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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ethnographic Methodology'
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Koven, Mikel J. "An ethnography of seeing : a proposed methodology for the ethnographic study of popular cinema /." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape8/PQDD_0006/NQ42479.pdf.
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Clark, Jodie. "The critical analysis of discourses in communities of practice : a methodology for ethnographic research." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.492853.
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The aim of this thesis is to propose a ethnographically oriented form of critical discourse analysis that is capable of making supportable claims about the unique ways in which discourses operate in local settings. It proposes a methodology for the analysis of 'structured variation' in discourses in communities of practice.
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Simpson, Stuart A. "The artist in the field : investigating tourist performativity and ethnographic methodology through art practice." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2008. http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/294/.
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This research centres on an artistic exploration of ethnographic methodologies whilst investigating tourist performativity and the presentation of self within tourist documentation. Central to this presentation is the performance of the documented smile. The materiality of this research comes from documentary evidence (video, sound, photography, interviews, fieldnotes and diaries) recorded during a fieldtrip around popular tourist destinations in Europe. Data gathering methods, such as participant observation, reflexive writing and informal interviews with tourists, were employed not just to capture the tourist experience of others, but also to explore the multiplicity and variability of the researcher self within the field. The representation of the researcher within the research findings has become one of the issues that this project has sought to address. Two practical outputs, a primary case study entitled Smile: Formaggio con Queso (a randomly configuring computer networked installation) and a secondary case study (an interactive kiosk), interface a database constructed from the field data. Both case studies support research into how ethnographic methods might be used to inform the production processes of an art project, and, additionally, how digital art practice might contribute to the presentation of post-paradigm ethnography. The practical issues of data collecting and the implications of using the self as part of the data source are highlighted. This will be of interest to artists working in field environments where the self and 'other' is synonymous. Furthermore, the primary case study challenges conventional representational ethnographic modes in order to facilitate new kinds of qualitative and ethnographic insights. A reflexive autoethnographic approach to writing the thesis has been utilised to validate my personal narrative as a line of inquiry.
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Smith, Simon Paul. "Towards a knowledge management methodology for articulating the role of hidden knowledges." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:32449230-a86a-453b-b9d4-dca2d0b7be3c.
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Knowledge Management Systems are deployed in organisations of all sizes to support the coordination and control of a range of intellectual assets, and the low cost infrastructures made available by the shift to ‘cloud computing’ looks to only increase the speed and pervasiveness of this move. However, their implementation has not been without its problems, and the development of novel interventions capable of supporting the mundane work of everyday organisational settings has ultimately been limited. A common source of trouble for those formulating such systems is said to be that some proportion of the knowledge held by a setting’s members is hidden from the undirected view of both The Organisation and its analysts - typically characterised as a tacit knowledge - and can therefore go unnoticed during the design and deployment of new technologies. Notwithstanding its utility, overuse of this characterisation has resulted in the inappropriate labelling of a disparate assortment of phenomena, some of which might be more appropriately re-specified as ‘hidden knowledges’: a standpoint which seeks to acknowledge their unspoken character without making any unwarranted claims regarding their cognitive status. Approaches which focus on the situated and contingent properties of the actual work carried out by a setting’s members - such as ethnomethodologically informed ethnography - have shown significant promise as a mechanism for transforming the role played by members’ practices into an explicit topic of study. Specifically they have proven particularly adept at noticing those aspects of members’ work that might ordinarily be hidden from an undirected view, such as the methodic procedures through which we can sometimes mean more than we can say in-just-so-many-words. Here - within the context of gathering the requirements for new Knowledge Management Systems to support the reuse of existing knowledge - the findings from the application of just such an approach are presented in the form of a Pattern Language for Knowledge Management Systems: a descriptive device that lends itself to articulating the role that such hidden knowledges are playing in everyday work settings. By combining these three facets, this work shows that it is possible to take a more meaningful approach towards noticing those knowledges which might ordinarily be hidden from view, and apply our new understanding of them to the design of Knowledge Management Systems that actively engage with the knowledgeable work of a setting’s members.
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Ferrer, Sanz Maria N. "Ontologies and knowledges of autonomous resistances in Barcelona: An ethnographic analysis of Can Batlló." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/17368.
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This research is born from a conscious reflection on the roles and judgements
that traditional scientific analyses imprint in its objects of study, especially in the
field of social movement theory. It aims to understand whether and, to which
extent, autonomous resistances knowledges constructed on the ground
challenge the academic interpretations of those movements. For this reason, the
first part of this dissertation focuses on unravelling how traditional ontologies
have been built and underpin majoritarian scientific analyses. Thus, I review most
current debates in the field. Traditional social movement research tends to focus
on dualist discussions related to new and old social movements, European and
American approaches, behavioural or cost-benefits views, structural and agency
approaches, identity-based interpretations, etc. In opposition to that, I argue for
an ontology breaking with dualist views, placing Deleuze’s concept of difference
at the centre of my argument and feminist ontologies of the body as the medium
affecting the political experience. I propose an autoethnographic method focused
on presenting a cartography of urban resistance movements composed by
difference and rhizomatic relationships in opposition to the homogenisation of
ideas and demands of academic research for pilling up patterns, variables or
categories. Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the BwO is presented here as a
theoretical tool that helps to introduce the case study in relation with its contexts,
relationships, affects and networks.
The second part of this research narrates and analyses how the proposed
theory is unwrapped in the field. In doing so, I analyse my participation with and
from within one of those collectives, Can Batlló and, more specifically, a project
named La Fondona. Can Batlló is an autonomous and self-organised social centre in the neighbourhood of La Bordeta in Barcelona with which I worked
during six months between 2013 and 2014. Throughout this period, I participated
actively not only in Can Batlló but also in the actions and events that took place
in the neighbourhood of Sants-Montjuïc and Barcelona. Hence, I present an
analysis of the internal processes, relations and knowledge-practices as well as
the relationships that this collective maintains with the community, its sociopolitical
space and historical context. I argue those relations are constructed
through rhizomatic principles as well as drawing from feminist approaches which
put life and the body at the centre of their arguments. These outcomes will be
finally reflected in chapter IX of this dissertation under the lenses of the research
question posed in this thesis. That is whether current urban resistances challenge
majoritarian social movements’ analyses.<br>Marie Curie Fellow Program and University of Utrecth
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Albuloshi, Fatemah Mohammed K. "Reflections on current directions in leadership research : a reflexive-ethnographic examination of leader-follower and group dynamics in an international human rights based organization." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/31815.
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This study problematizes the down play of heroic perspectives in the currently rising critical and post-heroic leadership research. It argues that compromising either the critical or the post-heroic perspectives in favour of the other would constrict or mislead our understanding of the social influence of leadership processes. This study calls for maintaining the theoretical uniqueness of both perspectives in order to enhance new understandings and broader knowledge claims. Therefore, the study adopts a reflexive-ethnographic examination of the leader-follower and group dynamics, in an International Human Rights Based Organization. The overall aim is to develop an understanding of how individuals in an International Organization like Global Peace Organization (GPO) cope with the universal scope of their organization and the diversity in their work environment. This aim is fulfilled through examining self-narratives generated by the participants in their day to day interactions. To facilitate the coherence between the two leadership perspectives in this examination, a dialectical dimension is enhanced by extending the emerging tactics of reflexivity and intertextuality to the various stages of research. The critical perspective then reveals a context-driven approach in the self-narratives where participants use their particular worldviews to interpret dilemmas and conflicts originating in their work. Conflicts between participants and their leaders also reflect power interplays based on crafting a sense of we-ness / us in self-Other encounters. However, an added perspective on interpersonal relations suggests the significance of the single factor where the less secure participants tend to mask their resistance with creative impression-management strategies. This eventually transforms their insecurities into more positive attitudes and behaviours which repositions them as informal leaders in their groups.
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Angelopoulou, Zoi. "ICTs and Citizen Participation : An Ethnography in the Municipality Level." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för informatik (IK), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-59778.
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This master thesis describes an ethnographic research under the critical paradigm of thoughtin the use of ICTs to support citizen participation in the Municipality level. The purpose ofthe research was to acquire an understanding of the perspective of citizens on the topic andprovide suggestions for the employment of ICTs in citizen participation on the specificcontext. The research setting is located in a neighborhood of a Municipality in Athens, thecapital of Greece. Participants included randomly selected citizens, representatives fromcitizens groups which are active in the neighborhood and a representative of the Municipality.The data gathered in the research was qualitative and the methods were selected andconducted following the participatory design approach in correspondence with theethnographic methodology and critical paradigm. The methods used were interviews, probesand participatory observation. The data gathered pointed at similar concerns expressed by theparticipants mainly towards issues such as ignorance and indifference. Participants also hadthe opportunity to make suggestions on the topic of ICTs and citizen participation, which incombination with the results of a thematic analysis of the qualitative data were used to makesuggestions for future employment of ICTs in the Municipality. Through this directengagement with participants the research also hopes to contribute to the developing Greekdomestic literature on the topic, especially concerning the use of qualitative data.
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Dos, Santos Paes Isabela. "Mouvement : individuation et transformation : une approche ethnographique de l'Odin Teatret." Thesis, Evry, Institut national des télécommunications, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2010TELE0033.
