(CRN 50268, 50269) SO/AO 201: Field Methods
Carl Milofsky, X73468, Coleman 201,
milofsky@bucknell.edu
TA: Caytie
Decker, email: decker@bucknell.edu;
C-2066, 577-8622
This course is concerned with field research. We will talk about why we
do research and how "ethnographic" research is unique. We will talk
about a variety of strategies or styles of research. Most importantly, each
student will be required to do a field project that will involve 3-5 hours per
week and students will write five sets of field notes during the term
discussing their experiences.
Students will have primary responsibility themselves for arranging a
field project, although others on staff at Bucknell and I have lots of ways of
helping you find and arrange a project. Most students will be doing an internship in a social service
organization or they will be engaging in a community research project.
Community research projects will involve working with an organization (a
church, for example) and carrying on directed research in partnership with a
supervisor that helps us to understand the organization and its relationship to
the community.
Concerning transportation, those of you who do not have cars should
take the university driving test, unless you have had recent traffic violations
(then you will have trouble being approved to drive a university vehicle.)
There should be posters up in freshman halls (they were last year, anyway) and
elsewhere on campus about when meetings are being held. Bring $5 and your DL to
one of these meetings. They are held in the LC Forum. Any further questions
(like about violations) contact the Transportation Desk in the LC X 73785.
Transportation will work best if you car pool and if you do your field work at
specific times each week. The university does give priority to students who
need vehicles for class purposes. However, there is a priority system that
favors groups over individuals and certain activities over others. You do not have a right to get a university car. This is a privilege and a
resource that is somewhat chancy in terms of your getting a vehicle. MOST
IMPORTANTLY, BE NICE TO THE PEOPLE TAKING RESERVATIONS. ALL OF US DEPEND ON HER
GOOD FEELINGS AND SHE DOES HAVE TO WORK OUT ARRANGEMENTS WITH A HUGE NUMBER OF
PEOPLE. IT’S A TOUGH JOB.
This course carries W-2 credit, and the largest part (50%) of your
grade will come from writing the field notes papers. There will also be a
midterm exam (30%). Attendance, participation, and reliability in showing up
and behaving appropriately in your field setting also count towards you grade
(20%).
The only “book” for the course is the following and it is located on
electronic reserves
Carl
Milofsky and Joanne Schneider, The Field
Notes Manual. Doing Ethnography in Sociology and Anthropology (Lewisburg, PA: Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Bucknell University 2002).
In addition other materials will be placed on electronic reserve with
the library at http://eres.bucknell.edu/courseindex.asp. The password for this course is
"intern". You can access those materials through the library web
page. There also will be web pages for
this course on Blackboard and on my personal web page.
Jan 16 First Class. Discuss field work and field
settings. How do decide where to do field work? We’ll do an exercise to focus
your interests, explore your experiences, and to get you thinking about what
kind of setting you’d like to work in.
Jan 18 "Field Methods"---What is that
anyway? Ways of observing. Varieties of field observation techniques.
**Read** "Introduction", The
Field Notes Manual (If the book is
not yet available in the Bookstore, this chapter will be on ERES).
Jan 21 Where do we do field research?
**Read** “A Map of Community Nonprofit Organizations”, Chapter 4 in The Field Notes Manual. (If the book is
not yet available in the Bookstore, this chapter will be on ERES).
Jan
23 Discussion of field settings. We
will talk about the kinds of places where people have worked, the qualities of
useful and not so useful settings, the advantages and disadvantages of dramatic
settings, and the anxieties we have looking for and asking for access to a
setting. The Career Development Center maintains a website giving settings
where students in the past have done internships. Information on accessing the website is given on the last page of
this syllabus.
**Read** "Getting Out There.
Finding a Field Site", Chapter 6, The Field Notes Manual (If
the book is not yet available in the Bookstore, this chapter will be on ERES).
Jan
25 Discuss an observational
experience.
**Read** "Observing", Chapter 5, The Field Notes Manual
**Writing** Visit either the Route 15 Flea Market on
Sunday or the Farmers’ Market on Wednesday.
Write an account of your visit.
Be prepared to read what you’ve written to the class and to hand in your
paper. Be detailed in providing
description of what you experience and feel.
Do not be sarcastic since these are important institutions to the people
who use them. You may express honest
puzzlement or tell about funny things that happened. But try to explain things that you find odd or troublesome. Look for things that are surprising or
unexpected and talk about them. It is
more important for you to describe details in a way that allows others to
visualize your experience than it is for you to give an overall impression of
the whole visit.
Jan 28 Orienting towards a problem
**Writing**
Complete the “Problem Definition” assignment which you can find in the
folder titled “Forms” on ERES (the form was not ready in time to be included
with the printed version of The Field
Notes Manual). Be prepared to read
what you’ve written to class and to hand in your work at the end of class.
