Education occurs everywhere. Formal education is the bare minimum of learning. In agreement with Dewey, the social education is a vital part of growing up. My history of education began in a social environment, at home. It became part social and part formal went I entered preschool and kindergarten and eventually progressed to a fully formal system in school. Although school becomes a fully formal experience, social education continues to flourish in all outside experiences.
I’m thinking about doing my ethnography with relation to the Hillel community here at UW-Madison. The community at Hillel is made up of a variety of people all sharing one common trait – religion. There are many educational cultures there, as it offers classes in subjects ranging from spirituality to text study. Being part of the Hillel community, I think that the field studies would be an interesting opportunity for me to view the experience as an outsider.
Field working and ethnography are, briefly, the immersion of an outsider in a culture for the purpose of studying that culture. The outsider, through thorough study begins to feel like a member of the community allowing him to write an analysis from multiple perspectives.
I know that I did not list a set of communities in which I am involved for my ethnography, but is the one I selected off hand suitable?
Also, why is writing an ethnography of a community from which you can remove yourself important to the quality of the text?
Also, why is writing an ethnography of a community from which you can remove yourself important to the quality of the text?
I think it would be really interesting if you did the Hillel community for UW. Will it be hard to remove yourself from it since it is your religion? Will you be able to see it from an outside perspective? Maybe you could interview some one who has been in a different Hillel community and see if they find it similar to the UW community?
ReplyDeleteI think this sounds like an interesting topic!
ReplyDeleteThe quality of the text is greatly affected by whether or not the writer removes themselves to get a true understanding of what the community is really about. It is easy for us as writers and observers to immediately form opinions and biases, so it is important to keep an open mind and be open to all perspectives in order for others to gain a full and fair understanding. Being able to remove yourself could probably result in a lot of eye opening experiences that would have never occurred otherwise.