1 Lecture 4 Ethnographic Study and Cultural Interpretation of Schools and Classrooms EDM 6402...

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EDM 6402Qualitative Method in Educational Research

Lecture 4Lecture 4

Ethnographic StudyEthnographic Study and Cultural Interpretation of and Cultural Interpretation of

Schools and ClassroomsSchools and Classrooms

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贈簿事件

教師甲實習的一班是中二，教的是中文科。有一天在班上收集功課時，發覺其中一位學生沒有交。教師便問這位學生為甚麼沒有功課交，學生回答沒有簿。教師便叮囑說要買簿做功課。過幾天再上課時，教師甲問這位學生功課做好了沒有，學生回說沒有，原因是沒有簿做功課。小息時，教師甲便叫這學生到教員休息室去，把一本新簿給學生，說是送給他的，好讓他有簿可以做功課。學生把簿接過來，從中撕下了一頁，磋成一團，把紙團送進口裏，然後吞下，頭也不回走出了教員休息室。其他教師看在眼裏，不值學生所為。

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勸架事件

教師乙任教一班中一社會科。有一次上課時，班上一位學生走過鄰座去打另一位同學，其他學生看得興奮，在旁叫喊。教師乙想勸止學生打架，便想到了一個方法來。這個方法其實是出作聖經的一個故事：有一個行淫婦人給群眾捉到耶穌面前，要用石頭把她打死。耶穌示意說誰人覺得自己是沒有罪的，便可以先拿石頭打那婦人。結果沒有人走前來，群眾隨後也一個一個散去了。教師乙依著這故事便對全班說：『那一位同學覺得自己比這位（先前被打的）同學更好，便先動手打他罷。』結果不只一個走前來打那同學。被打的學生大同學，更對教師乙怒目而視。

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• Frederick Erickson's conception: “‘Ethnography’ literally means ‘writing about the nations’; ‘graphy’ from the Greek verb ‘to write’ and ‘ethno’ from the Greek noun ethnos, usually translated in an English dictionary as ‘nation’ or ‘tribe’ or ‘people.’ (Erickson, 1984, p. 52)

Ethnography: A Method in Search of Meanings.

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• George and Louise Spindler's conception: "Ethnographers attempt to record, in an orderly manner, how natives behave and how they explain their behavior. And ethnography, strictly speaking, is an orderly report of this recording. Natives are people in situations anywhere —including children and youth in schools —not just people who live in remote jungles or cozy peasant villages." (Spindler & Spindler, 1987)


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• Harry F. Wolcott's conception of ethnographic intent: “1. Ethnography is not field technique.

2. Ethnography is not length of time in the field.

3. Ethnography is not simply good description.

4. Ethnography is not created through gaining and maintaining rapport with subjects. …

The only requirement …placed on such research is that it must be oriented to cultural interpretation." (Wolcott, 1987, 38)

• "The purpose of ethnographic research is to describe and interpret cultural behavior. …Cultural interpretation not a 'requirement,' it is the essence of the ethnographic endeavor." (p. 43)


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• Martyn Hammersley and Paul Atkinson's conception of ethnography as a distinctive analytical mentality:

"In terms of data collection, ethnography usually involves the research participating, overtly or covertly, in people's daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, and asking questions through informal and formal interviews, collecting documents and artifacts — in fact, gathering whatever data are valuable to throw light on the issues that are the emerging focus of inquiry." (Hammersley and Atkinson, 2007, p. 3)

• "Ethnography is not just a set of methods but rather a particular mode of looking, listening, and thinking about social phenomena. In short it displays a distinct analytical mentality." (p. 230)


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• Clifford Geertz's conception of "thick description" of meanings embedded in the "surface enigmatical" of culture:

• "What doing ethnography is. …This, it must immediately be said, is not a matter of methods. From one point of view, that of the textbook, doing ethnography is establishing rapport, selecting informants, transcribing texts, taking genealogies, mapping fields, keeping diary, and so on. But it is not these things, techniques and received procedures, that define the enterprise. What defines it is the kind of intellectual effect it is: an elaborate venture in … 'thick description'."


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• Plausible domains of cultural interpretations of schooling– School cultures– Teachers' cultures and subcultures– Students' cultures and subcultures– Classroom cultures– School-subject cultures, …

Perspectives in Cultural Interpretations of Schools and Classroom: Preliminary Inquiry

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• Conceptual tenets in ethnography and interpretive sociology– Concepts employed by interpretive social scientists or

ethnographers are fundamental different from those used in quantitative researches. In nature science, taking the concept of atom as an example, it is an analytical constructs which can and must find to a large extent prefect correspondences in the empirical world.

