RESEARCH ON A COUNTRY
I.
RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
The goal of the final part of the COUNTRIES project is not to create a finished
product, but rather to collect research from the Internet and evaluate the information
that you gather. The research will be done as follows:
(a) Use various search engines and websites to locate primary sources about a
narrowly defined topic. For the purpose of this assignment, PRIMARY SOURCES
are considered to be any media (article, interview, book, video) that is written by a
REPORTER on the ground in the country of interest. The reporter might include
general background material in his/her article about the situation on which they are
reporting, but the focus of the article or video is on interviews and documentation
from actual people involved in the conflict.
(b) Document (keep a list of) all of your searches that resulted in material relevant to
the topic. Keep this list in an Access Database. Mark (using your initials) which
members of your group participated in each search.
(c) Use PowerPoint to take brief notes, treating individual slides like index cards.
Mark (using initials) which members of your group participated in creating each
slide.
(d) Evaluate the research you’ve collected, and draw some conclusions.
Each member of the group will write a one or two-page composition, based upon
the research. In MS Word, select File → Page Setup and set 0.5” margins (top,
bottom, right, left), Paper size: Letter. Select Format → Paragraph and set Line
Spacing to Single. Set the font to Times New Roman, 12 pt.
II.
BACKGROUND
1. Countries, by and large, are not homogeneous; i.e (that is) countries are made up
of different groups of people. All countries contain minorities, be they racial, ethnic,
linguistic, or religious, or a combination of any of these categories.
2. Generally speaking, one group tends to dominate the other(s). There are
inevitably CONFLICTS. Whether the conflicts are major or minor is something you
will determine by your research.
3. Members within each country’s groups do not all think alike, look alike, or even
like each other; that is, they too are divided among class, social status, financial
resources, and political viewpoints.
4. In Africa, Asia and Europe, you often find that most members of a group reside in
their own distinct geographic areas. Sometimes, ethnic minorities live along the
border regions, seeming to have spilled over from a bordering country. What
generally happened was such groups have been living in the same place for hundreds
of years; at some point, a border was set up that effectively split a single group, with
some ending up on one side of a border, some on the other.
Listed below are some examples:
MEXICO. The majority culture is mestizo and Spanish speaking; minority cultures
include the indigenous Indian peoples who speak native Indian languages.
CHINA. There are 10 major dialects of the Chinese language: Mandarin, Cantonese,
Wu, Min, Hui, Gan, Xiang, Hakka, Ping, and Jin. In reality, these are not dialects in
the way that American understand different dialects of English (such as British or
Jamaican dialects of English). For example, speakers of Mandarin cannot understand
Cantonese, and vice-versa – they are as different as English and German.
China also contains different ethnic groups: the majority Han (92%), minority
groups such as Hui, Mongol, Tibetan and Manchu.
SPAIN. The Basque people (along the border with France) have an ongoing conflict
with the Spanish government. A terrorist group called the ETA has conducted an
off-again on-again bombing campaign in their quest for independence from Spain.
CANADA. Quebec province is about 80% Francophone (French-speaking), and
20% Anglophone (English-speaking). In the north part of the province are the Inuit
(Eskimo) people. Indian tribes also reside in the province. People have strong
political differences over language issues. Large numbers of French speakers also
hug the border regions in neighboring New Brunswick and Ontario, which are
majority English-speaking.
BELGIUM. Belgium is home to the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) and Walloon
(French-speaking) ethnic groups. Although most Belgians are Roman Catholic, the
different linguistic communities for the most part do not mix.
IRAQ. The two major ethnic groups in Iraq are Arab and Kurd. The Arabs are
divided along religious lines, between Sunni and Shia, as well as politically. Kurds
also reside in Turkey, Iran, and Syria – the Kurdish people were in effect split up
when the colonial powers drew the boundaries of these 4 countries. The Kurds in
Iraq are semi-independent, essentially governing their own areas, whereas the Kurds
in neighboring Turkey have historically experienced repression of language and
culture.
SOUTH AFRICA. The native African tribes residing in South Africa are 80% of
the population, divided among Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho (South Sotho), Bapedi (North
Sotho), Venda, Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi and Ndebele. The immigrant African
“tribes” are the Afrikaaners (descendants of Dutch settlers) and the English. 9% of
the population is mixed race; about 2.5% is South Asian/Indian (in fact, it was in
South Africa that Mohatma Gandhi began his nonviolent struggle against the
colonial and discriminatory policies of the British Empire). The recent history of
South Africa is one of overcoming racial oppression perpetrated by the Afrikaaner
minority.
III.
QUESTIONS
Work in groups of two or three.
Of the 4-6 countries the members in your group used for your folder hierarchies, you
will CAREFULLY choose one. First, read about the DEMOGRAPHICS of each
country in Wikipedia. Decide which country you think will have the strongest intergroup conflicts. By and large, the more severe the conflict, the better is the chance
that you will be able to locate primary sources on the Internet.