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Pour Boltanski et Chiapello (1999), la critique artiste a été récupérée par le capitalisme. La motivation repose aujourd’hui grandement sur certains principes au nom desquels il était critiqué dans les années 60. Pourtant n’existe-t-il pas dans certaines organisations artistiques des grandeurs, valeurs ou pratiques, des modes d’organisation et de vie commune, constituant un ferment critique qui n’a pas été récupéré par le capitalisme contemporain ? Une exploration de type ethnographique a été menée au sein d’Odin Teatret, au Danemark, une organisation où la critique artiste s’élabore et se vit. Nous avons observé et participé au total pendant six mois aux créations et activités de ce groupe hors norme. Dans un premier temps, en nous inspirant de la description dense de Geertz, nous avons constaté que, bien que parfois avec des formes et une acuité particulière, bien des ressorts décrits par Boltanski et Chiapello étaient à l’oeuvre mais que cependant certaines énigmes demeuraient. Abandonnant l’approche cognitive de Geertz pour celle plus réflexive et tournée vers les affects de Stewart, nous avons ensuite entrepris de poursuivre et re-décrire notre expérience en insistant sur le désir, la transformation, la présence, pour chercher une autre manière de faire sens, riche et affective, de l’activité à Odin. Dans un troisième temps, cette expérience à Odin est réfléchie grâce aux concepts de Stiegler. Nous comprenons alors que ce lieu est le théâtre de certains processus différents de l’entreprise capitaliste, fut-elle organisée en réseau. L’individuation psychique, collective et technique, le rôle du désir et d’une certaine économie libidinale, le rôle du non calculable, l’insistance de la recherche non de motivations mais de ce qui fait que la vie mérite d’être vécue… sont autant de facettes qui ne peuvent être que partiellement récupérées par l’économie capitaliste. Par ailleurs la présence, l’ouverture au possible, la créativité, peut-être même l’authenticité, demandent un entraînement long, répété et épuisant (exigeant). A la différence de la standardisation et de la pulsion dans la consommation, il s’agit de mettre son être en mouvement – non pour devenir une forme précise, mais cherchant le mouvement pour lui-même qui ouvre à la présence et à une intensité de vie. Une critique artiste, réinterrogeant ces éléments, peut toujours être présente, même virulente contre un capitalisme qui fait de nous des endormis et des corps stupides<br>[non communiqué]
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Shafiq, Faisal. "A study of parental engagement among Pakistani families." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/a-study-of-parental-engagement-among-pakistani-families(f3ffe860-6c0c-4ff0-afc3-6effbe5625f3).html.
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This thesis reports a study of parental engagement in children's learning in three Pakistani heritage families in England. The aim of the study was to explore the perspectives and beliefs of Pakistani parents on how and why they engage with their children's school-related learning and beyond, and to investigate the perspectives of children on how their parents' engagement impacted on their behaviour as learners. The study aims to fill gaps in the existing research literature pertaining to examining parental engagement through the eyes of parents and students who face barriers to engagement. Contributions could be made in this area through studies focused on how parents engage with their children in the home. To achieve this, four questions were proposed: What are the forms of parental engagement in terms of children's school-related learning and beyond in a sample of Pakistani homes? Do parents have a clear view why they are engaging in such a way: if so, what is that view? To what extent do these forms of engagement appear to be shaped by distinctive cultural characteristics of Pakistani parents? How do their children view the impact of parental engagement on themselves as learners? These questions were investigated through an overarching ethnographic methodology to understand a small part of the cultural practices of this group. The data was collected through a combination of mixed qualitative methods: solicited diary interviews; photo voice interviews; video footage interviews; documents; field notes; and semi-structured interviews. The findings illuminated the issues of parental engagement and ethnicity, on which there is little literature, and made implications for policies and practices aimed at raising the achievement of this group. The data revealed how the parents engaged with their children in school-related issues; reading, writing and attending school functions. Moreover, the parents were engaged with aspects beyond school; such as, religion, culture, play and computers. The parents had a very broad understanding of education that encompassed not only school, but also activities outside the school environment. This is a very significant aspect, as the parents recognised that school does not teach everything. Data moreover revealed that the parents had different capacities ofengagement according to their own educational background and occupational stance. Those educated in Pakistan relied on the children's to help each other with school work, while some parents could provide more resources to their children consequently of their occupational stance. The parents wanted to preserve their culture and religion. They did this by teaching their children about their religion and culture; Quran, Arabic, Urdu and by sending them to the mosque. All this had a positive influence on their children's spiritual, cultural, personal, social and moral development. The children viewed parental engagement as a positive contributor to their lives. The main purpose of this engagement was to shape the children into good human beings. The children understood the importance of being self-confident, comfortable with who they are and motivated to succeed. Parental engagement made the children confident and wanting to strive for the best, while religious development made them understand the concept of right and wrong. The study moreover contributes to knowledge in several ways;1. the study highlights the diversity in the Pakistani population;2. the study adds to the understanding of how working-class Pakistani parents can have broad understandings of education which extend far beyond school-based learning, and include developing the skills, attitudes and resources to lead a 'good' life;3. the study demonstrates that religiosity is shown to be integral to Pakistani parents' engagement in their children's learning;4. the study highlights that Pakistani parents are shown to take responsibility for their children's 'holistic' education, and are also shown to use siblings as 'educational resources' to support school-based learning when they are unable to do so;5. the study reveals the relevance of Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth theory to the Pakistani community;6. the study also makes a contribution by presenting an insider account of parenting practices in Pakistani families.
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Robinson, Simon. "Archipelagos of interstitial ground : a filmic investigation of the Thames Gateway's edgelands : how can a multimodal (auto)ethnographic methodology be deployed to shape geographic imaginations of the Thames Gateway?" Thesis, University of the Arts London, 2017. http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/13461/.
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This thesis explores and documents the development of an adapted ethnographic methodology that is defined through its orientation towards the representation and production of landscape. As a result of this methodology, I document the shift within my practice from a topographic photography tradition to a filmic, ‘more-than-visual’ (Jacobs, 2013: 714) mode of production, in response to ideas of creative ethnography as an immersive methodology. The resulting movement of films forms a ‘landscape ethnography’ (Ogden, 2011) that acts as both survey and auto-biogeography. Informed by the diversity of registers, and voices within landscape ethnography, and contemporary psychogeographic practice, the thesis and films shift tone to reflect this. To clarify, this work will inform a cross-disciplinary reading of place and landscape through an experiential methodology of both ethnographic and auto ethnographic methods. This practice-led body of research investigates the multi-layered interstitial spaces that occur in the areas between infrastructure and planned development known as edgelands in the Thames Gateway. My multimodal creative practice will be informed by existing literature relating to marginal/liminal landscapes in and beyond geography and landscape writing. The written thesis explores the contemporary landscape photography and new nature writing traditions, which I believe to be closely interconnected, through critique and production of new bodies of practice. Through a consideration of my own practice and others, I demonstrate a web of connections: between landscapes; between practitioners past and present; and, significantly, between theory and practice. Through examining both landscape theory and my own experience of an embodied approach to landscape, this research examines not only the potential of lens based practices to act as a portal to read and experience the landscape as a whole, but also the practice and process of making work. viii These sites will be seen and discussed as interconnected phenomena, stitching together ‘archipelagos of interstitial ground’. This along with the idea of landscape ethnography can then be adopted as a methodology to develop an immersive form of virtual exploration that can utilise developing forms of media dissemination to explore the audiences’ relationship to remote locations.
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Tapo, Michael Francis. "National standards/local implementation: case studies of differing perceptions of national education standards in Papua New Guinea." Queensland University of Technology, 2004. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15919/.
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This research investigated teachers'perceptions, understandings and implementation of education standards in elementary and primary schools in Papua New Guinea. The main research question and two sub-questions were designed to explore teachers' perceptions and understanding of national standards. This exploration engaged teachers in identifying factors which they believed influenced their professional work. This study also explored stakeholders' perceptions of teachers' interpretations of national education standards. This study adopted social constructivist epistemology, symbolic interactionism, and ethnographic case study methodology. This provided the basis for its theoretical framework to purposefully understand human interactions within their culture and context. Social constructivism accommodates situated learning, a conceptual framework which was adapted to interrogate understanding and implementation of national education standards. A variety of research methods were used to elicit teachers' and stakeholders' perceptions and experiences of their professional world. These methods included in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, documentary analysis, field notes and observations. Most of the focus group discussions engaged participants to "tell their stories", thus storytelling became an avenue for eliciting teachers' and stakeholders'perceptions. Workshops conducted for teachers became another important strategy for data collection. Two schools, one rural and one urban, became case studies to understand national education standards as an external phenomenon. A total of 595 participants were involved in this study including teachers and pupils, parents and community members, school board members, members of curriculum committees, and policy makers. The study found numerous contextual factors influenced teachers' understandings, interpretation and implementation of standards at the school level. Foremost, teachers' own knowledge of formal education standards was deficient thus influencing their commitment to and enthusiasm in their professional work. Teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical skills influenced their ability to translate content standards into clear benchmarks for pupils' learning. The absence of effective monitoring systems of teachers' performance contributed to pupils' superficial assessment reports and of uncoordinated mastery of subject content and performance skills. The absence of effective school leadership affected teachers' commitment, attitudes and professionalism. This generated a culture of isolationism acute in both schools. Teachers were performing to hierarchically externally imposed requirements, and in the process, overlooked essential knowledge and skills that were needed to improve quality of students' learning. The national education standards are an inherited policy from the colonial administration. This study found that successful implementation of education standards is highly dependent on the social and cultural expectations of Papua New Guinea's rapidly changing society. At the local level, education standards are highly influenced by teachers' professionalism, provincial education boards and community expectations. This is compounded by the mismatch of priorities and policies between the national and provincial education divisions. Such a practice impacts negatively on the successful implementation of educational reform agendas. The study implies that a reconsideration of national education standards is necessary. This process will involve a rethinking of teacher education programmes, dismantling previous assumptions of national standards and local implementation, and accommodating challenges presented by economic, political, social and cultural change in Papua New Guinea.
