Ethnography is on my mind!

After spending a good part of the day on Friday at the Ethnography Forum, then writing a reaction piece and setting up observations and interviews for my Ethnography class it is only natural that I will continue my discussion on the topic here in my blog!

The forum was great! I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the two sessions that I attended and I only wish I had more time to attend additional presentations. While I don't really see myself going into research any time soon (I am looking to get out there and PRACTICE!), I really admire the dedication and perserverence of the researchers from the forum. I wrote a two page reaction paper where I talked about the how the forum related to my coursework and it really was astounding how much carried over. I think I connected most with a presentation from a woman studying immigrant education and literacy in a Washington, DC school. She worked with these students for more than two years, and in my opinion, told a wonderful story about the lives of these students and just how connected they still are to their sending countries through way of technology and communication. She really focused on the theme of transnationalism, which interstingly enough she did not even discover as an over-arching theme in her data until after the two year observation and interview period, because she was focusing mostly on literature and literacy. She also noted that some of her findings could have been influenced by the focus on immigrant issues, an extremely hot topic at the conclusion of her research in May 2006.

I think the fact that a person can spend two years doing research and assuming that it will go in one direction and then after analyzing the data find very different themes then originally anticipated just shows the intricate nature of research. I am in the process of conducting my own research with ESL (English as Second Language) students at the Community College of Philadelphia. I am starting out just trying to understand the motives for taking ESL and "regular" college courses at a community college for non-US residents, but who knows where my data will take me. I have already observed the strictly ESL class for two hours and tomorrow I will observe the Sociology class that all of the ESL students are enrolled in with other non-ESL college students. I am interested to see how the dynamic will change and how the students will act in a setting in which they are earning college credits.

I am on Spring Break next week and I will use that time to interview some of the students. I just heard on the news today that the faculty at the Community College of Philadelphia are planning to strike. I wonder how this situation will affect the interviews and the findings from my research, just as the national immigrantion debates potentially affected the data from the ethnographer in politically charged Washington, DC. I guess I will have to wait and see!

~Lezlie