Observation
Week 5
Fine-grained and Mass Observation
Micro and Mass Observation
Rosie Flewitt’s fine-grained multi-modal analysis
The Mass Observation Organisation and Archive
Flewitt (2006) Using Video to Investigate
Pre-School Classroom Interaction
Ethnographic video case studies of three year olds
communicating at home and in pre-school
playgroup
• From the observations Flewitt produced
grounded evidence in detailed interpretation of
the construction and negotiation of meaning
• Challenged language-based approaches to
classroom interaction
• Investigating how and why learners choose
different modes to explore and express meaning
• Modes can include visual, verbal, written,
gestural and musical resources for
communication. They also include various
"multimodal" ensembles of any of these modes
(Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001).
• Zoom in on individual children’s use of different
communicative modes
• Zoom out and pan across children over time and
across different social settings
pp. 36 to 43
• One event
• Two minutes
• Three children
Dynamic text Figure 3 p. 37
Dynamic text Figure 4 p. 38
Dynamic text Figure 5 p. 39
Dynamic text Figure 6 pp. 40-41
Figure 7 p.42
Image for use in lecture here
Implications of Visual Data
for Theory Building
Flewitt aimed to show how,
Different representations of the same data tell different
stories about different participants’ lived experiences and
researcher subjectivity,
but also how including the visual in research analysis and
making links between the different media used in data
collection builds up ‘thick descriptions’ (Geertz 1973) that
afford readers of the research text complex
understandings of educational processes (2006, p. 45).
By studying in minute detail the complexities of
children’s lives through interviews, audio and
video observations in the two settings at home
and playgroup, the study revealed how the
children began to grasp unconsciously the
rationale of series of patterned behaviours that
corresponded to pre-school structures and
routines, activity types and interpersonal
relationships, illustrating how they became
apprentices in particular communities of
practice largely though observation and
imitation rather than through discourse (p.46)
Mass Observation
Mass Observation was a
social research organisation
established in 1937 by
anthropologist Tom Harrison,
journalist Charles Madge and
documentary film-maker
Humphrey Jennings.
It was a response to the British establishment’s perceived
misrepresentation of the ‘man in the street’, Mass Observation
sought to capture an “anthropology of ourselves” (Madge and
Harrison, 1939)
Image
for use
in
lecture
here
Snapshots of herself sent in to
Mass Observation by a volunteer diarist
Prolific during the Second
World War a national panel of
volunteer writers replied to
questionnaires and submitted
diaries
whilst paid investigators
observed, recorded and
detailed everyday life,
conversations and situations.
Tribulations of a photographer
What do you think you’re doing? My customers
don’t want any photographs taken in here, nor
do I. It’s usual to ask the manager’s permission’.
Daily Mirror feature
6 December 1938
Image
for use in
lecture
here
Catalogue of projects
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Behaviour of people at war memorials
Shouts and gestures of motorists
The aspidistra cult
Anthropology of football pools
Bathroom behaviour
Beards, armpits, eyebrows
Anti-semitism
Distribution , diffusion and significance of the dirty joke
Funerals and undertakers
Female taboos about eating
The private lives of midwives
30 January 1937
Reality
• The primacy of reality
• They argued that the camera showed what is
‘really there’ in the texture of everyday life. Art
could disregard it.
• A democratically significant choice
• As surrealists they insisted that images from the
subconscious, triggered by things seen in the
streets must be given unmediated expression
• Aiming for social therapy
• Aiming for social transformation
Mass Observation has always assumed that its
untrained Observers would be subjective
cameras, each with his or her own distortion.
They will tell us not what society is like but what
it looks like to them’ (First Years’s Work, p. 66)
On Blackpool Pier 1937
Discussion
Report on Juvenile Delinquency
I suggested at a Housemasters’ meeting that all
boys ought to be asked to write a diary on
‘Christmas at Borstal’. The Governor put forward
the opinion that it would be a very difficult thing
to have done.