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Dalitz, Tracey Leanne, and trdalitz@optusnet com au. "An Investigation of the Ethnography of Knowledge through an Organisational Ethnography of ActewAGL." The Australian National University. Faculty of Economics and Commerce, 2006. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20061214.132313.
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This thesis develops and empirically tests the method of the Ethnography of Knowledge in the context of an ethnographic study of the Logistics Branch of ActewAGL, an Australian multi-utility company.
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The study is based on fieldwork undertaken over an eight and a half month period of participant observation and uses a grounded style of analysis.
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In trying to understand the knowledge underpinning the social construction of a particular aspect of the field site I have used a confessional ethnographic approach. After analysing and coding the data I then assign knowledge taxonomies to the ethnographic account to understand the knowledge underpinning the social situation. I have called this method the Ethnography of Knowledge. The Ethnography of Knowledge does not follow a piece of knowledge through an organisation or attempt to understand the organisations knowledge but uses knowledge as a tool to understand the social construction of the setting, not as the focus itself. The thesis then explores where, when and how the Ethnography of Knowledge is useful in relation to four significant themes from the data; routines, in/formal, change and power.
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The contributions of the thesis are primarily methodological (the Ethnography of Knowledge), secondarily locational (Australia and ActewAGL) with some incidental theoretical contributions related to the data chapters. The thesis also contributes and assessment of the applicability of viewing various theoretical constructs as knowledge-based. Methodologically, my main contribution is to use participant observation and then in the analysis phase to assign knowledge taxonomies to the ethnographic account in order to gain a greater understanding of the socially constructed knowledge underpinning the actions in the social setting. I then empirically test how useful the application of this method is in relation to the various themes that form the basis of my data chapters. Through testing the method, this study confirms that whilst knowledge is a useful methodological tool in enhancing understanding of the certain aspect of the organisational social setting, it is not equally in all situations. When aspects of the social setting are knowledge-based or locally observable, such as routines and in/formal, the Ethnography of Knowledge is very useful in enhancing an understanding. However as one moves to a more macro view of the organisation, away from the initiation of actions, such as in organisational change or power, the Ethnography of Knowledge is less useful.
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Locationally I contribute a new site and add to the sparse Australian organisational ethnographic literature. In each chapter I provide incidental theoretical contributions in an ethnographic and empirical study of each particular construct. Most significantly, I am the first to test routines theory as a full participant in organisational routines, adding problem-solving as a characteristic. I also develop and use a model for understanding and analysing how the formal and informal aspects of organisations act and interact in getting things done. Implications of this research are discussed further.
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Folkerth, Jennifer Amanda. "Shared visions : toward collaborative visual ethnography." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=68089.
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Recent critiques of both the subject and method of anthropology have caused the discipline to reexamine its process of representation. This thesis provides an exploration of approaches to representation in visual anthropology, with specific emphasis on collaborative visual ethnography. Both theoretical and practical issues are considered. The first chapter traces the history of ethnographic film and discusses various approaches to subject participation in literature and films. The second chapter presents a theoretical basis for collaborative visual ethnography, primarily from "postmodern" critiques of anthropology and recent visual anthropology literature. The third chapter consists of an analysis of a video resulting from a collaborative project I facilitated, in order to illustrate ideas of collaborative visual ethnography in a practical setting. The fourth, and final, chapter examines the few examples of collaborative film and video that are documented in order to construct a framework for approaching collaborative projects.
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Ternar, Yeshim 1956. "The romantic between the lines : ethnographer as author." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=63219.
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Stein, Sebastian. "Softtware Process Improvements in a Small Organisation : an Ethnography." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Avdelningen för programvarusystem, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-2879.
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Software process improvements are required to increase the productivity of software companies. Generally, it is the aim to increase the quality of the produced software and to keep budget and time. Quality models for software process improvements were developed in context of large organisations and multi-national companies. In this study I investigated how software process improvements are done in a small software company. Ethnography was used as research method. It was the aim of this study to build up an understanding of how software process improvements are done and enabled in a small organisation. Fieldnotes were taken and later analysed using template analysis. Ethnography as the chosen research strategy proved to be applicable and feasible in software engineering research. The qualitative research strategy resulted in a detailed description of how one software company did software process improvements from a bottom-up perspective. Despite the learning potential of "how real world contingencies and possibilities interact and shape software process improvement efforts", such descriptions are rare in software engineering literature. Based on the field experiences and the analysed fieldnotes, the following results were identified: In the studied small software organisation, software process improvement efforts were pushed by the initiative of single employees. The studied company did not have enough resources to implement a complete quality model. In addition, management was heavily involved in daily work and therefore had not enough time to initiate and lead software process improvement efforts. For small software companies in a similar situation, the following guidelines can be given: First, a bottom-up approach with delegating responsibility from management to selected employees is needed. Second, management must ensure to be available if decisions must be taken. Third, improvements must be visible and feedback must be provided contemporary to gain momentum in the whole improvement effort. In some cases it might be important to create awareness of possible improvements. Here, employees should create internal lobbies by involving and convincing other employees of the improvement's importance. A joined effort will help to create enough pressure for change, so that improvement efforts get started.<br>Please review the chosen subjects! I'm not sure, if I have done this correctly. My thesis touches all those parts, still it is not a complete sociological study. Besides email you can reach me by phone (Germany, mobile): +49 163 4016393
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Johnson, Michelle Natasya. "The other side of Middletown : a case study in collaborative ethnography." Virtual Press, 2005. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1313636.
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Collaborative ethnography is an innovative outgrowth of the postmodern debate and is defined as a "...co-conceived and/or co-written text (with local collaborators) that consider[s] multiple audiences outside the confines of academic discourse, including local constituencies..." (Lassiter n.d.:11). As a research and writing method, collaborative ethnographies seek to address ethical issues of authority, ownership, audience, relevance, reciprocity and representation. In this respect, I document and critically reflect on the collaborative process of the Other Side of Middletown project (OSM)—a collaboratively based ethnographic venture which involved local experts (community advisors), ethnographers and BSU students. I present the OSM project as a case study that adds to the existing data on the approaches to collaborative ethnography and explore how collaborative ethnography is useful to the negotiation of current postmodern debates. Furthermore, I track and document the collaborative process, and then synthesize the ways that collaboration was both effective, and not effective through data collected via structured and semi-structured informal interviews, focus groups and participant observation of the project collaborators.The significance of my thesis rests in documenting the collaborative process to reflect on the political, moral and ethical intricacies of present-day ethnography and to offer criticism, suggestions and/or techniques for better and more clearly articulated collaborative research and epistemology. Morespecifically, the value of this thesis is supported by the critical reflection of how the black community was represented by the OSM project. The OSM project is an interdisciplinary, intercultural, collaborative response to the debate of Western historical thinking. The collaborative approach used in the OSM project is an experimental method from the postmodern reflections and critiques that aim to resolve our ethical trepidations.While the collaborative approach is not relevant to all ethnographic research, the results of my research will be vital to the continuation of ethnography for academic purposes, and more importantly, for communities and consultants.<br>Department of Anthropology
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Tomas, David. "An ethnography of the eye : authority, observation and photography in the context of British anthropology 1839-1900." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=75671.
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Anthropological classics such as E. H. Man's On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands (1883) and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown's The Andaman Islanders (1922) are generally regarded as products of an emergent nineteenth century social science. These anthropological classics were accepted by contemporaries as authoritative statements in their authors' fields of competence, and the ethnographic 'pictures' of the aborigines they presented were accepted as accurate descriptions of indigenous life. The following thesis argues for an alternative approach to the history of the production of anthropological knowledge. It begins by exploring the gradual codification of observational practices in the nineteenth century British anthropology. The codification of ethnographic observation is examined in the case of anthropological manuals published between 1840 and 1892, and their methodological impact on the possibilities of data collection are discussed. Ethnographic observation is then approached from the point of view of media use, and the relationship between drawing and photography is discussed in relation to nineteenth century physical and cultural anthropology. The codification of ethnographic observation and the anthropological use of various representational media are the problematic for an intensive exploration of the production of anthropological knowledge in the Andaman Islands. The approach adopted focuses on unacknowledged strategies and marginalized knowledge which were nevertheless directly implicated in the production of ethnographic texts. Following this approach, the discipline of Anthropology comes to seem less an isolated intellectual activity, and more a residue of broad social, cultural, and political processes. Drawing on this perspective, the works of Man and Radcliffe-Brown on the Andaman Islanders are treated as the culmination of a history of representation that is built on and incorporates administrative strategies, representational media and s
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von, Oldenburg Tim. "Representing bicycle-based interaction: An interaction design exploration into bicycling research." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21838.
