Running head: RESOURCES
1
VISUAL RESOURCES
Silvia Blevins
Ashford University
Applied Anthropology
ANT464
Sean McCoy
September 29, 2014
RESOURCES
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VISUAL RESOURCES
As an applied anthropologist who is attempting to create a plan of action in order to
request a change in educative policy for Cabarrus County, I need to prove the project’s need but
also to prove its effectiveness. To do so, I need to gather informative data from different sources
and incorporate visual applied anthropology to better explain people’s needs, wants and explain
social phenomena. My project will attempt to modify local policy and request government
funding to have more ESL teachers for non-English
speaking children. Visual anthropology will focus on
“children” and will attempt to sell my project by offering
sociocultural sensitivity towards the visual representation
of “children” and their needs to suggest social change.
Images, video and web-based media are often part
of ethnographic work. Visual technologies are not only useful gathering data but also offering
information. I will use them all to gather information but also to expose it to the government
officials and additional intended audience. To fundament my research, I will use statistical
methods to test the hypotheses about the subject and measure whether such policy will indeed be
necessary. Analyzing and using statistics is a common practice in policy planning (Ervin, 2005
pg 190), so this method seems trustworthy and overall verifiable; something very important
when attempting to change policy since policy makers will seek to make a decision based on
reliable data rather than people’s assumption of what their needs are (Ervin, 2005). For that
purpose, I will use the most current federal census for updated demographic numbers. In
addition, I can evaluate other relevant variables such as age, sex, occupation, religion and
ethnicity, indicators that will aid in narrowing my group of study. In this case, I was able to
maneuver through the following website http://factfinder2.census.gov/.
Another very important source of information was obtained from the County Health
Department where community statistical indicators for Cabarrus County from January 2012 were
perfectly charted as part of the “Secondary Data Collected as part of the 2012 Community Needs
Assessment” I was offered strengthened descriptions of context (Ervin, 2005 pg. 189) as it builds
on previous research and reinforces the decision of my proposed project’s site. Because of its
reliability, I obtained demographics for the subgroup from this website. It included charts about
school demographics and ethnicities of school populations by districts. This 68 page needs
assessment reinforced the already established hypothesis that stated: “Hispanic children in
Cabarrus county N.C. need to have ESL classes offered to them since they start school.” A full
essay can be reviewed at: www.cabarrushealth.org/DocumentCenter/View/108. Demographic
and statistical data will also monitor the needs in society and may aid in shaping policy. For
instance, if non-English-speaking immigrants increase, it might suggest the need of ESL classes
in schools.
In addition to providing reliable data to my audience, I also need to include the human
factor. Unlike other disciplines, anthropology also focuses on the human aspect of the scientific
research. For that, visual images of the actual problem could capture people’s perceptions,
experiences, issues, and needs (Pink, 2005). Images have the power to inspire us, narrate a story
and describe my problem but images could also offer a solution.
For instance, the image to the
right could show me more than only
children in a classroom eager to
participate. It could show me that my
project would be helpful and effective.
As just showed, an image if chosen correctly could really help an anthropologist to get
his/her point across in a very persuasive manner. Since the purpose of applied visual
anthropology is to offer sociocultural sensitivity by explaining lifestyles, cultures, and societies;
ethnographic documentaries may prove quite helpful (Pink, 2009. Nowadays, most ethnographic
research is intertwined with visual technologies (Pink, 2013). Visual ethnography theory is
explained in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-Pjzz7LfU . Depending on my budget, I will
produce a video documentary where I will show the need and acceptance of ESL classes. I will
film children in a classroom and also randomly ask several questions to some of them to allow
the audience a clear vision of the problem. In the following link, you could see the outline for the
proposed idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bWU238PymM . I can complete such
documentary in a short timeframe. First, I must seek school approval and parental consent.
An applied anthropologist often relies in technology to gather information because of
time or distance. Nowadays, modernity allows the use technology not only for ethnographic
research but also presentation. Using visual applied anthropology, I will gather information to
create and fundament my project but also to exhibit my findings in a way that I get my point
across without many words but one that is visually believable.
References:
Pink, S. (2013). Doing Visual Ethnography. Berghahn Books
Pink, S. (2009). Visual Interventions: Applied Visual Anthropology. United States: Berghahn
Books .
U.S. Census Bureau. (2013). State and County QuickFacts. Retrieved from:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/
Visual Ethnography –Current Theory (Uploaded 2009). Retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-Pjzz7LfU
ESL Struggles and Strategies Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWU238PymM