Transcript Posing Questions

Posing Questions
what fieldworkers do
brainstorming questions
Now Playing
“ Bottle Up and Go”
recorded by Allsion Mathis
in 1941
provided courtesy of the Library of Congress,
American Memory Archive
What questions come to mind?
write them down
brainstorming questions
Who created this music?
Who wrote the words?
Who listens to this music?
What does it mean to the song writer?
What inspired the songwriter to write this song?
What does it mean to the people who listen to this music?
What are the words of the song?
What genre would this be considered? Is it easily classified?
Is this typical American music for the time period?
Was this piece popular in its day?
Did it appeal to mainstream music listeners or some
subculture of music listeners?
Was it played on the radio?
In what settings and situations was music like this played?
Do people still listen to this today? Who? Why?
tools of the trade
As fieldworkers, we rely primarily on two techniques:
– observation
– questioning
Question Everything!
approaches to research and writing
Research work can be thought of as
belonging to one of two models or approaches:
Deductive
Inductive
Deductive writing is based on making a claim
(a thesis) and then working to prove that claim.
Deductive reasoning moves from general
assumptions to specific claims to a single
conclusion.
Remember the syllogism and the enthymeme?
In deductive models, the argument (i.e., the
claim) drives the project. In a sense, you start
with your conclusion in mind.
approaches to research and writing
Research work can be thought of as
belonging to one of two models or approaches:
Deductive
Inductive
Inductive writing is based on questions. It is an
inquiry-based approach to research.
Inductive reasoning moves from specific
observations to a general understanding or
conclusion.
Inductive models are based on observing and
detecting patterns in that which is observed.
In inductive models, the question drives the
project. This is the model of ethnographic
fieldwork.
it’s about questioning
• Ethnographic fieldwork is driven by observation,
questioning, and the detection of patterns
• Ethnography is inductive.
Questioning leads us to understanding.
ethnographic questioning
Questioning can take different forms.
Journalists are known for asking questions, but as
fieldworkers our questioning goes deeper.
Journalists seek objective,
verifiable facts…
Ethnographers seek “objective”
and “subjective” truths…
• who
• what’s going on here?
• what
• where’s the culture?
• when
• what’s the insider’s
perspective?
• where
• why
• how
These are broad questions that
take a lot of work to answer.
ethnography vs. journalism
Journalists peer in from
the outside, from the
fringes of the insider’s
experience.
ethnography vs. journalism
Ethnographers jump
in, seeking entry to
the insider’s world,
becoming participant
observers.
honing your fieldworker’s gaze…
Fieldwork depends on a new kind
of looking: a fieldworker’s gaze,
where you exist both inside and
outside, seeing the ordinary as the
extraordinary and unraveling the
meaning of the details.
the fieldworker, like a novelist…
The fieldworker must choose, shape, prune, discard this
and collect finer detail on that, much as a novelist works
who finds some minor character is threatening to
swallow the major theme, or that the hero is fast taking
himself out of his depth. But unlike the novelist…the
fieldworker is wholly and helplessly dependent on what
happens….One must be continually prepared for
anything, everything—and perhaps most devastating—
for nothing.
–MARGARET MEAD
why you can’t just be a participant-observer
• The difference between doing fieldwork and just
hanging out is writing.
the tool of your trade: fieldnotes
• Immediate personal journal or log fieldnotes
• Expanded reflective fieldnotes
• Double-entry fieldnotes
taking double-entry notes
students quiet, cross-legged, leaning,
hands clasped, arms crossed, still,
chewing gum, baseball caps front and
back, corn rows, pierced eyebrows
I don’t associate poetry readings with
packed auditoriums. People are wearing
red scarves. Do the they have something
to do with the poetry?
taking double-entry notes
• Include date, time, and place of observation in your notes
11/6/07
11:30 am
Mojo’s Coffee Shop
7
Number each page of your notes
for easy cross-referencing later.
other things to note
•
Specific facts, numbers, details
•
Sensory impressions: sights,
textures, smells, tastes
•
Specific words, phrases, summaries
of conversations, and insider
language
•
Personal responses to the act of
recording fieldnotes and how others
watch you as you watch them
•
Questions about people or behaviors
at the site for future investigation
let’s practice…
be inquisitive
• Question everything
• Assume nothing
• See things like you’ve
never seen them before
“ We learn more by looking for the answer to
a question and not finding it than we do
from learning the answer itself.”
̶ Lloyd Alexander