Upper-division Writing Requirement Review Form (12/1/08)
I. General Education Review – Upper-division Writing Requirement
Dept/Program
Course # (i.e. ANTH
Anthropology
ANTH 431
Subject
455) or sequence
Course(s) Title
Ethnographic Field Methods
Description of the requirement if it is not a single course
UG ANTH 431: Ethnographic Field Methods. Spring. Prerequisites.
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office.
Please type / print name Signature
Instructor
G.G. Weix
Phone / Email
6319
Program Chair
John Douglas
III Overview of the Course Purpose/ Description
Date
The course was created by Professor emeritus, Tobie Weist, after being taught experimentally
twice, in 2000. It has been taught at least six times in the past decade, by adjuncts and tenure
track faculty members, to enrollments between 12 and 30, including graduate students. The
emphasis has been on learning ethnographic field techniques and methods, and demonstrating
them on a project designed and conducted throughout the semester. Students become
acquainted with the IRB review, and the instructor applies for a general approval of their
projects, with the faculty member as supervisor for all in class ‘research’ conducted. Students
read various methods manuals, including Fieldworking, and engage in exercises in various
aspects of ethnographic work, including guided participant observation, oral history collection,
interviewing, archival research, map making, surveys of small groups, and field journals. The
writing component for the course includes a portfolio of at least seventy single spaced pages
documenting the above methods, as well as an oral presentation of the research project, and its
outcomes. While students do not write an ethnography during the semester, they present the
completed portfolio as evidence of their competent mastery of the techniques prior to writing
an ethnography, and their ability to collect and generate primary data from field research.
IV Learning Outcomes: Explain how each of the following learning outcomes will be achieved.
Students learn how to identify the
Student learning outcomes :
appropriate technique or method for gaining
Identify and pursue more sophisticated
access to communities and individuals who
questions for academic inquiry
can provide responses to academic questions
about their ways of life
Students learn to gather information from a
Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize
number of sources and using a variety of
information effectively from diverse sources
(see http://www.lib.umt.edu/informationliteracy/) methods, as well as discuss the success or
failures of their attempts within small
groups
Manage multiple perspectives as appropriate
Recognize the purposes and needs of
discipline-specific audiences and adopt the
academic voice necessary for the chosen
discipline
Use multiple drafts, revision, and editing in
conducting inquiry and preparing written work
Follow the conventions of citation,
documentation, and formal presentation
appropriate to that discipline
Develop competence in information
technology and digital literacy
Students learn to record in a field journal
their observations of others actions and
conversations, distinguishing their own
perceptions and opinions from that of their
subjects
Students learn the ethical components of
review and oversight to ethnographic field
work, including addressing IRB panels,
peers, and the subjects themselves in the
process of doing field work.
Students prepare a portfolio as a summary
of primary data for ethnography. While
they do not write the ethnography itself, they
learn the value of accurate and clear
recording of description and interviews.
Students learn the ethical and peer reviewed
standards for documenting ethnographic
observations and conversations
Students master various forms of technology
used in ethnographic field methods
V. Writing Course Requirements Check list
Is enrollment capped at 25 students?
If not, list maximum course enrollment.
Explain how outcomes will be adequately met
for this number of students. Justify the request
for variance.
Are outcomes listed in the course syllabus? If
not, how will students be informed of course
expectations?
Are detailed requirements for all written
assignments including criteria for evaluation in the
course syllabus? If not how and when will students
be informed of written assignments?
Briefly explain how students are provided with
tools and strategies for effective writing and editing
in the major.
■Yes † No
■ Yes † No
■ Yes † No
Students write 8-10 pages a week, and
hand in the portfolios three times during
the semester for review and comment by
the instructor.
Will written assignments include an opportunity for ■ Yes † No
revision? If not, then explain how students will
receive and use feedback to improve their writing
ability.
Are expectations for Information Literacy listed in
■ Yes † No
the course syllabus? If not, how will students be
informed of course expectations?
VI. Writing Assignments: Please describe course assignments. Students should be required to
individually compose at least 20 pages of writing for assessment. At least 50% of the course grade
should be based on students’ performance on writing assignments. Clear expression, quality, and
accuracy of content are considered an integral part of the grade on any writing assignment.