‘You see’ he said, ‘many boys are incapable of
writing anything, and if they wrote nothing,
disciplinary action would have to be taken’
(Wilcock 1949, p. 109).
Discussion
Report on Juvenile Delinquency
The ideal stand for a Borstal boy to make is,
either to fight desperately the authority which
holds him, or to accept that authority and put
one’s whole weight behind them. It is very hard
to take up either of these stands on entering
Borstal. Usually there is neutrality, a
compromise (Wilcock 1949 pp. 119-120)
Discussion
Report on Juvenile Delinquency
The interesting history of inmate T…
Left fatherless at the age of ten, he was placed
in a home for orphans. At fifteen he was
returned to his mother, and started work. Not
content with his lot, he went off tramping, and
was arrested as a wanderer with no fixed abode
and sent to a reformatory, from where he
absconded and was in consequence sentenced
to ‘three years in Borstal’(Wilcock 1949 p. 126).
Mass Observation = a self-survey
AUDIO FILE 1937 2012
• What did the Lecturer in English Language do?
• What did the school girl do on Coronation Day
1937?
• What did the 28 year old do on the Diamond
Jubilee 2012?
1981 Mass Observation Project
Revived
A national panel of volunteer writers responding
to open- ended directives was revived as the,
with a specific mission to offer “ordinary
people” the chance to share writings about their
lives and to establish a unique qualitative data,
set to help researchers understand everyday life
in the late 20th Century and beyond
(Sheridan et al, 2000).
Mass Observation Directives
genetics and cloning, gambling, body image,
being overweight, homosexuality and families,
the death of Princess Diana, the events of
September 11th and the royal wedding, “staying
well” (1998) “pace of life” (1992), relationships
between health, sickness and work, transport,
juvenile delinquency
Challenges and Opportunities
of Mass Observation
What is meant by ordinary?
Interpreting the reflections of a diverse but self-selecting sample.
Challenges
Validity
Inaccuracy of recall
Potential for fictionalisation
Opportunities
Validates peoples’ lived experience
Authenticity
Rich and diverse data
Unexpected responses from open questions
More rounded picture of peoples’ lives
Representativeness of the sample
Can be re-read in a different contexts
“about as valuable as a chimpanzee’s tea party at a zoo”
For a thorough summary of issues involved see Pollen (2013)
Mass/personal
When I am writing to the Archive I am
expressing myself as an individual, a personality
in my own right, not a cipher or a statistic to be
manipulated and aggregated
(Pollen, 2013, p. 222).
Capturing wide perspective
Why Choose Mass Observation today?
Surveys – Teaching unions ATL (2011),
NASUWT (2011), NUT (2009)
DfE
- National Foundation for Educational
Research Parent and Pupil Voice Panels (2011
and 2013)
Market research opinion polls – Opinium (2013)
best days of your life?
YouGov (2013) parents’ dissatisfaction with
three years of Coalition reform
Capturing wide perspective
Why Choose Mass Observation today?
Surveys have closed and pre-determined foci
directed towards samples of stakeholders.
Market research broader reach of what
‘ordinary people’ think.
What do different interest groups think?
Not the origins and nature of their attitudes
Thompson chose Mass Observation because it
offers
‘alternative and potentially richer opportunities
to examine the depth, breadth and idiosyncratic
nature of “ordinary people’s” views on
educational issues’
(2013 p.3)
Thompson, S. (2013) What Do the Masses Think?
Exploring Contemporary Attitudes Towards Schools,
Teachers and Pupils Through The Mass Observation
Project BERA Conference 4th September 2013
• Status of the teaching profession
• Impact of policy changes
• Nature of assessment
Here we have discussion of current research
using the Mass Observation 2012 Education
Directive commissioned by Dr Simon Thompson,
Director of Initial Teacher Education University
of Sussex, with his kind permission for use in the
lecture.