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In public spaces, we constantly interact with each other - whether we are aware of it or not. Most of these interactions are indirect and subtle, ranging from flâneurial people-watching, over negotiation of turns in urban traffic, to passive aggression. This is not only true for pedestrians, but equally so for bicyclists.Bicycling is an embodied and social practice. When designing for cycle-based experiences, interaction designers face many problems while conducting research: mobility is always on the move and therefore hard to capture; the fleeting moments of interaction are almost imperceptible to the eye; and verbal accounts of bicyclists cannot represent the experiential qualities of a ride properly.While there exists a history of ethnographic studies into bicyclists' behaviour, it proves to be difficult to enquire into these more subtle interactions. More conventional representations of experience, such as video, fail to capture many of the qualities inherent in taking a ride and being 'out there'. It would be naive to neglect these qualities in our research when designing for cycle-based interaction.This thesis builds on the work of ethnographers and designers engaged in bicycling research. It explores new ways of enquiry that help researchers find out what really happens on the saddle and beyond.
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Taber, Micheal W. Jr. "I Know I Shouldn’t Generalize, but…: A Rhetorical Critique of Ethnography in Composition Studies." Scholar Commons, 2010. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1785.
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This thesis looks at Stephen North's 1987 claim of the limits of ethnography in composition research and looks at modern, published research studies to see how they have heeded North's warnings.
In 1987 Stephen North claimed that the future of ethnographic methodology in composition research was doomed unless those who would adopt this qualitative technique understood its limitations. North argued that each ethnography is only valuable as an individual study, that individual studies are not cumulative towards some absolute and discoverable positivistic model of knowledge. This warning of the problem and limitations of modern qualitative ethnography was issued over 2 decades ago; how have we done? Does the modern composition researcher who uses ethnographic methodology heed North's warning not to generalize, or do they just tip their hat at North and do it anyway? But regardless of North's dire predictions and warnings, it is apparent that ethnography as a research methodology (in its many disputed forms) is here to stay in composition studies.
This thesis provides a sample of research ethnographies published since North's 1987 warning and looks at the methodologies, narrative style, and theoretical conclusions used by some current researchers. By using a close rhetorical analysis which compares the language choices and theoretical positions of those well-received studies against the idea of the non-cumulative nature of ethnographic study, I will contrast what modern researchers say they will do versus what is presented within their published work.
Using North's and others' claims on the limitations of generalizable knowledge and hypotheses-testing fallacies of ethnographic methodology for research in composition studies, this thesis first defines the research questions, offers a definition of methodological terms in context of rhetoric and composition research, offers a background of critique, and applies this critique to a sample of post-North published dissertations and monographs.
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Robinson, Christine. "Paradoxical Performances of Subjectivities, Spaces and Art Gallery Postcards." The University of Waikato, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2295.
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This thesis examines the relationship between art gallery postcards, subjectivities and domestic spaces. Feminist post-structuralist debates on memory, subjectivity and domestic spaces provide the theoretical framework for this research into taken-for-granted objects of the everyday. Empirical data came from interviewing nine women who buy, use and keep postcards and two New Zealand Art Gallery store managers. Some of the participants were interviewed more than once, while others extended their views by e-mail. Auto-ethnographic narrative is used to explore further the symbolic significance of an individual's postcard consumption. This research focuses attention on the production of gendered subjectivities and domestic spaces through an aesthetic artefact. There are three points to my analysis. Firstly, I argue paradoxically the under-noticed seemingly trivial gallery postcard becomes a memory holder and therefore a significant artefact of symbolic value. Memories are potent, elusive fragments that become attached to a sound, smell, touch or sight. Catching sight of a postcard can trigger a chain of memory associations, which in turn constructs a sense of self through the remembering. Secondly, I contend that subjectivity is understood as fluid and multiple, evolving out of experience and interpretation. Memories formed from experience and connections made with people, place and things become associated with gallery postcards and serve as a catalyst for personal narratives which in turn can operate as tools for constructing subjectivities. Finally I suggest that domestic spaces are a product of relations that can be understood as existing within and beyond the home. Stretched domestic space can be produced by the display of gallery postcards in office spaces. The exploration of the art gallery postcard adds to the knowledges of everyday objects and their role and significance in constructing gendered subjectivities and spaces.
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Nicolazzo, Z. ""Just Go In Looking Good": The Resilience, Resistance, and Kinship-Building of Trans* College Students." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1426251164.
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Kaufman, Sara Victoria. ""You Can See it in Their Eyes:" A Communication Ethnography of a Humane Society." PDXScholar, 2011. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/200.
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This study sought to understand the culture-sharing group of people working within the shelter area of a Pacific Northwest animal shelter through the Ethnography of Communication. About 63% of households in the United States live with a companion animal (Risley-Curtis et al., 2006). Recently, there has been a shift toward closer examination into the ways in which humans interact with animals, particularly companion animals. The guiding questions of this study were: RQ1: What are the cultural communication forms performed in the context of the humane society? RQ2: How do shelter workers communicate about companion animals? RQ3: What cultural meanings are instantiated through communication in this context? This qualitative research approach included 40 hours of participant observation, individual interviews and an analysis of a set of documents and artifacts. Utilizing the Ethnography of Communication components, thematic and pattern analysis, findings revealed use of three main communication forms within the shelter: verbal, written and nonverbal communication and the overarching key theme of relational bonding occurring within an animal-centric organization among 4 relational categories: A. Shelter animals and shelter animals, B. Shelter animals and shelter workers, C. Shelter workers and shelter workers and D. Shelter workers and the public. Processes leading to relational bonding are delineated including detailed speech as well as aspects of "broken bonds" and euthanasia and it's effects within a "no-kill" organization.
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Henríquez, Mendoza Eduardo Fabio. "Etnografía de las representaciones audiovisuales en sus procesos de producción y distribución comercial: el caso de los productores informales de Santo Domingo de los Colorados (Ecuador)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/662609.
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Esta tesis se construye a través de una etnografía audiovisual sobre los procesos de producción y representación en las narrativas audiovisuales (películas en formato DVD) de productores informales en Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Ecuador. Estudia, mediante las teorías de la antropología audiovisual y el cine, la cultura material, condición económica, trayectorias biográficas y profesionales de los productores informales.
El estudio propone dos tipos de lenguajes narrativos. El primer lenguaje es un texto escrito que proporciona el andamiaje teórico, además, el sustento metodológico y analítico; y, el segundo, lo conforman dos etnografías audiovisuales enlazadas virtualmente a YouTube, que son columna central de este estudio, donde se presentan los contextos directos de percepción de la realidad, las interacciones de los realizadores, las relaciones sociales, la distribución y comercialización de estas obras.
Los análisis de estas condiciones sociales ayudaron a elucidar cómo se representa la percepción de la realidad y cómo influyen directamente en la preproducción, producción, postproducción y comercialización de las realizaciones de los productores informales. Estas interrogantes permitieron realizar un análisis cercano de sus procesos de realización en cuanto a temáticas, estilos, escenarios y distribución comercial, teniendo en cuenta la actuación espontánea, las escenas improvisadas, y el aprovechamiento de espacios y tiempos.
Este trabajo profundiza, con el uso de la cámara como dispositivo de diálogo, en la interacción y reflexión entre el etnógrafo audiovisual y los productores informales. Además, demuestra audiovisualmente cómo el etnógrafo piensa y aborda los procesos metodológicos y teóricos en el trabajo de campo, obteniendo como resultados la necesidad de potenciar la utilidad de la etnografía audiovisual como lenguaje que evidencia el rigor antropológico, que permite rescatar múltiples agencias y reflexionar sobre la teoría de la antropología audiovisual, considerando otros caminos en la producción de conocimientos.<br>This thesis is constructed through audiovisual ethnography about processes of production and representation in the audiovisual narratives (movies in DVD format) of informal producers of the city of Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Ecuador. By means of theories of audiovisual anthropology and cinema, the material culture, economic condition, biographical and professional trajectories of informal producers is studied.
The study proposes two kinds of narratives languages. The first language is a writing text that it provides the theoretical framework as well as methodological and analytical support. The second one is two audiovisual ethnography linked to YouTube that those are the central column of this study. These present the direct contexts of reality perception, the interactions of producers, the social relationships, the distribution and the commercialization of these narratives.
The analysis of these social conditions helped to explain how the perception of reality is represented and how it influence directly to the preproduction, production, postproduction and commercialization of the audiovisual narratives of informal producers. These questions allowed me to make a close analysis of their realization processes in terms of topics, styles, scenarios and commercial distribution, taking into account the spontaneous performance, the improvised scenes, and the use of space and time.
Using the camera as a dialogue device, this work delves into the interaction and reflection between the audiovisual ethnographer and the informal producers. In addition, it demonstrates (audiovisually) how the ethnographer thinks and approaches the methodological and theoretical processes in the field work, obtaining as results the necessity to enhance the usefulness of the audiovisual ethnography as a language that demonstrates the anthropological rigor. Which allows rescuing multiple agencies, as well as reflecting on the theory of audiovisual anthropology, considering other forms in the production of knowledge.
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Ball, Barith. "Probing the Pandemic: Participants as Ethnographers at Home." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21682.
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This thesis aimed to investigate ways to conduct participatory research practices that would gain knowledge of participants' relationships and experiences with/in their physical home environment by using a design probe. Through the probe, a new approach to participatory design research was formulated. This approach gives agency to participants through elements of auto-ethnography, thus shifting the traditional power structures that often exist between participants and designers. This new type of research could yield greater intimacy and mutuality between designers and their participants. Due to this, it has the potential to be meaningful when designing for the home environment, and therefore can be used for research and design within the Internet of Things.