Begin with major English-language news outlets, such as:
The New York Times
The Times of London
CNN.com
BBC news
Google news
msnbc.com
(If you are researching a Latin American country and can read Spanish well, Spanish
online news websites will cover your country in much more depth.)
Look for primary sources that can give you enough material to answer these
questions:
1. What are the DIFFERENCES that define each group?
2. What is/are the CONFLICT(S)?
3. Why has the conflict PERSISTED? If it has been resolved, how did that
happen? If not, what is keeping it from being RESOLVED?
4. What are the various aspects of the conflict? Which of these aspects are
MAJOR (matters of life-and-death) and which are MINOR (inconveniences).
5. Most of your primary sources should be reports/testimony at the human level,
describing how specific individuals of each group behave as they interact with
members of the other group, and what they say or think about each other.
Keep in mind that groups are complex, not monolithic, and individuals differ
widely from one another. Some may be sympathetic to resolving the conflict,
others may be want to exacerbate (worsen) it.
IV.
DOCUMENT YOUR WORK
(1)
Recording your searches in an ACCESS Database Table
Use the Access Database 06 Searches.mdb to store records of your searches.
Open the document. Select Create table in Design view.
The Table that appears allows you to set up the Fields in the database table.
Create Fields exactly as below. Copy and Paste… or ELSE! (If you type and make
a mistake, everyone in your group will get a failing grade.). At the end of the
assignment, all of the databases from all classes will be merged, so the field names
and Data Types MUST MATCH EXACTLY.
Field Name
ID
Topic
Search Engine
Data Type
Description
AutoNumber
Memo
Country and minority group that you're researching.
Memo
New York Times, CNN, BBC, London Times, Google news,
MSNBC, etc.
Search String
Memo
The EXACT words that you use in the search
Resource
Memo
Organization that published the resource, e.g. New York
Publisher
Times, Washington Post, BBC, etc.
Resource URL
Memo
URL (Hyperlink Address) of Article, Book, Video, etc.
Resource Title
Memo
Title of Article, Book, Video, etc.
Resource
Memo
(1) Short Summary of the kinds of materials in the
Summary
resource, e.g. interviews (with whom), events, background
material, photos, maps, etc.
(2) Also a short description of what the resource is about.
Resource Author Memo
Author(s) of Article, Book, Video, etc.
Resource Date
Date/Time
Date that the Resource was published online
Initials
Memo
Initials of Students that worked on this Search, separated by
a space, e.g. AF ST PB
Make the ID field the Primary Key (see Figure below)
Press the Save button, and save the Table with the new name: Searches.
Start searching the Internet, and collect ALL of the URLs (hyperlink addresses) of
pages relevant to your topic. Do not take notes (yet). Read the documents you find,
decide whether they help you answer the questions, and if they do, keep a record of
them in the database.
Again, record the initials of the group members which participated in this search. An
efficient way to use all the members of the group is for each to search using a
different search engine. Each will keep a record of his/her searches; then transfer the
databases to one computer using a flash drive to merge the data from all members
into one database table.
EXAMPLE for Searching and Recording Searches
(Step 1) After looking in the Wikipedia entry for China under Demography, I’ve
decided to do a study of the Uighur people in the northwest province of Xinjiang.
I start my search for resources using the New York Times website by simply typing
Uighurs as my search string. I get the following list:
I click on the first link, and get the following page:
The first link looks interesting, and it’s also pretty recent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/world/asia/19xinjiang.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
So I click on it, peruse the article, and discover that it’s filled with eye-witness
accounts and interviews documenting the way the central government restricts the
practice of Islam in the province.
I then fill out a database entry for this search.
(Zoom magnification to 200% to see the entry below).
Here’s a link to a different article and the entry for it in the database:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E0DD1E3BF93AA25752C1A
9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&&scp=10&sq=uighur&st=cse
(Again, zoom magnification to 200% to see the entry below).
Depending upon the country and the minority in that country that you have chosen to
research, you may have difficulty finding articles that are relevant to the research
questions.
For example, if you are researching the interactions between Sunnis and Shiites in
Iraq, you may find a wealth of articles describing politicians and governments, but
few describing daily life and interactions between people in these two communities.
In this case, you might be able to narrow the list by trying different search terms.
At the other extreme, you may be trying to research a small country and an even
smaller minority group inside that country about which very little has been written.
If you can’t find a single good article, think about choosing a different country and
minority group.
(Step 2)
Note-Taking
To learn about taking notes on index card, go to dmhs.pbwiki.com. (You can
also get there by going the DMHS web site, selecting Academics → Library,
then DMHS Research Process).
Click on the link: Taking notes.
Then click on the link under Gallaudet University:
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/notecard.html
This should help you figure out what kind of topics to put at the top of your
slides when you summarize or paraphrase a piece of information.
