Fieldworking and Educational Communities

A.
Education occurs everywhere, all day, everyday, both formally and informally. Education is the observation of new ideas, concepts, or skills, and the retention for future use. When we first started talking about education in our class, I only thought about it in the formal setting, but now I find informal education much more interesting. Most informal education occurs through various forms of communication, primarily vocal, but it obviously occurs in many other ways.

Usually informal education is basically effortless, but not always. For example, this past summer I had relatives visit from Denmark, and one of the first things we did was we went to a Madison Mallards baseball game. They had never watched a baseball game before (although they obviously had heard of it), so I had to explain literally every single rule, down to what ball and strike mean. I had never realized how complicated baseball was until I had to put everything into words and explain it from square one. My cousins were being educated on baseball, but also on American culture. It was “bacon appreciation day” at the game, and our Danish relatives eat very little meat, so it was a unique experience for them to say the least.

I am involved in a number of groups, some less formal than others: Biomedical Engineering Society, intramural tennis team, my extended family, and Science Olympiad.

B.
Fieldworking is the process of consciously listening, observing, talking, recording, and participating in a chosen “field,” or site for research. It involves the study of both the customs of the people and the space in which they live. Ethnography is a written account of the life of a people or group. It is the product of an ethnographer’s fieldwork.

C.
What would you find most difficult about Rick Zollo’s work in writing the Truck Stop ethnography? Gaining acceptance and the trust of the group you’re studying? Avoiding colonization? Something else?