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Rönkkö, Kari. "Making Methods Work in Software Engineering : Method Deployment - as a Social Achievement." Doctoral thesis, Ronneby : Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-00264.
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The software engineering community is concerned with improvements in existing methods and development of new and better methods. The research approaches applied to take on this challenge have hitherto focused heavily on the formal and specifying aspect of the method. This has been done for good reasons, because formalizations are the means in software projects to predict, plan, and regulate the development efforts. As formalizations have been successfully developed new challenges have been recognized. The human and social role in software development has been identified as the next area that needs to be addressed. Organizational problems need to be solved if continued progress is to be made in the field. The social element is today a little explored area in software engineering. Following with the increased interest in the social element it has been identified a need of new research approaches suitable for the study of human behaviour. The one sided focus on formalizations has had the consequence that concepts and explanation models available in the community are one sided related in method discourses. Definition of method is little explored in the software engineering community. In relation to identified definitions of method the social appears to blurring. Today the software engineering community lacks powerful concepts and explanation models explaining the social element. This thesis approaches the understanding of the social element in software engineering by applying ethnomethodologically informed ethnography and ethnography. It is demonstrated how the ethnographic inquiry contributes to software engineering. Ethnography is also combined with an industrial cooperative method development approach. The results presented demonstrate how industrial external and internal socio political contingencies both hindered a method implementation, as well as solved what the method was targeted to do. It is also presented how project members’ method deployment - as a social achievement is played out in practice. In relation to this latter contribution it is provided a conceptual apparatus and explanation model borrowed from social science, The Documentary method of interpretation. This model addresses core features in the social element from a natural language point of view that is of importance in method engineering. This model provides a coherent complement to an existing method definition emphasizing formalizations. This explanation model has also constituted the underpinning in research methodology that made possible the concrete study results.
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Howard, Wendy June. "Commensal or comestible? : the role and exploitation of small, non-ungulate mammals in early European prehistory : towards a methodology for improving identification of human utilisation." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/14026.
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Small mammals, namely those species larger than microfauna like rats and murids but smaller than medium, sheep-size fauna, are generally one of the less studied areas of zooarchaeology. While this may be partly influenced by modern cultural biases, it is more often because finding small, rabbit-sized, mammal remains in archaeological deposits presents a problem in accurately differentiating between those arising from natural, biological and anthropogenic agencies. This thesis tackles this subject using a synthesis of different methods, examining the exploitation and role of small, non-ungulate mammals in early Western European prehistory by combining existing ethnographic knowledge and archaeological research with actualistic experiments and bone assemblage analysis. It first presents a detailed summary of the various taphonomic effects on bone from natural, biological and human action, with particular reference to those of small mammals, using empirical evidence to describe the processes and likely resultant effects. Small mammal utilisation is then contextualised using archaeological and ethnographic evidence to examine past and present practices in Europe and other areas of the world. Different acquisition methods, such as hunting and trapping, are described, and using small mammals for dietary and non-dietary purposes is outlined, along with the rationale for such utilisation given their size. Also considered are other, more abstract ideological and symbolic roles they fulfilled within different cultures, whether physically using parts of the animal, or conceptually. To extend the existing methods available to zooarchaeologists, and improve identifying human exploitation of these species, the ‘chaîne opératoire’ of small game use is examined from an osteological perspective, starting with acquisition, through processing, cooking and consumption to discard, using a series of experiments and microscopic analysis to explore potential bone modification signatures and fracture patterns arising from such activities. Finally, it places these results into broader context by comparing the fracture patterns with bones from British and North American archaeological sites, to demonstrate that similar changes can be seen.
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Pereira, Beatriz de Castro Sebastião. "Pesquisa etnográfica em marketing." Universidade de São Paulo, 2008. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12139/tde-03092008-115700/.
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Estudos sobre o comportamento humano envolvem situações complexas que não são simples de compreender utilizando-se métodos quantitativos de pesquisa. A identificação desta limitação levou, em anos mais recentes, ao uso crescente de métodos qualitativos para auxiliar a entender o indivíduo e o grupo em seus comportamentos. Em administração e marketing pesquisadores com trabalhos qualitativos têm se baseado em métodos e técnicas mais adequados para a abordagem destes problemas com origens em sociologia, antropologia e psicologia. A etnografia originada na antropologia e sociologia com estudos de comportamento de grupo é um instrumento bastante adequado para estudos em marketing. Este estudo discute a criação e desenvolvimento da etnografia como metodologia de pesquisa em antropologia e mostra como seu uso foi estendido para outras áreas do conhecimento, mais especificamente para a área de marketing. É destacada a evolução da etnografia no universo da pesquisa acadêmica e aplicada, e como a metodologia foi adaptada para realização de estudos na área do comportamento do consumidor, tanto acadêmicos quanto de mercado. O estudo enfoca os usos e limitações da pesquisa etnográfica em marketing. Faz isso em forma de ensaio por meio de levantamento bibliográfico de caráter analítico e descritivo, complementado com entrevistas em profundidade com profissionais que utilizam ou conhecem a metodologia aplicada ao marketing. Conclui-se que sua aplicação em marketing é adequada se houver rigor metodológico, já que esse tipo de pesquisa tem a vantagem de revelar porque os comportamentos relacionados a um dado grupo ocorrem, o que não é possível com outras abordagens de pesquisa. A metodologia apresenta maiores benefícios quando o comportamento de consumo estudado relaciona-se fortemente com características culturais do grupo ao qual o consumidor pertence.<br>Consumer behavior studies entail complex situations that are not simple to understand by quantitative research techniques. Recently there is an enhancement in the use of qualitative methods to help interpret the individual and the group in their behaviors. In business and marketing researchers with qualitative work are increasingly using techniques, and methods that are common in sociology, anthropology, and psychology which have suitable developments to these areas of knowledge. Ethnography originated from anthropology and sociology with group approaches seems to be a good tool to marketing studies. This work discusses how ethnography was originated and developed as a research methodology in anthropology and to show how its use was extended to other areas of knowledge, specifically in marketing. The evolution of ethnography in the academic and applied research universes is emphasized, as well as how the methodology was adapted to be used in consumer behavior studies. The study focus on the uses and limitations of ethnographic research in marketing. This is made by an essay based on analytical and descriptive bibliographic research, complemented by in depth interviews with professionals that use or know the methodology applied to marketing. The conclusion is that the method is adequate in marketing research if applied with methodological rigor. This kind of research has the advantage of revealing why some behaviors related to the reference group occur, what is not possible with other research approaches. The methodology presents more benefits when the consumer behavior is strongly related with cultural characteristics of the group that the consumer belongs.
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Dervis, Philip. "Enseignement des sciences, méthode scientifique, la formation de l’esprit critique : contribution à une anthropologie des pratiques de l’enseignement des sciences à l’ère du numérique." Thesis, Aix-Marseille, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016AIXM3087/document.
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« Penser global, agir local » cette formule employée lors du premier sommet sur l’environnement en 1972, semble synthétiser l’esprit du développement durable. A l’heure d’Internet comment une vision globale du Monde influence-t-elle l’action locale que représente l’enseignement des sciences ? Pour rendre compte de ce que pourrait être la vie d’un enseignant de science à l’heure du numérique, nous avons mené une étude ethnographique participante en redevenant professeur de physique-chimie dans un collège du Haut-Var. Durant ces années, tout en occupant une vraie place dans la vie de l’établissement, nous avons interrogé l’objet science, son histoire, ses acteurs, sa médiatisation, sa présence dans notre environnement, à l’école, et des enjeux de société qu’il représente. Et bien sûr, époque et moyens obligent, en s’inspirant de ce qui existait sur le Web, nous avons mis en place et entretenu un blog pédagogique de science : Découvrir et mesurer le Monde<br>“Think global, act local” this formula used at the first environmental summit in 1972, seems synthesize the mind of sustainable development. Today, at Internet age, when we teach science, is required to have a global vision of the world for local action teaching. At Internet time, how a global vision of the World influences local action like science teaching? For report what could be the science teacher life in this digital age, we conducted an ethnographic participant study by becoming a physical chemistry professor in a middle school in the Haut-Var, in France. During those years, while occupying a real place in the life of the school, we questioned the science object, its history, its actors, its media coverage, and its presence in our environment, school and his social challenges. And of course, require time and resources, drawing from what existed on the Web, we have set up and maintained a blog pedagogical science: Discover and measure the World
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Salavati, Sadaf. "Use of Digital Technologies in Education : The Complexity of Teachers' Everyday Practice." Doctoral thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för informatik (IK), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-57421.
