A)
Education in its most bare form is the transmission of knowledge from one group/person to another group/person. It is a reciprocal relationship that relies on effective communication. The transfer of knowledge occurs in both directions, meaning both parties involved are educating and being educated simultaneously. Think about the last time you had a meaningful conversation with someone else. For me, it was talking with an admissions director for a medical school im applying to. During our conversation, I was educated on the various methods med schools use to evaluate candidates, particularly the methods this specific school uses. But at the same time, I was educating her becuase she was able to gain a sense of the type of candidate that is applying to her school, what are some common questions a possible candidate may have, and she even asked me what it would take to convince me to attend her school if I had the freedom to choose.
As evidenced by this previous example, educations can occur anywhere there is an exchange of information. This information does not need to be exchanged verbally either. Various mediums such as visual representations, or other sensory information (i.e. touching a hot pan educates a young child to never touch anything on the stove when his mom is cooking) can serve as the mode of information transfer. Some common places we see education taking place is in the classroom, at the library, on an athletic field during practice, in the laboratory, on television, the list goes on....
The various groups that I am currently actively involved with are: GUTS Tutoring, Biomedical Engineering Society, Universal Hospital Services, MSCR recreational basketball, and the UW-Madison community. Some groups that I wish to be a part of are: UW Badgers athletics, the University Hospital and Schools of Hope tutoring.
B)
Fieldworking is the process of doing research in a particular area by placing oneself in that area and observing whats going on. An ethnography is a piece of writing that is produced after conducting fieldwork and observing how people interact and behave in their daily life.
C)
One question I have is that how can we eliminate assumptions and prejudices about the field of study that we choose? If we are suposed to be choosing a field we are already associated with or have previous knowledge about, I think there will be inherent assumptions that accompany our choice and will be very hard to get rid of. I think the only true way to avoid assumptions and stereotypes would be to go into a situation that we are completely näive towards and have absolutely no previous knowledge about. I know the reading mentions that we should "step out" of our element to control for such assumptions and help avoid them, but I just think that the human mind is too clever to completely ignore our previous opinions.
I agree with you that this would be one of the more difficult aspects of this type of research, especially when observing groups about which we already know so much. It was entertaining reading the short excerpt from Rosaldo's work about eggs at breakfast. His writing made me realize how much I would not notice if I were in his position, so I think doing this type of research requires a lot of practice before your previous knowledge and stereotypes can be pushed aside.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you Derek. As humans, we are creatures of habit and one of our habits is to try to make sense of the world around us. Unfortunately, we often use assumptions to do this because it involves less effort and time than does actually learning about the world around us. However, I don't think it's necessary to "erase" our assumptions and prejudices about a group of people prior to conducting fieldwork. Instead, I think we should look at the fieldwork as an opportunity to alter, eliminate, or justify our current understandings of that group.
ReplyDelete