in the making and writing of ethnographies in the field of education

-non-conventional methods and genres: comparative and team school ethnography; auto-ethnography and ethnographic fiction; ethnography of educational policies; school ethnography vs. other narratives in the field of education

-working the personal equation and reflexivity in school ethnography (texts by Jean Anyon and Pierre Bourdieu)

II. Reading school ethnography:

-critical reviews of ethnographic reports: description strategies, roles and activities of the ethnographer, adaptation to the evidence provided, the author's voice in the story, the implicit theoretical perspective; from "how it was done" to grounded theory

-reading and critical analysis of monographs (to be agreed according to student interests and language skills)

III. Doing school ethnography:

-experiences of school ethnography: access to texts and ethnographic stories in first person (guest speakers)

-themes of school ethnography: school and development; early childhood; cultural diversity, migration and minorities in primary and secondary schools; gender and stratification; exclusions and drop-outs; racism; languages, identities and learning; youth cultures; the world of "educational difficulties"; specific school arrangements

-advances in ethnography and education: review of scientific conferences and meetings; current issues; school ethnography online

IV. Writing school ethnography:

-detailed work of the Standards for Reporting Empirical Research (American Education Research Association) applied to fieldwork data generated by participants

Methodology

- Lectures on the topics of the programme by the teacher and guest speakers
- Group exercises in the classroom; use of current texts and social networks
- Viewing and analyzing audiovisual materials
- Reading groups, discussion and presentation of ethnographic monographs
- Individual work on school trajectory applying common theoretical concepts
- Carrying out prospective ethnographic work in a team

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Tutoring of team work 50 2 13, 9, 8
Type: Supervised      
Compulsory reading in group and preparation of presentations based on texts 5 0.2 6, 10, 5
Debates on audiovisual materials in class 15 0.6 2, 13, 10
Team ethnographic observation 5 0.2 13, 3, 11
Type: Autonomous      
Analysis of readings and debates organised in class 40 1.6 2, 13, 6, 7, 11, 5
Lectures by the instructor and guest speakers 25 1 6, 10

Assessment

- Ethnography cannot be assessed by examination but by its performance. In order to get the right tools it is necessary to follow the classes, spend time reading and making the corresponding observations and reports
- Individual autoethnography work: 20% of the final grade (2000 words)
- Participation in two reading and discussion groups, completion of two summary exercises and presentation of the ethnographic monographs assigned to each group: 40% of the final grade (20% for each monograph, 5000 words each paper)
- Ethnographic teamwork and elaboration of an ethnographic report: 40% of the final note (3000 words)
- Students who must repeat any of the partial evaluations may do so during the re-evaluation period from the sections of the corresponding section that will be returned with comments.
- No late exercises will be accepted, nor will conditions be created that favour one student's assessment opportunities over another.
- In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

-In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

 

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Elaboration and writing of an autoethnography on the student school trajectory 20% of final grade (2000 words) 4 0.16 3, 6, 9, 7
Elaboration of an ethnographic report based on observations in two schools 40% of the final grade (3000 words) 4 0.16 2, 13, 4, 6, 10, 7, 8, 11, 12
Participation and debate in two reading groups; elaboration of two synthesis exercises; presentation of the two assigned monographs 20% per monograph (5000 words) 2 0.08 13, 1, 6, 7, 5

Bibliography

1. RECOMMENDED EDITED VOLUMES AND HANDBOOKS
ANDERSON-LEVITT, K. M. Ed. (2010) Anthropologies of Education. A Global Guide to Ethnographic Studies of Learning and Schooling, London: Berghahn Books.
CARRASCO, S. , BERTRAN, M., PÀMIES, J., Eds. (2014) La escuela contra las minorías. Investigaciones etnográficas sobre diversidad, desigualdad y educación. Barcelona: UAB (en preparación)
GARCÍA CASTAÑO, F.J. i CARRASCO, S. Eds., Población inmigrante y escuela. Conocimientos y saberes de investigación. Madrid: Ministerio de Educación
GARCÍA CASTAÑO, F.J., VELASCO, H., PULIDO. R., Eds. (2007) Lecturas de Antropología para Educadores, Madrid: Trotta
JOCILES. M.; FRANZÉ, A. Eds. ¿Es la escuela el problema? Investigaciones en Antropología y Educación, Madrid: Trotta.
LE COMPTE, M. & SCHENSUL, J. Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research.The Ethnographer’s toolkit (7 vols). London: SAGE
LEVINSON, B. et al. (1997) The cultural production of the educated person, NY: SUNY Press
SPINDLER, G & L, Eds. (2000) Fifty years of Anthropology and Education, NY: LEA