Specific techniques are graded, such as
formulating an interview, listing
questions, conducting, recording, and
transcribing the interview, and evaluating
the outcome.
Informal Ungraded Assignments
Students take field notes throughout the
semester.
VII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form. ⇓ The syllabus
should clearly describe how the above criteria are satisfied. For assistance on syllabus preparation
see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html
Formal Graded Assignments
Anthropology 431:Ethnographic Methods
G.G. Weix
P.M.
Office: SS 223
238
Tel. 243-6319
ggweix@selway.umt.edu
Office hours: MW 2-4 P.M.
Class Time: TR 11:10-12:30
Room: SS
Course Description
Ethnographic methods are not unique to the field of anthropology. Participant
observation, daily detailed field notes, interviews and oral histories, and narrative
analysis are used by many disciplines, from social sciences (sociology and political
science) to humanities (literary criticism and history). However, anthropologists initiated
and innovated these techniques of gathering information and gaining new knowledge
about human diversity and ways of life. Ethnography means ‘writing about a way of life’
and the primary method of ethnographic projects is fieldwork. This refers to living with
and sharing a way of life for an extended period of time. Fieldwork requires continuous
residence in chronological time, usually over the course of a year or more in the places
described.
Ethnographic methods are diverse, and eclectic; anthropologists often reflect upon their
tradition of methods in relation to field-based research. The course readings about
ethnography and methods focus on technique, justification, and epistemological questions
about knowledge of social life and culture. They also address fieldwork ethics,
combining field-based and archival research, debates about collaboration and authorial
voice, differences of ethnography of small scale and complex societies, the historical
legacy of colonialism and post-colonial context for cross-cultural research, and
interdisciplinary academic fields and subjects (such as cultural studies) which have
extended the visibility of ethnographic methods across the academy.
Ethnographic methods can be approached pragmatically as a series of steps and tasks:
developing a research question and proposal, stating the relevant theoretical debates,
doing library and computer background research, submitting the proposal for human
subjects review, planning field-based research, keeping a field journal, developing closed
and open questionnaires, interviewing subjects, collecting oral histories, genealogies, or
life histories, writing ethnographic field reports, giving an oral presentation of findings,
narrative analysis, writing ethnography.
One final note: ethnography can include statistical analysis, but often relies more on
narrative analysis. Interviews and questionnaires are used to generate text, not a data
base. For this reason, we will not be studying social science methods, although a
supplemental bibliography is provided. Other courses teaching statistical methods are
available in Sociology and Psychology, as well as ANTH 381 and 382: Data Analysis
and Advanced Data Analysis.
Course Goals and Objectives
1. To learn ethnographic methods, and be able to design and carry out a small project.
2. To learn field-based interviewing and be able to complete a sample of five to ten
interviews.
3. To know some of the debates about how ethnographic methods are changing and
expanding beyond anthropology into other academic fields.
Instructional Method
The course meets two times a week for 80 minutes each. Attendance is strongly
recommended. Instruction will include short lecture, small group discussion and
portfolio and journal work. Individual meetings with the instructor are also strongly
encouraged, and email correspondence when appropriate.
Course Policies
Illness, family emergency, conflicts with other courses’ exams, and athletic participation
are all valid reasons to miss class or reschedule assignments and exams. Particularly if
you are sick, please stay home until you are well. Because we only meet twice a week, I
will consider three absences in a row to be a sign that you are dropping the course. I am
available in office hours by appointment for discussion of current topics or to make up
assignments.
Readings
There are three required readings, which we will almost complete by Spring Break.
Barrett, Stanley. Anthropology: A Student’s Guide to Theory and Method (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press) 1997, 2000. A historical overview of the field of
anthropology from the nineteenth century to the present, Barrett discusses the relationship
between theoretical paradigms of different eras and the ethnographic methods that
emerged, and provides case studies from his own fieldwork projects at home in Canada
and abroad (Africa).
Messerschmidt, Donald, ed. Anthropologists at home in North America: methods and
issues in the study of one’s own society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1981.
A collection of essays from various fieldworkers in Canada and the United States
reflecting on the implications of research in their own societies. This book is out of print,
and sold as a nonrefundable, but very affordable facpac at the Bookstore. We will read it
primarily as case studies of ethnographic projects in North America.