Response from C4371
Here we have discussion of current research
using the Mass Observation 2012 Education
Directive commissioned by Dr Simon Thompson,
Director of Initial Teacher Education University
of Sussex, with his kind permission for use in the
lecture.
• Mass Observation might be as well described
as personal observation
• Visit the Mass Observation Archive in Brighton
www.sussex.ac.uk/library/speccoll
Reverend Robert Shields
So what?
Maybe by looking into someone’s life at that depth, every minute of
every day, they’ll find out something about all people
Reverent Shields interview in The Seattle Times 1994
AUDIO FILE ‘Sound Portrait’ US National Public Radio
Web cams
These webcams were found automatically through
a variety of clever search techniques and update
several times a day. Their owners may or may not
have intended for them to be public, but they
obviously are. Some of them are security cams in
companies or semi-public places. If you click on a
webcam, you can see a live video feed, plus
comments and ratings and other information.
http://www.opentopia.com/hiddencam.php
Wearable cameras
24th December - World Sousveillance Day
Surveillance and sousveillance
mylifebits
http://research.microsoft.com/enus/projects/mylifebits/sensecam.avi
References
Calder, A. and Sheridan, D. (1984) Speak for Yourself: a Mass-Observation Anthology, 1937-49
London: Cape 1984 942.084/CAL (pp.16-44 on LN)
Featherstone, G and Pyle, K. (2011) NFER Teacher Voice Omnibus February 2011 Survey: The
English Baccalaureate, Training and Development Agency for Schools, NFER/TDA
Flewitt, R. (2005). Using Multimodal Analysis to Unravel a Silent Child’s Learning. Early Childhood
Practice: The Journal for Multi-Professional Partnerships, 7(2), pp. 5–16.
http://oro.open.ac.uk/2721/1/Flewitt%2C_2005%2C_Multimodal_analysis_and_silent_child.pdf
(on LN)
Flewitt, R. (2006) ‘Using Video to Investigate Pre-school Classroom Interaction: Education
Research, Assumptions, and Methodological Practice’ Visual Communication 5:1 pp.25-50 (on LN)
*
Geertz, C. (1973) ‘Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture’, in C. Geertz (ed.)
The Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 3–30. New York: Basic Books.
Houssart, J. (2007) They Don’t Use Their Brains, What a Pity: School Mathematics Through the
Eyes of the Older Generation, Research in Mathematics Education, (9) 1, pp. 47-63
References
Kress, G. and Van Leeuwen, T. (2001) Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of
Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold.
Pollen, A. (2013) ‘Research Methodology in Mass Observation Past and Present: ‘Scientifically,
about as valuable as a chimpanzee’s tea party at the zoo’?’ History Workshop Journal January 20
2013 Oxford: Oxford University Press doi: 10.1093/hwj/dbs040
Sheridan, D. Street, B. and Bloome, D. (2000) Writing Ourselves: Mass-Observation and Literary
Practices, New York, Hampton Press
Thompson, S. (2013) What Do the Masses Think? Exploring Contemporary Attitudes Towards
Schools, Teachers and Pupils Through The Mass Observation Project BERA Conference 4th
September 2013
Wilcock, H. (1949) Report on Juvenile Delinquency London: The Falcon Press 364.36/WIL (Chapter
XI ‘Institutions’ pp. 108 – 127 on LN)
Surveys and Opinons
• Association of Lecturers and Teachers (ATL), (2011) Academies
Survey Available at:
http://www.atl.org.uk/Images/Academies%20Survey%202011%20%20redacted.pdf
• National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers
(NASUWT) (2010) Teacher Wellbeing Survey. Available at:
http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/InteractiveZone/SurveysPollsandForums
/Survey/
• National Union of Teachers (NUT) (2009) NUT OFSTED Special
Measures Survey Report Available at:
http://www.teachers.org.uk/taxonomy/term/1516
• Opinium (2013) Survey Results, School Days: the best days of your
life? Available at:
http://news.opinium.co.uk/survey-results/school-days-best-days-your-life