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In this dissertation the complex, dynamic, contextual and multi-dimensional practice of teachers’ use of digital technologies in their everyday work has been illustrated and presented. The research draws upon the experience of teachers and school leaders from two compulsory schools as well as representatives from the municipal Department of Education and IT-unit within a municipality in the south of Sweden. A focused ethnographic approach has been undertaken and applied observations and interviews. Systems Thinking, specifically Soft Systems Methodology in combination with Cognitive Mapping have been applied to analyze the empirical material. The theoretical foundation builds upon teachers’ worldview towards digital technologies, because it is noted that teachers more easily adopt and use innovations that are in accordance with their personal thoughts and beliefs about teaching and learning. Further, teachers’ attitude and perception towards use of digital technologies are addressed as well as the role of school leadership. Additionally, importance of context, teachers’ knowledge and pedagogics have been discussed referring to various frameworks. The dissertation aims to illuminate the complex nature of teachers’ everyday practice. To gain understanding of the situation as a whole, there is also need to shed light on various aspects and underlying perspectives. Thus, this research aims to illuminate and advance the understanding of the complexity of compulsory school teachers’ everyday work practices using digital technologies. The outcome of this dissertation illustrates the complexity of teachers’ everyday practices as well as additional issues adding to the complexity, and shows that these complex issues are worthy of further study. Among the issues emerged from this dissertation are differences in regard to how the complex situation is understood because different actors have multiple and sometimes conflicting worldviews. Ambiguities in core objectives and relevant concepts were found. Additionally, a pervasive lack of understanding about the realities of daily education and teaching practices, including variances in worldviews and mindsets was found adding to the complexity of teachers’ everyday practice using digital technologies.
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Ricart, Marta 1973. "Un moment, dotze instants, mil possibilitats. Construïnt relats amb els i les adolescents des d’una perspectiva etnogràfica, visual i reflexiva." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/124101.
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"Un moment, dotze instants, mil possibilitats" parteix de l’antropologia reflexiva per construir una recerca polièdrica basada en estratègies de recerca visuals col.laboratives. La recerca es proposa explorar l’univers visual dels i les adolescents a partir dels relats que un grup de nois i noies realitzen del moment que estan vivint. Utilitzant l’estratègia anomenada “photo elliciting”, la recerca explora l’univers dels i les adolescents a través de dotze imatges fotogràfiques i el relat que les acompanya i que han realitzat un grup de nois i noies. El relat de la investigació es construeix en diàleg amb el propi procés de recerca (un procés obert a la constant reflexió sobre els aspectes metodològics, conceptuals i processuals i on la figura de la recercadora no queda al marge). La necessitat de desplaçar-se d'una comprensió fixa basada en l'objecte (l'adolescència, la identitat i la imatge) a una comprensió mòbil basada en les relacions (des de les narratives visuals i la construcció de processos visuals de recerca col.laboratius) condueix el procés de la investigació a la recerca de noves metodologies i formats narratius que permetin una comprensió polièdrica i que aportin noves maneres de comprendre l’adolescència. Els relats i les imatges que construeixen els i les adolescents a la recerca, son interpretades des d'una diversitat d'aproximacions que permeten una comprensió plural de les narratives visuals i que es focalitzen en la riquesa de construccions narratives i visuals corresponents a un moment i un marc de relacions determinat.<br>“One moment, twelve instants, a thousand possibilities” is a polyhedrical research based on reflexive anthropology that focuses on visual collaborative research strategies. The investigation starts exploring the visual universe of adolescence from images and stories that a group of teenagers made about the moment they are living. Using the strategy of “photo elliciting”, research is conducted by listening to a group of adolescents within the twelve pictures and their stories that they created for the investigation. The investigation narrative is constructed in dialogue with the actual research process (a process opento the reflection on methodology, conceptual frames and processes where the researcher does notstand on the edge). The need to move away from a fixed comprehension based on the object (adolescence, identity, image) to a mobile comprehension based on relationships (starting from visual narratives and the construction of collaborative visual research processes) brings the research process to a polyhedrical approach. Narratives and images that the adolescents have created are analysed from different points of view that allow plural comprehension, open to the richness of the visual narratives related on time and relationships.
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Folly, Rebecca P. F. "The subjective experiences of Muslim women in family-related migration to Scotland." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6273.
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Muslim family members constitute a significant migration flow to the UK (Kofman et al., 2013). Despite such observations, this form of mobility is under-explored in geographic scholarship on migration. Accordingly, this thesis examines the subjective experiences of migration of a small group of Muslim women, who migrated either with or to join their families in Scotland. Participant observation, focus groups and the life narratives of eight women are used to gain an in-depth understanding of both the reasons for and the consequences of migration for this group of Muslim women. In addition, this thesis examines the role of a secular community-based organisation in supporting migrants in their everyday lives. Drawing on conceptual approaches to migration, this study reveals diverse and complex motivations among participants in “choosing” to migrate. Far from “victims” or “trailing wives”, participants privileged their children's needs but also the possibility to transform their sense of self through migration. The study draws attention to the struggles of daily life in Scotland where, bereft of extended family, the synchronisation of migration with childbirth resulted in some participants enduring years of isolation. Such struggles resulted in changes in the home, with husbands providing both physical and emotional support. The experience of migration affected the women's religious identities, providing solace as well as a way to assert belonging in Scotland by drawing on Islamic theology. The community-based organisation provided a “safe space”, bridging the secular and non-secular and offering women the chance to socialise, learn and volunteer. The study shows that volunteering provided not only a way into paid work but also shaped women's subjectivities and home lives. However, the re-direction of national government funding towards “Muslim problems” threatens to undermine the organisation's ability to continue to meet the local needs of Muslim migrant women.
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Jeyabalasingam, Siva. "Women in Transition: Experiences of Asian Women International Students on U.S. College Campuses." NSUWorks, 2011. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_dft_etd/4.
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Often referred to as people in transition, international students usually arrive in the U.S. with a clear sense of their academic goals; however, they often have not considered what their lives will be like or how they may change in non-academic ways. In addition to the typical level of university-related stress, international students face additional problems and difficulties generated in part by the cultural differences between the U.S. and their own countries. This is particularly true for Asian students. Of several studies that have investigated the experiences of international students in the U.S., only a handful have examined Asian students' unique experiences of acculturation, and although the number of Asian women students in the U.S. is increasing, there are even fewer studies about them. This study served as a corrective to these tendencies by focusing specifically on the transformative experiences of Asian women international students (AWIS). Utilizing autoethnographic and ethnographic methodologies, the researcher conducted a qualitative study, exploring in depth the lived experiences of eleven Asian women in cultural transition. The findings bring to light rich and conflicting emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal experiences and strategies of AWIS, who attempt to balance the cultural and familial injunctions of their parents (e.g., Bring Honor, Stay Asian, and Obey Us or Else) with the freedom and opportunities of American culture and campus life. The findings of this research will be relevant to various stakeholders. University administrators and staff, particularly professionals in student affairs and, more specifically, those working with international students and/or in student counseling centers, will benefit from a nuanced understanding of the complexities of these students' lives. Both researchers and clinicians will gain an appreciation for how a systemic focus can be maintained while interviewing individuals. Clinicians will also be better equipped to handle the cultural complexities encountered by these women and to provide culturally sensitive counseling.
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Rodriguez, Carmella M. "The Journey of a Digital Story: A Healing Performance of Mino-Bimaadiziwin: The Good Life." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1433005531.
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Marcoux, Krystina. "Une méthodologie unique du spectacle vivant : d'après l'analyse des spectacles de Georges Aperghis et de Thierry De Mey." Thesis, Lyon, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019LYSE2053.
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L’histoire nous démontre que le rapprochement entre les disciplines a toujours fasciné les créateurs, depuis Aristote à Mnouchkine, en passant par Wagner, Brecht, Molière ou encore Nono. Le spectacle vivant, le théâtre musical, le théâtre instrumental ou encore les créations spectaculaires transdisciplinaires constituent des formes de création artistique qui ne connaissent ni canevas ni forme préétablis, ce qui en fait leur richesse. Au-delà d’un problème de terminologie, ce genre, tel qu’il s’est développé à partir de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, a une méthodologie de création unique, qui trouve notamment son origine dans l’implication des interprètes qui en réalisent la création.Le présent travail aborde l’histoire de la relation qui a pu exister entre théâtre, musique et danse en abordant deux grandes ruptures (Louis XIV et Wagner) qui éclairent la division marquée des genres artistiques aujourd’hui. C’est par l’étude du corpus de Georges Aperghis et Thierry De Mey qu’est présentée une méthodologie unique de création du spectacle vivant, une méthodologie largement inspirée du théâtre, du cinéma et de la danse. L’auteure passe ensuite en revue ses six dernières années de créations par le biais d’une auto ethnographie. Un guide méthodologique du spectacle vivant vient terminer ce travail, présentant des outils de travail précis et des réflexions qui sont le fruit de recherches et d’expérience de créations, de même que des questionnements auxquels tous créateur de spectacle vivant sera confronté dans soncheminement<br>History has taught us that the crossroads among different artistic disciplines has always captured the imagination of creative minds such as Aristotle, Molière and Nono to name a few. Le spectacle vivant, musical theatre, instrumental theatre and other forms of transdisciplinary creations stand as a unique art-form, as they were initially conceived without any pre-established structures giving them greater freedom in both the creative process and result. Developed after WWII, the unusual methodology of this genre is fundamentally based on the active participation and artistic engagement of the performers within the process of creation.This dissertation addresses the historic relationship that exists among music, theatre and dance discussing in depth two major historical breakdowns, Louis XIV and Wagner which resulted in the division among such disciplines. Through the analysis of works by Georges Aperghis and Thierry De Mey, this thesis will present two personal and unique methodologies of spectacle vivant greatly influenced by dance, cinema, and theatre. In addition, a comparative analysis of the works -spectacle vivant- developed over the last six years by the author of this thesis will be included. Personal reflections on the process of creation, from a research and performative perspectives, will be shared and discussed. This thesis will also present a methodological guide to the studied works with hopes of contributing to further academic research and a wider public appreciation of this unique art form
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Van, Der Meer Tony. "Spiritual Journeys: A Study of Ifá /Òrìṣà Practitioners in the United States Initiated by Nigeria". Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1487938234573904.