– Sensitising concepts: "The (interpretive) social sciences can hope only to develop 'sensitising concepts' about the world, approximate conceptions which are tough and always provisional guides to a changing and complex reality." (Willis, 2000, P. xi)


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• Conceptual tenets in ethnography and interpretive sociology– Focusing concepts: In symbolic interactionism, a concept is

construed as a mental or intellectual artifact, which "leads one to focus on certain areas" in the world. (Woods, 1983, p. 5)

– Hence, concepts and perspectives employed in ethnographic study to provide cultural interpretations in schools and classrooms should not be taken as universally applied, all-encompassing and abstract-analytical devices in enquiring the world, but only as sensitizing and focusing devices assisting researchers at the outset to ground their footings on the field.


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• Concepts of anthropological perspective in school ethnography – Deep structure of totem: Deep structure of artifacts

representing "the order of things" in schools– Elementary structure of kinship and the concept of taboo:

Formal and informal role structures in schools – Deep play of ritual: Deep play of regulated and routine

activities in schools – Homology in cultural elements: In search of consonant

meanings in schools, classrooms and subcultures and attempt to synthesize the debate between structural-functionalism and conflict theory


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• Concepts of anthological perspective in school ethnography – Concepts of social phenomenology in school ethnography– Concepts of symbolic interactionism in school ethnography


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• The concept of the world of culture: – According to Alfred Schutz's conception, we live our

everyday life in the world of culture. This world of culture is "a universe of significance to us…a texture of meaning which we have to interpret in order to find our bearing within it and come to terms with it. This texture of meaning, however — and this distinguishes the realm of culture from that of nature — originates in and has been instituted by human actions, our own and our fellow-men's, contemporaries and predecessors.

Social Phenomenological Perspectives in Cultural Interpretations of School and Classrooms

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• The concept of the world of culture: – All cultural objects — tools, symbols, language systems,

works of art, social institution , etc. — point back by their very origin and meaning to the activities of human subjects. For this reason … I cannot understand a cultural object without referring it to the human activity from which it originates. For example, I do not understand a tool without knowing the purpose for which it was designed, a sign or symbol without knowing what it stands for in the mind of the person who uses it, an institution without understanding what it means for the individuals who orient their behavior with regard to its existence." (Schutz,1967a/1953, p.10-11)


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• The concept of the world of culture: – Accordingly, as ethnographers approach a world of culture

of a native tribe or society, they must somehow find their way to understand this "universe of significance", "texture of meaning", along with its tools, symbols, language systems, social institution. That is to interpret the meanings working behind the world of culture.

– As for school ethnographers, the world of culture that they have to work with will then be the world of culture underlying the everyday life in schools, staff rooms, classrooms, school corridors, etc.


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• Concept of knowledge of everyday life / common-sense knowledge: – As we try "to find our bearing within and come to terms with"

the world of culture, we have to make use of what the social phenomenologists called the stock of knowledge of everyday life (Berger & Luckmann, 1967) or common-sense knowledge (Schutz, 1967a), which serves as schemes of references in assisting us to attribute meanings to situations, objects, other fellow-humans in our everyday life. This stock of common-sense knowledge are constituted and accumulated through human actions practiced by members (both current and precedent) of a given society.

Social Phenomenological Perspectives

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• Concept of knowledge of everyday life / common-sense knowledge: – However, every members of a human society are familiar

with or even take for granted this stock of common-sense knowledge of their own culture. They can make sense with, come to terms with, apply and practice this common-sense knowledge in every social encounters, with every cultural objects and fellow members of that society with ease. In other words, this stock of knowledge of everyday life with its applications and practices has become "invisible" in everyday life of the world of culture.


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• Concept of knowledge of everyday life / common-sense knowledge: – Therefore, it requires the method of "phenomenological

reduction", which “presuppose the bracketing (disconnecting) of the natural world and therewith the carrying into effect of a complete change of attitude toward the thesis of the world given-to-me-as-being there.” (Schutz, 1967a, Pp. 43)

– Therefore, as ethnographers approach and to conduct some "cultural interpretations" with a "native" society, their primary task is to come up with some "thick description" of how natives construct and use their common-sense or taken-for-granted knowledge in their everyday-life routines.


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• Concept of knowledge of everyday life / common-sense knowledge: – Therefore, it requires the method of "phenomenological

reduction", which “presuppose the bracketing (disconnecting) of the natural world and therewith the carrying into effect of a complete change of attitude toward the thesis of the world given-to-me-as-being there.” (Schutz, 1967a, Pp. 43)

– Therefore, as ethnographers approach and to conduct some "cultural interpretations" with a "native" society, their primary task is to come up with some "thick description" of how natives construct and use their common-sense or taken-for-granted knowledge in their everyday-life routines.