Jan 30 Risk and Ethics
**Read** "Ethics, Risk, and Some Emotional Consequences of Field
Research", Chapter 7, The Field
Notes Manual
Feb 1 Discuss entry to field sites and share war stories.
**Writing** You must have your field site chosen by today; Submit the "Field
Placement Registration Form" provided in “Appendix A” of A Guide to Ethnographic Field Research.
Students will hand in their field notes alternating weeks, thus forming an
"A" group and a "B" group. Students also will share papers
with peer tutors who will read and comment on drafts of your field notes. Today
students will select peer-tutoring partners, and we will decide who is in the
"A" group and who is in the "B" group.
Feb 4 An overview of field research: Beginning
**Read** Appendix E, Part I, "Williamsport
Emergency Room Field Notes #1", Field
Notes Manual
Feb 6 Field Notes: The elements
**Read** First two sections of “Writing Interpretive Field Notes”, Chapter
8 in The Field Notes Manual.
Feb 8 Field Notes: Discussing sample Field Notes
**Read** Last section of “Writing Interpretive Field Notes”, Chapter 8 in The Field Notes Manual.
Feb 11 Description
**Read** On ERES, Barbara Gallatin Anderson, “The
Anthropologist as Listener and Observer.
A French Farm Village”, pp 7-24 in Around
the World in 30 Years (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 2000).
Feb 13 Us and Them
**Read** "Researcher Identity and
Field Work", Chapter 3, The Field
Notes Manual
Feb 15 Writing Center workshop on peer editing;
meet at the Writing Center
Feb 18 Kinship and family in America. What is a relative? What do we mean by close and distant
relatives? What part does kinship play
in economics and politics in our culture?
Feb 19 If this is your week, a draft of your
field notes must be turned into your peer tutor by 6 pm Tuesday. Peer tutors must send an e-mail to Caytie
Decker telling that the field notes have been received. Failure to exchange field notes or to
acknowledge receiving them will lower your participation grade for the course.
Feb 20 Discuss sample field notes
**Writing** Peer
Tutoring beginning at 2:35
Feb 22 Prepare a chart describing your
family. Be prepared to explain it to
the class.
**Writing** Field Notes #1, Group A due
Feb
25 Social class and its contribution
to the settings we observe. What is social class? Who are we (Bucknellians) ---
an elite enclave. Class and race stereotypes. Exchange and mutual help social
systems vs. credential and "stranger management" social systems
**Read**
On ERES, Carol Stack, All Our Kin.
Strategies for Survival in a Black Community (New York: Harper and Row
1975). Chs 1-3.
Feb 26 If this is your week, a draft of your
field notes must be turned into your peer tutor by 6 pm Tuesday. Peer tutors must send an e-mail to Caytie
Decker telling that the field notes have been received. Failure to exchange field notes or to
acknowledge receiving them will lower your participation grade for the course.
Feb 27 Discuss sample field notes
**Writing** Peer
Tutoring beginning at 2:35
Mar 1 Visual ethnography: Student videos from past years: Shamokin
and East London. We will organize some
video field trips this spring in partnership with the Bucknell in Northern
Ireland Program. Prof. Eric Faden will
talk to the Northern Ireland group about taking video pictures and planning a
film. Students from this class will be
invited to those sessions. This is an
optional experience.
**Writing** Field Notes #1, Group B due
Mar 4 MIDTERM EXAM
Mar
5 If this is your week, a draft of
your field notes must be turned into your peer tutor by 6 pm Tuesday. Peer tutors must send an e-mail to Caytie
Decker telling that the field notes have been received. Failure to exchange field notes or to
acknowledge receiving them will lower your participation grade for the course.
Mar 6 Discuss sample field notes
**Writing** Peer
Tutoring beginning at 2:35
Mar 8 Interviews in your field setting
**Read** “Ethnographic Interviews” in Chapter 11,
"Tools" in The Field Notes
Manual.
**Writing** Field Notes #2, Group A due
Mar 9-17 SPRING BREAK
Mar
18 Video, A Portrait of Maya Angelou, interviewed by Bill Moyers for
PBS. Call Number: PS3551.N464 Z56
1981 (Washington, D.C. : PBS Video, 1981, c1982.). You may view this outside of class. It will be the sole activity for this class
period.
Mar
19 If this is your week, a draft of
your field notes must be turned into your peer tutor by 6 pm Tuesday. Peer tutors must send an e-mail to Caytie
Decker telling that the field notes have been received. Failure to exchange field notes or to
acknowledge receiving them will lower your participation grade for the course.
Mar 20 Life history interviews. Visit from Janet MacGaffey
**Read** Elizabeth Francis, “Qualitative Research:
Collecting Life Histories”, pp 86-101 in Stephen Devereux and John Hoddinott
(eds.), Fieldwork in Developing Countries
(Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers), on electronic reserve.