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Ståhl, Sally. "Strokekedjan från början till slut : En etnografisk studie om farlighet och tid i en akut vårdkedja." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-78636.
Full textAbstract:
Varje år drabbas 30 000 svenskar av stroke, vilket innebär stora personliga omställningar och stora kostnader för samhället. Den mest effektiva behandlingen, trombolys, måste ges så snart som möjligt för att ha god effekt. Samtidigt som det är av största vikt att ta reda på om patienten har några differentialdiagnoser som gör behandlingen riskfylld. Den här studien undersöker hur strokekedjan går till och vilka faktorer som påverkar beslutsfattandet. Studien är baserad på etnografiska fältstudier på fyra svenska sjukhus och materialet är analyserat med metoder från sammansatta kognitiva system och målorienterad design. Resultaten visar att trots olika organiserade strokekedjor på de olika sjukhusen är processerna desamma och direkt kommunikation är mest framgångsrik för att effektivt sprida information mellan dem. Neurologjouren är viktig roll som, liksom resten av aktörerna i strokekedjan, ständigt balanserar sitt beslutsfattande mellan effektivitet och grundlighet. Kombinationen av analyser ger resultat både på system- och individnivå. Möjligheter för förbättrade strokekedjor ges i termer av logistiska, tekniska och organisatoriska förslag.<br>30 000 people in Sweden get a stroke every year. This leads to large personal adaptions as well as high costs for the society. The most efficient treatment, thrombolysis, must be given as soon as possible to have a good effect. At the same time it is very important to find out if the patient has any differential diagnosis that can make the treatment hazardous. This study investigates how the course ov events around acute stroke patients take place and important factors for the decision making. The studiy is based on ethnographic field studys on four swedish hospitals. The material is analysed with methods from joint cognitive systems and goal-oriented design. The results show that in spite of different organisation of the course of events around acute stroke patients are the processes and direct communication most successful for effective spread of information between the processes. The neurologist on call is an important roll who, as well as the rest of the participants in the course of events, balances the decision making between efficiency and thoroughness. The combination of analysis gives results on both system- and individual levels. Possibilites for improvents are given in three categories: logistic, technological and organizational.
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Johansson, Sara. "Rytmen bor i mina steg : En rytmanalytisk studie om kropp, stad och kunskap." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Kulturgeografiska institutionen, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-204630.
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This thesis brings together a fascination with the city and a keen interest in the knowledge process. The point of departure is the bodily, sensory and emotional experience. That the author uses her own perceptions and experiences and is preoccupied with her own knowledge process means that she writes herself into an autoethnographic context. She also experiments with the writing and allows it to take on a more literary form as she writes about her own sensory impressions and feelings. The term rhythmanalysis is employed as a way of assessing, exploring, interpreting and understanding the world that embraces the embodied experience. Human beings are embodied beings, a claim we can make by referring to our own experiences as well as how we perceive, communicate and interact. The study delves into two aspects of rhythmanalysis, first as a way of describing the knowledge process as rhythm-analytical, which implies that bodily experiences are equally important as intellectual ones, and secondly as a way of talking about the city as polyrhythmic. It follows upon the latter that embodied rhythmanalysis of the city is possible. The rhythmanalysis may ultimately be seen as a project aimed at overthrowing the Cartesian dualism between body and mind. That we are embodied has a methodological consequence that is as simple as it is essential: the scholar exists in the world she studies. The researcher is not a neutral observer. She is a co-creator. She is a body, placed in time, space and history. She is situated, which means that her knowledge is also situated. Thus, the rhythmanalysis encompasses the body, the senses and feelings, and can be described with one key word: movement. It finds support in theories that acknowledge the fluid, the becoming, the situated, the performative, the relational, the dynamic, the material. It seeks methods that experiment, that focus on practices rather than discourses, that are preoccupied with a movable world rather than a static one.
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Watt, Diane P. "Juxtaposing Sonare and Videre Midst Curricular Spaces: Negotiating Muslim, Female Identities in the Discursive Spaces of Schooling and Visual Media Cultures." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/19973.
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Muslims have the starring role in the mass media’s curriculum on otherness, which circulates in-between local and global contexts to powerfully constitute subjectivities. This study inquires into what it is like to be a female, Muslim student in Ontario, in this post 9/11 discursive context. Seven young Muslim women share stories of their high schooling experiences and their sense of identity in interviews and focus group sessions. They also respond to images of Muslim females in the print media, offering perspectives on the intersections of visual media discourses with their lived experience. This interdisciplinary project draws from cultural studies, postcolonial feminist theory, and post-reconceptualist curriculum theorizing. Working with auto/ethno/graphy, my own subjectivity is also brought into the study to trouble researcher-as-knower and acknowledge that personal histories are implicated in larger social, cultural, and historical processes. Using bricolage, I compose a hybrid text with multiple layers of meaning by juxtapositing theory, image, and narrative, leaving spaces for the reader’s own biography to become entangled with what is emerging in the text. Issues raised include veiling obsession, Islamophobia, absences in the school curriculum, and mass media as curriculum. Muslim females navigate a complex discursive terrain and their identity negotiations are varied. These include creating Muslim spaces in their schools, wearing hijab to assert their Muslim identity, and downplaying their religious identity at school. I argue for the need to engage students and teacher candidates in complicated conversations on difference via auto/ethno/graphy, pedagogies of tension, and epistemologies of doubt. Educators and researchers might also consider the possibilities of linking visual media literacy with social justice issues.
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Perombelon, Brice Désiré Jude. "Prioritising indigenous representations of geopower : the case of Tulita, Northwest Territories, Canada." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2018. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:71e14c26-d00a-4320-a385-df74715c45c8.
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Recent calls from progressive, subaltern and postcolonial geopoliticians to move geopolitical scholarship away from its Western ontological bases have argued that more ethnographic studies centred on peripheral and dispossessed geographies need to be undertaken in order to integrate peripheralised agents and agencies in dominant ontologies of geopolitics. This thesis follows these calls. Through empirical data collected during a period of five months of fieldwork undertaken between October 2014 and March 2015, it investigates the ways through which an Indigenous community of the Canadian Arctic, Tulita (located in the Northwest Territories' Sahtu region) represents geopower. It suggests a semiotic reading of these representations in order to take the agency of other-than/more-than-human beings into account. In doing so, it identifies the ontological bases through which geopolitics can be indigenised. Drawing from Dene animist ontologies, it indeed introduces the notion of a place-contingent speculative geopolitics. Two overarching argumentative lines are pursued. First, this thesis contends that geopower operates through metamorphic refashionings of the material forms of, and signs associated with, space and place. Second, it infers from this that through this transformational process, geopower is able to create the conditions for alienating but also transcending experiences and meanings of place to emerge. It argues that this movement between conflictual and progressive understandings is dialectical in nature. In addition to its conceptual suggestions, this thesis makes three empirical contributions. First, it confirms that settler geopolitical narratives of sovereignty assertion in the North cannot be disentangled from capitalist and industrial political-economic processes. Second, it shows that these processes, and the geopolitical visions that subtend them, are materialised in space via the extension of the urban fabric into Indigenous lands. Third, it demonstrates that by assembling space ontologically in particular ways, geopower establishes (and entrenches) a geopolitical distinction between living/sovereign (or governmentalised) spaces and nonliving/bare spaces (or spaces of nothingness).
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Clarke, Sheree Lyn. "Changing the assumptions of a training therapist : an auto-ethnographic study." Diss., 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/566.
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This auto-ethnographic study (i.e. an autobiographical genre of writing and research,
written in the first-person voice, where the workings of self are expressed both
cognitively and emotionally) qualitatively explores the changing assumptions of a
training therapist. It shows how various therapies were negotiated during the training
period, and explores how meaning was constructed according to basic, underlying
epistemological assumptions. Significant experiences and therapies are presented,
showing how the therapist's most basic, linear assumptions, were directly challenged by
eco-systemic training. The study produces an in-depth, thick description of both the
emotional and the cognitive journey of a training therapist, and traces the therapist's
movement away from the stability and certainty of a linear epistemological 'way of
knowing' to the instability and uncertainty characteristic of an eco-systemic 'way of
knowing'. Conclusions are idiosyncratic and are not intended for generalization.<br>Psychology<br>M.A. (Clinical Psychology)
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Colman, Robert. "The significance of Barney Simon's theatre-making methodology and his influence on how and why I make theatre: an auto-ethnographic practice as research." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/15112.
Full textAbstract:
In this autoethnographic Practice as Research (PaR) I will reflect on the significance of Barney Simon’s theatre-making method as a primary influence in my body of work asking how and why it is still useful today. Specifically, I will reflect on the devising process of the play Batsamai in which I applied my embodied knowledge of Barney Simon’s play-making as a ‘test-site’ for my research question.
By structuring his methodology into six distinct organic stages: (sensitisation; gossip; research; biography; improvisation; writing); and weaving present (Batsamai: 2013) and past (devising Simon’s Score Me the Ages: 1989) I will argue Simon’s methodology as a rigorous and therefore useful South African theatre-making tradition; and I will advocate the pedagogical and theatre-making uses, with particular focus on teaching play-making as well as some acting-teaching benefits.