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• Concept of knowledge of everyday life / common-sense knowledge: – For ethnographers of education, their primary task is

therefore to describe how teachers, students and school administrators construct and use their common-sense knowledge in encounters in classrooms, staffrooms, conference rooms, corridors, playgrounds, …


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• Concepts of consciousness and intentionality: We come to know the world of culture (i.e. constructing common-sense knowledge of the world of culture) by means of our consciousness. "Consciousness is always intentional; it always intents or is directed towards objects." Hence, when we speak of consciousness, we can only speak of "consciousness of something or others." (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.34) Hence, the intentional character of all our cogitations necessarily involves a sharp distinction between the act of thinking …and the objects to which these acts are referring." (Schutz, 1967b, p. 103) This relationship between the act of thinking/consciousness and the object of thinking/consciousness has been characterized by social phenomenologists as "intentionality".


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• Concept of typification: In everyday life encounters, we have to make sense of every persons and objects we get acquainted with. To begin with our cogitation with this particular person or object, we have to make use of the "typicality" in my stock of common-sense knowledge and try to relate this "particular" with something "typical" that I am familiar with. This act of typification is especially essential in our initial encounter with strangers, in this situation we have to "impute to…anonymous actors a set of supposedly invariant motives which govern their actions. This set is itself a construct of typical expectations of Other's behavior and has been investigated frequently in terms of social role or function or institutional behaviors." (Schultz, 1967, p. 25)


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• Concept of definition of situation: In everyday life interaction, apart from typification, another essential interpreting device, which is commonly in use, is definition of situation. We must come to terms with our partners what is the occasion here and now. In other words, we must typify the encounter with some culturally agreeable, acceptable or even institutionalized definition. Otherwise, participants in the encounter may not be able to know how to act in and on the situation.


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• Concepts of objectivation of subjectivity: To retain and sustain the subjective meanings assigned to situations, physical objects and other fellow humans, human beings have developed systems of signs and expressions to make their subjectivity objective. Languages in both spoken and written forms are one of the major objectivation tools used in human cultures. With these systems of signs, human subjectivities can then be communicated, shared and exchanged across times and spaces. This act of objectivation of meaning (signified) by means of sign (signifier) has been characterized by social phenomenologists as process of signification. (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.50)


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• Concepts of reciprocity of perspectives and intersubjectivity: By making use of systems of signs and expressions, a person can not only be able to communicate her subjective interpretations of the situation with her partner, but she can also across examine the typificality that her partner has imputed to her. As a result, partners in a human interaction may then arrive at a consensus on their perspectives regarding their encounter. This has been characterized by social phenomenologists as reciprocity of perspectives or intersubjectivity.


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• Concept of institutionalization: As a human interaction repeats itself on regular basis, the encounter, with its subjective definition, typification, objectivation and reciprocity, will become habitualized. Berger and Luckmann indicate that "institutionalization occurs whenever there is a reciprocal typification of habitaulized actions by types of actors. Put differently, any such typification is an institution. … The typifications of habitualized actions that constitute institutions are always shared ones. They are available to all members of the particular social group in question, and institution itself typifies individual actors as well individual actions." (Berger & Luckmann, 1967, p. 72)


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• Legitimation: “Legitimation as a process is best described as ‘second-order’ objectiviation of meaning. Legitimation produces new meanings that serve to integrate the meanings already attached to disparate institutional process.” (Berger & Luckmann, 1967, p. 110) Legitimation can be differentiated into process of explanation and justification.– Cognitive explanation: “Legitimation ‘explains’ the

institutional order by ascribing cognitive validity to its objectified meanings.” (p. 111)

– Normative justification: “Legitimation justifies the institutional order by giving normative dignity to its practical imperatives.” (p. 111)


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Thomas Luckmann(1927-

Peter Berger(1929-

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• Definition of situations in school: School is an environment or context heavily implicated with meanings and definitions– Most of the areas in a school premises are functionally

defined and physically arranged to serve the interest at hand of their makers. Even within the context of a classroom both the physical and social scenes are carefully "set" by its teacher.

– By applying Goffman's concept of dramatization, Peter Wood suggests that the environment of a school can be subjectively demarcated into front and back regions by its users.

The Divided School: Ethnographic Study of Schools

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• Definition of situations in school: School is an environment or context heavily implicated with meanings and definitions– Definition of situation in classroom: though most of the

areas in them have been institutionally or organizationally pre-defined, such as morning assembly, lesson, recess, lunch time, extra- curricular activities. However, in reality any institutionalized situations will not be accepted as given by its users, especially the students. The definition of each situation, such as a lesson, will be interpreted anew and open to negotiation and subject to agreement; otherwise a lesson simply will not "happen."


