Issues and Challenges in teaching Research
Methods to Undergraduates in Anthropology
HEA Social Sciences Conference
Liverpool 2013
A Discipline Defined by its
Method
• Division into Social, Biological and
also visual and material culture
• Social Anthropology synonymous with
ethnography
• Lots of discussion about what
ethnography is, but not clearly
distinguished as ‘methods’
• Ethnography includes other methods –
Participant observation, interviews,
surveys, narrative and discourse
analysis, photo elicitation
Specialist or Integrated
• Debate about whether methods should be taught in
specialist methods courses or integrated into theory
courses
• Specialist courses tend to be unpopular with students,
difficult to convey relevance.
• Integrated courses don’t always make a clear distinction
between methods, methodology and theory
• Manchester – shift from ‘Researching Social Life’ to
‘studying Anthropology’
• Should anthropology teach methods as part of a wider
social science framework
Durham (2nd year)
Methods and Explanations
• Provides a grounding in research methods
in both social and biological anthropology,
looking at the relationship between data
and anthropological theory, and giving
students experience of collecting and
analysing data.
UCL (1st year) - Researching the
Social World
• An introduction to first, the critical reading and
deconstruction of an ethnographic text,
analysing the relationship between datagathering methods and ethnographic writing;
second, analytic techniques used in social and
cultural anthropology, consisting of a series of
laboratory-based and field work exercises. The
course emphasises the close relationship
between methods of data-gathering and
theoretical analysis. In addition, students will
acquire visual documentation skills to augment
their ethnographic project.
UCL - Methods and Techniques
in Biological Anthropology
• A laboratory-based course designed as a
practical introduction to biological
anthropology. The course introduces
methods of data collection and data
handling, descriptive statistics and
hypothesis testing. Subject areas include
evolutionary theory, genetics, taxonomy,
behavioural ecology, primate evolution,
nutrition, anthropometry, demography, and
resource use.
Aberdeen (3rd Year) - Doing
Anthropological Research
• This course is intended to acquaint students with the
practical, methodological and theoretical issues
associated with anthropological research. We will look
critically at different methodological approaches and the
relationship between fieldwork experiences and
ethnographic production. The course will run as a
combination of lectures and methodological workshops.
Each weekly module will address a different element of
ethnographic practice and focus on the changing
dynamics of ethnographic research. Topics will also
include interviewing, taking fieldnotes and other skills
and techniques of anthropology in the field.
Manchester 2nd Year – The
Ethnographer’s Craft
• The aim of this course is to familiarise students
with diverse conceptual and practical
approaches to ethnography in the contemporary
world, exploring key debates on ethnographic
and anthropological research. Students will
acquire and develop ethnographic skills and
techniques through hands on experience
undertaking a short local research project. This
work in progress will be closely monitored and
developed through collective reflections and
discussions in class.
The Centrality of Fieldwork
•Social Anthropology’s
‘method’ is tied up
with long term
fieldwork
•For PGR students
methods training is
also fieldwork training.
Image used with permission from the Royal Anthropological Institute,
original copyright owned by Peter Eckman
• Methodology classes split between discussions about
theory and concerns about practicalities of fieldwork
• Difficult to translate this into courses for undergraduates
who will not be embarking on long term fieldwork
Undergraduate Fieldwork
Projects
• This raises the question of whether anthropology
students should undertake fieldwork for their
undergraduate dissertations.
• Contention over practical experience - ‘a paltry 3 weeks
in a village’ (Levi-Strauss, 1954)
• Ingold (1989) – knowledge of anthropology can be
taught to all but anthropological fieldwork is beyond the
boundaries of undergraduate degrees
• Wright and Sharma (1989) Short fieldwork experience
de-mystifies anthropological methods, encourages
independent learning, develops skills (employability).
Challenges
• Links between theory and practice in the classroom are
often tenuous.
• Difficult to convey the ‘experience and Utility of
Fieldwork’ (Sharma 1991) at undergraduate level
• Topics for fieldwork projects restricted to those
accessible from university
• Ethical approval for ‘participant observation’.
• Practicalities eg supervision over the summer
Developing an Ethnographic
Sensibility
• Pococck (1975) ‘Anthropology must be lived at the same
time as it is learned’.
• Focus on the ‘anthropological imagination’
• Group research projects, field schools, placements,
‘study abroad’.
• Coleman and Simpson (2004) - integrating students’
biographical experience.
• Incorporation of Visual/material culture methods eg.
Manchester 1st Year course on digital film-making
References
•
Coleman, S & Simpson, R 2004 ‘Knowing, Doing and Being, Pedagogies and
Paradigms in the Teaching of Social Anthropology in Dorle Drackle & Iain Edgar (eds)
Current Policies and Practices in European Social Anthropology Education Oxford,
Berghahn
•
Ingold, T 1989 ‘Fieldwork in Undergraduate anthropology: an opposing view’. British
Association for Social Anthropology in Policy and Practice (BASAPP) 3:2-3
•
Pocock , David 1975 Understanding Social Anthropology London, Hodder &
Stoughton
•
Sharma, U 1991 ‘Field Research in the undergraduate Curriculum’ British
Association for Social Anthropology in Policy and Practice (BASAPP) 10:8-10
•
Wright, S. & Sharma, U. ‘Practical Relevance of Undergraduate Courses British
Association for Social Anthropology in Policy and Practice (BASAPP) 2:7-8
•
methods@manchester - ethnography