Finally, under On Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing, click on the link
for:
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) handout on Quoting, Paraphrasing, and
Summarizing
MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
THESE 3 WAYS OF INCORPORATING OTHER WRITERS' WORK
INTO YOUR OWN WRITING
Taking Notes in PowerPoint.
Click to add your first slide. Change the slide layout to Blank
(Figure Below, Left)
Then Insert Horizontal Text Boxes to hold your information.
(Figure Below, Right)
Add a border to each Text Box.
Look at Uighur.ppt in your Country Research folder to get an idea of kinds
of topics for your slides, and the types of information you might get from your
resources. Don’t forget to add the initials of each person who worked on the
information in a slide.
Then open 06 Research.ppt (in the Country Research folder), and get
started.
(3)
Evaluating your evidence
Using the material that you’ve collected in your PowerPoint slides, construct two
imaginary monologues:
(a) one in which a member of the minority group is speaking about their day-to-day
life in a country dominated by the majority cultural group, and any interactions they
might have with members of that group.
(b) the other in which a member of the dominant cultural group speaks about their
day-to-day life and interactions they might have with members of the minority group.
Rather than write two separate monologues, you may instead compose an imaginary
conversation between members of both groups, in which they discuss their thoughts
and interactions about each other.
You may discuss ideas for this part with the other members of your group, or with
other members of the class. However, each person needs to submit his own original
work. If you need help getting started, ask the teacher.
The following is an example for the Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese living in
Xinjiang province in northwestern China.
1) Monologue by a Han Chinese high school student living in Khotan, Xinjiang.
My family moved here about 10 years ago because my Dad got a government
job. I go to the neighborhood Chinese high school where the classes are
taught in Mandarin. Personally, I don’t know any Uighur people. Sometimes
my friends and I go shopping at Idakh square, which is kind of like a central
market, where you can go shopping for cheap fresh fruits and vegetables;
clothes like shirts, jackets and sweaters; inexpensive sneakers; and small
electronics like digital cameras, cell phones and iPods – stuff like that. All of
the vendors are Uighurs. Most of them speak enough Mandarin to make a sale,
but they have pretty thick accents. Sometimes they’re there with their whole
family, with the kids helping out. The kids speak Mandarin just like us – the
younger ones sometimes do the translating for their parents, and the older ones
(my age) do the selling, showing us the cool features of stuff we’re interested
in buying. Even though all the transactions are done in cash, and the
merchants seem to have lots of bills in their pockets, nobody there looks
particularly rich. Everybody there talks in Uighur – I know a couple of words.
Sometimes I’ve been there when the muezzin sounds the prayer call over a
loudspeaker. Everybody stops what they’re doing, gets down on their prayer
rugs, and prays for a few minutes. My family has never been particularly
religious, and I’m not especially prejudiced against religious people, but to tell
you the truth, this seems a little extreme. One other thing: the Uighurs set
their watches about two hours later than everybody else. I have no idea why
they do this, but it seems pretty weird. I get that because of their religion they
have different holidays, but a different daily time???
2) Monologue by a Uighur high school student.
As long as I’ve been alive, there have always been Chinese people living here.
But in the last few years, it seems like they’ve been arriving in droves. This
has been our land for centuries, but now the Chinese not only run the place, it
seems like there are more of them than us. A lot of new Chinese
neighborhoods have sprung up, with their own new schools and shops. My
mom and dad run a small grocery store. Almost all of our customers are
Uighurs. We were never particularly religious when I was little – I mean my
mom always wore a hijab (head scarf) out in public, but now she always wears
traditional Islamic dress. My aunt, on the other hand, recently stopped
wearing the hijab – she has a government job with the city, but since they
started with the restrictions on religious expression, she stopped out of fear of
losing her job. She said she heard stories about people who were fired because
they were dressed too Islamic in public. A few years back, it became really
hard to get passports. Some group had set off a bomb in a government office.
No one was hurt, but the government responded by imposing even more
restrictions on how we could practice our religion. The worst thing is they
made it almost impossible to get a passport, something about preventing us
from being “contaminated by foreign Islamic radicals” while abroad. My
father’s been complaining ever since that it’s been really hard importing goods
from the countries west of here, like Iran or Uzbekistan. Some of these new
restrictions just seem downright petty. I’ve heard that students at university
aren’t allowed to fast during Ramadan, like that’s such a huge threat.
Incredible! I’ve read things on the Internet at the library recently about the
repression in Tibet (someone showed me how to set up the proxy server
settings to get around the government filter). Thing here aren’t that bad
here … yet. And during the Olympics, I remember reading about people
trying to protest who got arrested – and they were Chinese people living in
Beijing! So I guess it’s not just us. Still, it’s hard to gauge how bad things
have to get before the situation really boils over.