**Writing** Peer Tutoring on your own time.
Mar 22 Focus Groups
**Read** "Focus Groups" in Chapter 11,
"Tools" section of Field Notes
Manual
**Writing** Field Notes #2, Group B due
Mar 25 Lorna Johnson and Steve Bevins, Mental
Health Association of the Central Susquehanna Valley, Bloomsburg. Mental health, stigma, demeanor in the
workplace, experiencing mental illness.
Mar 26 If this is your week, a draft of your field notes must be turned into your peer tutor by 6 pm Tuesday. Peer tutors must send an e-mail to Caytie Decker telling that the field notes have been received. Failure to exchange field notes or to acknowledge receiving them will lower your participation grade for the course.
Mar 27 Discuss sample field notes
**Writing** Peer
Tutoring beginning at 2:35
Mar 29 Structured interviews and surveys
**Read** "Surveys" in Chapter 11,
"Tools" section of Field Notes
Manual
**Writing** Field Notes #3, Group A due
Apr 1 Census data
**Read** "Using Census Data". On ERES (this will become another section of
Chapter 11, "Tools" in a later edition.
Apr 2 If this is your week, a draft of your field notes must be
turned into your peer tutor by 6 pm Tuesday.
Peer tutors must send an e-mail to Caytie Decker telling that the field
notes have been received. Failure to
exchange field notes or to acknowledge receiving them will lower your
participation grade for the course.
Apr 3 Discuss sample field notes
**Writing** Peer
Tutoring beginning at 2:35
Apr 5 The idea of “complex organization”
**Read** "Kinds of Organizational Information" in
Chapter 10 “Organizational Case Studies”, in The Field Notes Manual.
**Writing** Field Notes #3, Group B due
Apr 8 Multiple Layers of Meaning
**Read** “Making Sense of Organizations”, in Chapter 10
“Organizational Case Studies”, in The
Field Notes Manual.
Apr 9 If this is your week, a draft of your
field notes must be turned into your peer tutor by 6 pm Tuesday. Peer tutors must send an e-mail to Caytie
Decker telling that the field notes have been received. Failure to exchange field notes or to acknowledge
receiving them will lower your participation grade for the course.
Apr
10 Professor Milofsky will not be In
class. The following video will be
shown. You may view it on reserve if
you wish. Video: Rev. Michael Curry on
"story" in religion. On reserve: A Listening Heart, Part I, PN1997
Listen, Part 1, his part begins @3500 (45 minutes in).
Apr 12 Stories (Kevin Blackwell to class?)
**Read** R. Coles, The Call of Stories (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 19 89), Ch 1. (on electronic reserves).
**Writing** Field Notes #4, Group A due
Apr 15 Discuss findings on your organizations.
**Writing** “Organizational Description Questionnaire”
due. Find the ODQ in the “Appendix” of
in The Field Notes Manual. Be prepared to explain your finding and to hand in your
questionnaire at the end of class. This
questionnaire will be stored at the Career Development Center, so be thoughtful
about what you put into it.
Apr 16 If this is your week, a draft of your
field notes must be turned into your peer tutor by 6 pm Tuesday. Peer tutors must send an e-mail to Caytie
Decker telling that the field notes have been received. Failure to exchange field notes or to
acknowledge receiving them will lower your participation grade for the course.
Apr 17 Discuss sample field notes
**Writing** Peer
Tutoring beginning at 2:35
Apr
19 Reality as layered; peeling the
onion; the idea of exegesis. Visit from Father Hoover?
**Read** "A Parish House for
St. Paul's", Appendix D In The Field
Notes Manual
**Writing** Field Notes #4, Group B due
Apr 22 Your self and the field setting
**Read** Michael H. Agar, “Who Are You to Do
This?”, Ch 4, pp 91-111 in The
Professional Stranger, 2nd ed. (New York: Academic Press 1996).
Apr 24 Theory and field research
**Read** “Theory and Field Research”, Chapter 9
in The Field Notes Manual.
Apr 26 Discussion: What became of your
"problem"?
Course Evaluation
Apr 29 No
Class. Meet with your peer tutor and
discuss your papers.
May 3 Final field notes due, before 5 p.m.
Local Field and
Volunteer Opportunities Database
Instructions for use
1. The Local Field and Volunteer Opportunities Database is for students and faculty who want to contact local organizations for the purpose of course-based experiential learning. Please only use this database to find experiences as directed by your professor.
2. The database is on the Career Development Center’s web site: http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/career_dev/
3. Once at the CDC web site, the database can be accessed from the Quick Picks/Hot Links menu. It is called Field and Volunteer Opportunities.
4. The username is “pam” and the password is “internship”
5. Several students who have participated in the past have filled out evaluations of the sites listed in the database. If an evaluation was completed, it will be indicated in the “Student Evaluation” column as “Yes.” The evaluations are kept in binders at the Peer Consultant desk of the CDC Resource Room. They are filed alphabetically by organization.
6. If you have questions about the database or evaluations, please ask the CDC staff or Sarah Bell (sebell@bucknell.edu).