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• Roles and statuses in school– Concept of role: In schools organization most of the

roles have supposedly been prescribed by the school institution, such as subject teachers, students, school head, panel chairperson, etc. The role expectations, in forms of performances of tasks, have all been typified institutionally. However, in the reality of world culture, these networks of role expectations are open to interpretations and negotiations by role partners.


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• Roles and statuses in school– Concept of status: In school interactions, participant will

scrutinized and evaluated each others' role performances. Based on these evaluations, participants will "size up" each others and accordingly statuses will be assigned and/or achieved among participants. Hence, in concrete human interactions, such as classroom interactions, institutionally ascribed statuses will never be accepted in face value, they have to be achieved in actual performances. In classroom interaction, though teachers are ascribed with the institutional role to conduct teaching, nevertheless it has been well evidenced in classroom interaction studies that teachers' status and authority will not be accepted by students on face value. Teachers have to achieve the status by demonstrating their competence in teaching, classroom management and so on. And students will try hard in sussing and sizing up new teachers.


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• Divided cultures in schools– The culture of the tribal chiefs in schools (Walcott,

1984)– Teacher's culture and Woods' ethnography of

staffroom (Woods, 1979)– Students' culture and typology of subcultures of

students (Woods, 1979)


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• Strategies of teachers and students– Teachers' survival strategies (Woods, 1979)– Students' strategies of compliance and resistance (Woods,

1979)– Ethnography of initial encounter in classroom (Ball, 1984;

Beynon, 1984; Wragg & Wood, 1984)– Ethnography of cultural breakdown in classroom —

confrontation (Pik, 1987; Laslett & Smith, 1987; Pollard, 1989)


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Symbolic Interactionists' Perspective in Cultural Interpretations of Schooling

George Herbert Mead(1863-1931)

Herbert Blumer(1900-1987)

Chicago School of Social Ethnography

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• The self: According to symbolic interactionism, the self is defined “as a process, and not a structure.” (Blumer, 1969, p. 62) It is a self-interacting and self-reflexive process, in which “human being can designate to himself his wants, his goals, objects around him, the presence of others, their actions, their expected actions, or whatnot. Through further interaction with himself, he may judge, analyze, and evaluate the things he has designated to himself. And by continuing to interact with himself he may plan and organize his action with regard to what he has designated and evaluated.” (ibid)


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• The act: In order to cope with the world and more importantly to maintain the status quo of the self, “the human being must forge or piece together a line of actions…to map out a prospective line of behavior, note and interpret the actions of others, size up his situation, check himself at this and that point, figure out what to do at another point…” (p.64)


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• Social interaction: Most of the social interactions involve mutual interpretations and definitions between interacting partners. It is a formative and ongoing process through which “participants fit their own acts to the onging acts of one another and guide other in doing so” (p.66). This conception resonates with social phenomenologist's concept of reciprocity of perspectives.


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• The objects: “Human beings live in a world or environment of objects, and their activities are formed around objects. But to symbolic interactionist, these "objects are human constructs and not self-existing entities with intrinsic natures. Their nature is dependent on the orientation and action of people toward them. …In short, objects consist of whatever people indicate or refer to." (p.68)


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• The objects: This basic canon of symbolic interactionism implies the followings:– "The nature of an object is constituted by the meaning it has

for the person or persons for whom it is an object."– "This meaning is not intrinsic to the object but arises from

how the person is initially to act toward it." (p. 68-69) It follows that the same object will vary in its meaning in accordance with the persons who act toward it, in social phenomenologists' terminology, the meanings of an object will vary with the typification designated by its users.

– "Objects ― all objects are social products in that they are formed and transformed by the defining process that takes place in social interaction." (p.69)

– "People are prepared or set to act toward objects on the basis of the meaning of the objects for them." (ibid)


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• The objects: – "One can organize one's action toward it instead of

responding immediately to it; one can inspect the object, think about it , work out a plan of action towards it, or decide whether or not to act towards it." (ibid)

– According, "human being are seen a living in a world of meaningful objects." (ibid) This world of meaningful objects that symbolic interactionists advocate is in congruence with social phenomenologists conception of "the world of culture" and the thesis of "the social construction of reality."

– "People are not locked to their objects, they may check action towards objects and indeed work out new lines of conduct towards them. This condition introduces into human group life an indigenous source of transformation." (p.69-70)


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• Joint action: “It refers to the large collective form of action that is constituted by the fitting together of the line of behavior of the separate participants. …Joint actions range from a simple collaboration of two individuals to a complex alignment of the acts of huge organizations or institutions.” (p.70) The concept corresponds neatly with Berger and Luckmann's conception of institutionalization.