Sunstein, Bonnie Stone and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. Fieldworking: Reading and
Writing Research (Second Edition). (Boston: Bedford Press) 2002. PLEASE NOTE WE
ARE READING THE SECOND EDITION.
This book has dense, and variegated chapters with readings, explanatory text, exercises
and questions, poetry in each section. We will highlight in class the major themes of
each section, and I strongly recommend students practice the exercises in their journals
for the first half of the course.
Evaluation
There are no exams for this course, rather, evaluation will be based on portfolios which
consist of journals, writing exercises, interview transcriptions, and commentaries on the
background literature. There will be two midterm assessments of each student’s
progress, March 15th and April 19th at which time portfolios will be turned in and
returned on March 25th (after Spring Break) and April 23rd. Final submission of
portfolios is May 10th There is no final exam for this course.
Grading Criteria and Standards
Enclosed on separate sheet. I ask students to write their own expectations and goals at
the beginning of the course, and to respond to the grading criteria enclosed. At the end of
the course, each student also writes a brief self-assessment of their writing for the course,
and the grade they would assign themselves. I take these into consideration in assigning
the final grade.
Assignments
A series of weekly writing assignments will be kept in a portfolio. Students will also
meet with the instructor in office hours at least twice during the semester. Students will
keep journals, with at least four entries a week, (and probably more during the second
half of the course). The final product will be a portfolio of writing that consists of at least
50-75 pages of field notes, and a summary assessment paper of 10-15 pages.
Syllabus
Week One (January 29-31) Introductions and Expectations
Code of Ethics, Ethnography as a Genre
Methodology debates: art or science?
Read: Barrett pp. 1-79 Historical Overview and Part I: Building the Discipline
Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater, Part I: Understanding Cultures pp. 1-54
Week Two (February 5-7) Journals
Background research, journals
Read: Barrett, pp. 84-140, Part II: Patching the Foundation
Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater, Part II: Understanding Fieldwriting, pp. 55-104
Week Three (February 12-14) Observation
Participant /Observation and field notes
Read: Barrett, pp. 141-206, Part III: Demolition and Reconstruction
Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater, Part III, Understanding Texts, pp. 105-160
Week Four (February 19-21) Description
Thick Description
Read: Barrett, pp. 207-240 The Challenge of Analysis
Sunstein and Chiseri-Stater, Part IV, Locating Culture, pp. 159-216
Week Five (February 26-28) Archives
Archiving and Organizing
Read: Messerschmidt, Part I-Introduction, pp. 3-28
Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater, Part V, The Spatial Gaze, pp. 217-292
Week Six (March 5-7) Conversations
Interviews, Collaboration, Transcription
Read: Messerschmidt, Part II, Urban Studies, pp. 29-90
Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater, Part VI, The Cultural Translator, pp. 293-344
Week Seven (March 12-14) The Ethnographer’s Ear
Listening and Reflecting
Read: Messerschmidt, Part III, Rural Studies, pp.91-152
Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater, Part VII, The Collaborative Listener, pp. 345-416
Spring Break, March 16-24
Week Eight (March 26-28) Fieldworking
Read: Messerschmidt, Part IV, Heath Studies
Week Nine (April 2-4) Fieldworking
Read: Messerschmidt, Part V, Education Studies
Week Ten (April 9-11) Fieldworking
Read: Messerschmidt, Part VI, Contract Anthropology
Week Eleven (April 16-18) Fieldworking
Read: Messerschmidt, Part VII Reflections at Home
Week Twelve (April 23-25) Fieldworking
Student Presentations
Week Thirteen (April 30-May 2) Fieldworking
Student Presentations
Week Fourteen (May 7-9) Fieldworking
Student Presentations
May 10th Final Portfolios Due.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR METHODS/431
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Anderson, Barbara G. 1990. First Fieldwork: the misadventures of an anthropologist.
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Bernard, H. Russell. 2002. Research Methods in Anthropology. (Third Edition) Walnut
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Bohannan, Paul and Dirk van der Elst. 1998. Asking and Listening: Ethnography as
Personal Adaptation. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Chiseri-Stater, Elizabeth and Bonnie Stone Sunstein. 1997. Field Working: Reading and
Writing Research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Coffey, Amanda and Paul Atkinson. 1996. Making Sense of Qualitative Data. Thousand
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