Online resources: http://www.aaanet.org/sections/cae/
Actas de congresos: http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/emigra/content/emigra-working-papers-5
http://cieye.wordpress.com/ - http://tienda.germania.es/epages/eb2058.sf/ca_ES/?ObjectPath=/Shops/eb2058/Products/pls08

2. READINGS (subject to change due to alternatives provided in class)
ANYON, J. (1981) Social Class and School Knowledge, Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 11 (1) 3-42.(hi ha traducció)
BAILEY, S. (2013) Exploring ADHD. An ethnography of disorder in early childhood, de London & New York: Routledge
ERICKSON, F. (1984) What Makes School Ethnography ‘Ethnographic’? Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Vol. 15, 51-66.(hi ha traducció)
FERGUSON, A. A. (2001) Bad boys. Public schools in the making of black masculinity, Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press.
McLEOD, J. (2009, 3rd ed) Ain't No Making' It. Aspirations and Attainment in a Low Income Neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
PONFERRADA, M. (2008) Chicas y Poder en la escuela. Identidade académicas, sociales y de género entre jóvenes de la periferia. Servei de Publicacions UAB - TDX

Textos de OGBU, WOLCOTT i BOURDIEU a GARCÍA CASTAÑO, F.J., VELASCO, H., PULIDO. R. (2007 [1993]) Lecturas de Antropología para Educadores, Madrid: Trotta

3. RECOMMENDED METHODOLOGICAL MATERIALS 

ATKINSON, P., & DELAMONT, S. ( 2010). Can the silenced speak? A dialogue for two unvoiced actors . International Review of Qualitative Research, 3, 11-17e

CONTEH, J, GREGORY, E. et al. (2005) On Writing Educational Ethnographies. The art of collusion. London: Trentham Books
CORONEL-MOLINA, S. (2009) Critical Review of Ethnographic Reports (notas)
CREESE, A., & BLACKLEDGE, A. (2012) Voice and Meaning-Making in Team Ethnography, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, vol 43, 3, pp 306–324
DELAMONT, S. (2002) Fieldwork in educational settings. Methods, pitfalls and perspectives. London: Routledge
DELAMONT, S. (2009). The only honest thing: Autoethnography, reflexivity and small crises in fieldwork. Ethnography and Education, 4(1), 51-63.
ELLIS, C. ( 2007). Telling secrets, revealing lives: Relational ethics in research with intimate others. Qualitative Inquiry, 13, 3-29
FOLEY, D.E. ( 2002). Critical ethnography: The reflexive turn. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 15, 469-49
GERSTL-PEPIN, C. & GUNZENHAUSER, M. G. (2002) Collaborative team ethnography and the paradoxes of interpretation Qualitative Studies in Education, vol 15, 2, pp 137-154
GRENFELL, M., et al. (2011) Language, Ethnography, and Education Bridging New Literacy Studies and Bourdieu, London: Routledge
MASEMANN, V. L. (1982) Critical Ethnography in the Study of Comparative Education, Comparative Education Review
Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 1-15
MILLER, H. & RUSSELL, L. (2005) The Personal, Professional and Political in Comparative Ethnographic Educational Research, in Geoff Troman, Bob Jeffrey, Geoffrey Walford (ed.) Methodological Issues and Practices in Ethnography (Studies in Educational Ethnography, Volume 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.57-72
VELASCO, H. & DÍAZ DE RADA, A. (2006[1992]) La lógica de la investigación etnogràfica. Un modelo de trabajo para etnógrafos de escuelas, Madrid: Trotta
WALDORF, G. (2001) Ethnography and Education Policy (Studies in Educational Ethnography, Volume 4) London: Emerald Books
WOODS, P (1996) La escuela por dentro. Etnografía en las instituciones educativas, Madrid: Paidós.