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• Paul Willis' approach to cultural study– Life and culture as art: Willis construes "art as living, not

textual thing. …Art as an elegant and compressed practice of meaning-making is a defining and irreducible quality at the heart of everyday human practices and interactions. It is at the centre of the commonplace human uses of objects … producing and investing meaningfulness in our relations with others and with the objects and materials around us. It is the combination of these practices with their locating relations and materials that produces culture and cultural forms which are the stock in trade of ethnographic analysis, for example school culture, subcultures, occupational and shop-floor cultures or individual cultural formation." (Willis, 2000, p. 3-4)

Common Culture as Symbolic Work of Symbolic Creativity

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• Paul Willis' approach to cultural study– The concept of symbolic work: By accepting cultures as a

form of art of meaning-making in everyday life, Willis therefore suggests that symbolic work is a necessary constituent in everyday life. Just as the work or labour we invested into the world of nature to produce material resources to sustain our biological lives, we also invest substantial amount of our labour and work to create and designate meanings and meaningfulness to physical objects, fellow-beings and social relations in order to construct and maintain our cultural lives. Accordingly, ethnographic study as endeavor of cultural interpretation is by definition a study of the symbolic work organized, constituted and practiced within a "native" society.


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• Paul Willis' approach to cultural study– Forms and products of symbolic work: (Willis, 1990, p. 11)

• Language as practice and symbolic resource: Language (both spoken and written) is the primary instrument that we employ to create, store and disseminate meanings. It is also the foundation for us to build reciprocity of perspectives and coordination in social actions with our fellow humans.

• The body as practice and symbolic resource: "The body is a site of somatic knowledge as well as a set of sign and symbols. It is the source of productive and communicative activity ― signing, symbolizing, feeling."


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• Paul Willis' approach to cultural study– Forms and products of symbolic work: (Willis, 1990, p. 11)

• Social "drama" as practice of symbolic work: "Communication is achieved through roles, rituals and performances that we produced with others. Dramaturgical components of the symbolic include a variety of non-verbal communications, as well as sensuous cultural practices and communal solidarities. These include dancing, singing, joke-making, story-telling in dynamic setting and through performance."

• Symbolic creativity: "Language, the body, dramatic forms are, in a way, both raw material and tools. Symbolic creativity is more fully the practices, the making ― or their essence, what all practices have in common, what drives them. This is the production of new (however small the shift) meanings intrinsically attached to feeling, to energy, to excitement and psychic movement." (p. 11)


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• Willis' ethnography of subcultures– Profane cultures of the motor-bike boys and the hippies in

the early 1970s (Willis, 1978)– The anti-school culture and working-class culture of the

'lads' in the 1970s (Willis, 1977)– Common culture of youths in the 1980s. (Willis, 1990)

• Symbolic creativity in culture media, e.g. television, magazines, computers, …

• Symbolic creativity in music, e.g. selecting, consuming and identifying with music styles

• Symbolic creativity and style and fashion, e.g. hairstyle, dressing, overall styles "from teddy boys and the mods, to the skins to punks," (Willis, 1990, p. 87)

• Symbolic creativity and everyday life, e.g. pub cultures, sports, games, sex and romances,


51Phenomenological conceptual framework of social meaning

Intentionality

Durée

Sign systems

ExpressMovements

Signs

Intentionality

Durée

ExpressActs

Externalizations

Objectifications

Cultural system

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Intentionality

Durée

Intentionality

Durée

World of culture of studentsWorld of culture of Teachers

The self as interactive meaning-making

process with oneself

Role – status - career

Definition of situation

Typification of partners

Intentionality at hand

Construction of reciprocity and intersubjectivity through Negotiations

Externalizing and objectifying Acts (strategies)

InstitutionalizationLegitimation

Habitualization

Cognitive Explanation

Normative Justification

The self as interactive meaning-making

process with oneself

Role – status - career

Definition of situation

Typification of partners

Intentionality at hand

Externalizing and objectifying Acts (strategies)

Legitimation

Cognitive Explanation

Normative Justification

Enactment of Classroom CultureLESSON

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• The grounded theory method • Michael Agar’s Ethnographic Understanding• Stephen Ball’s technical trajectories in ethnographic

fieldwork in educational setting

Processes of Ethnographic Study:

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Lecture 3Lecture 3Ethnographic Study Ethnographic Study

and Cultural Interpretation of Schools and Classroomsand Cultural Interpretation of Schools and Classrooms

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