I will argue that useful methodologies evolve – as interpreted and used by others besides the ‘originator’; that in essence my record (this document) and use of Simon’s methods is interpretative and therefore a record of my methodology with Simon acknowledged as primary source; and that if students who devised Batsamai use what they learnt (their embodied knowledge) the methods will evolve further.
I will use these arguments to demonstrate Simon’s methods as a dynamic force for contemporary South African theatre; and to examine the value of embodied knowledge in enriching contemporary practices.
In my own methodology I will explore three core creative impulses (the personal, archive and loss); reflecting on how these manifested in Batsamai, and in a sample of my body of work.
I will apply Diana Taylor’s The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (2003) as a theoretical framework to deepen my exploration. Besides literature on Simon and related theories I will refer to my Batsamai rehearsal journal, student interviews and a Score Me the Ages journal.
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Lejowa, Jessica Oreeditse. "Shifting understandings of performance practice in an African context through auto-ethnography." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/8892.
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Abstract
By critically analysing three pieces of devised performance, Even as I Walk (2008), They Were Silent (2009) and The Wages of Sin (2009), I argue that the concept of performance is not easily defined. Rather, it is an ever-changing phenomenon, which can become a useful platform for dialoguing about deeply personal and necessarily public and political subject matter. I locate myself and the theatre makers I worked with to create the three pieces, in the work by reflecting on and writing about the processes using auto-ethnography as a lens.
The context within which I write, and within which my collaborators and I work, is that of our locations in very specific African, moral, cultural, political and creative impulses which we interrogate through the creative processes. Through the writing and reflecting, I arrive at various conclusions, including what I call ‘the methodology of not knowing,’ the importance of the group in facilitating the research and creative process, the necessity of redefining or renegotiation—for the purposes of both the research and the creative goals—our understandings of what performance is.
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Stritch, Rohan Lea. "Be sugar in milk : local perspectives on volunteer tourism in India and Uganda." 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10170/445.
Full textAbstract:
This research explores the ways in which volunteer tourism is perceived by local volunteer coordinators in communities in India and Uganda. It highlights the importance of forming a more nuanced understanding of local agency, particularly in relation to community-based tourism. Participants from Indian and Ugandan NGOs speak to what they perceive is the role, value, and purpose of hosting Western volunteers and illustrate some of the benefits and challenges. Postcolonial theory and equity theory are applied to evaluate what is still a highly inequitable global tourism structure, while alerting the reader to how some individuals are exercising control over this form of alternative tourism. By drawing on the link between development and tourism, this study explores the critical issues that participants reveal and closes with three design principles for Northern sending agencies, Southern host organizations, and volunteer tourists to consider in order that volunteer tourism may best benefit receiving communities.
Key words: Alternative tourism, Volunteer tourism, India, Uganda, Development, Equity Theory, Postcolonial Theory
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Hayes, Katie. "Chinese perspectives on environmental sustainability : the shaping of public opinion." 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10170/396.
Full textAbstract:
This study explored the current opinions of Chinese citizens on environmental sustainability in China, while inquiring about the role of the Chinese government in shaping public consciousness on environmentalism. This case study was a qualitative analysis that was informed by both grounded theory and ethnographic content analysis (ECA) conducted through fifteen open-ended interviews with Chinese citizens and content analysis of government documents and media coverage that pertain to environmentalism. During the data collection and analysis process, the researcher considered the cultural landscape of China and reflected on how the media, Chinese spirituality, and communication patterns affect the conceptualization of environmentalism by citizens. This research found that public awareness of environmental sustainability is influenced by a social hierarchy of needs, philosophical legacies, allegiance to authority, and China‟s global position. Consequently, this research uncovered the importance of cultivating cultural awareness when non-Chinese citizens approach the topic of environmentalism in China.
Keywords: Chinese Government, Environmentalism, Public Opinion, Grounded Theory
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Sabet, Denise. "Confucian or Communist, post-Mao or postmodern? : exploring the narrative identity resources of Shanghai’s Post-80s generation." 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10170/382.
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It is 30 years after Post-Mao reforms, 20 years after Tiananmen Square demonstrations, and the
next generation of “comrades” are emerging in China. They are called the Balinghou or “Post-
80s” generation, referring to the cohort born between 1980 and 1989. This study addresses an
empirical gap by exploring the narrative resources Shanghai’s Post-80s young adults call on to
construct their identities, given the historical situation in which they live. This exploration is
achieved through qualitative empirical data by employing a combination of narrative analysis
and ethnography. Data analysis uncovers narrative resources clustered around three common
themes: generational identity, structural resources, and personal lives. Further refection reveals
that the extent to which identity is narratively expressed can be culturally constrained. Although
the Balinghou encounter unique external factors such as the One Child Policy and rapid
economic growth and reform in China, their narrative identity resources are more related to their
perceptions of life stages than unprecedented historical circumstance.
Keywords: narrative, identity, life course, symbolic interactionism, China, Shanghai, Balinghou,
Post-80s generation
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Oliver, Nicole L. "The Supermom syndrome : an intervention against the need to be king of the mothering mountain." 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10170/460.
Full textAbstract:
Through a layered account format combining theory, performative autoethnographic vignettes,
and dialogical exchanges, the author explores the performances of Supermotherhood as they
materialize within her life and potentially within the lives of, and through interactions with, other
mothers inside and outside of her immediate peer group. The author analyses the ways the
pervasive ideology of perfect mothering manifests itself within motherhood culture, and how it
ultimately impacts maternal agency, self worth, and by extension, the family unit, and the culture
of motherhood-mothering in general. Guided by a feminist poststructuralist approach, the author
argues that the Supermom, or rather, Super Mom meta-identity offers all subjective labels and
ideologies of mothering a place to become and celebrate possibility, individuality, transition, and
maternal empowerment.
Keywords: mothering; feminism; performative identity; autoethnography;
poststructuralist feminism; maternal empowerment; layered account
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Gullage, Amy L. "Teaching with the Flesh: Examining Discourses of the Body and their Implication in Teachers' Professional and Personal Lives." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/34024.
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This dissertation examines how teachers understand and use their own bodies in their everyday practice of teaching. Using a poststructural theoretical framework and an ethnographic and arts-based research methodology, I demonstrate how discourses of the body shape experiences of teaching and teachers’ lives. This work is significant not only because it has direct implications for teachers but also because teachers’ bodies are rich and complex sites for theorizing and thinking critically about contemporary practices and discursive understandings that shape our lives. I call the research methodology that I used in this study “embedded performed ethnography”. This methodology involved in-depth ethnographic interviews, creative writing, and dramatic performance with twelve teachers in Ontario.
By drawing on three distinct but interrelated fields: critical physical education, feminist and queer curriculum theory and Fat Studies, my research demonstrates the richness and complexity of teachers’ professional lives and the impact that dominant discourses of the body have on educational spaces. I use three key concepts to analyze the experiences and writing of the research participants. First, I use the concept of ‘biopedagogy’ to examine the ways in which teachers’ bodies are subject to regulation and policing in schools. Next, I use the concept of ‘performance’ to examine how participants use their bodies to construct and reproduce dominant notions of health in the classroom. Lastly, I use ‘affect’ as a concept to address the complex and complicated moments that occur on and through a teacher’s body in the classroom.
I work with the everyday experiences of teachers in the classroom to explore how particular teaching moments illustrate and connect to the broader discourses and practices of the body that shape our lives.
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Lowen, Corrine. "Dialogue: understanding the process of collaborative policy making in Aboriginal education." Thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/3702.
Full textAbstract:
Since 1999, Aboriginal Education policy in British Columbia requires School Districts to collaborate with their local Aboriginal communities to establish appropriate definitions of success, set measureable goals and actions plans to enhance Aboriginal student’s educational achievement. Together these groups produce five-year Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements. This study employs Indigenous Methodology and Institutional Ethnography to learn whether and how process of working together to create these agreements contributes to relationship-building between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. Key findings demonstrate that an engaged a dialogue between Indigenous peoples and education policy-makers changes the way that Aboriginal education is approached in BC school districts. Participants reported that the process changed them, touched their soul, and left them feeling humbled and renewed. The Enhancement Agreements hold promise as a process that works from within the institutional processes to address the unequal social relations of education for Aboriginal students.<br>Graduate
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"Entanglement: Everyday Working Lives, Access, and Institutional Discourse." Doctoral diss., 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.53943.
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abstract: This research works from in an institutional ethnographic methodology. From this grounded approach, it describes the dialectic between the individual and the discourse of the institution. This work develops a complex picture of the multifarious ways in which institutional discourse has real effects on the working lives of graduate teaching associates (GTAs) and administrative staff and faculty in Arizona State University's Department of English. Beginning with the experiences of individuals as they described in their interviews, provided an opportunity to understand individual experiences connected by threads of institutional discourse. The line of argumentation that developed from this grounded institutional ethnographic approach proceeds thusly: 1) If ASU’s institutional discourse is understood as largely defined by ASU’s Charter as emphasizing access and academic excellence, then it is possible to 2) see how the Charter affects the departmental discourse in the Department of English. This is shown by 3) explaining the ways in which institutional discourse—in conjunction with disciplinary discourses—affects the flow of power for administrative faculty and manifests as, for example, the Writing Programs Mission and Goals. These manifestations then 4) shape the training in the department to enculturate GTAs and other Writing Programs teachers, which finally 5) affects how Writing Programs teachers structure their courses consequently affecting the undergraduate online learning experience. This line of argumentation illustrates how the flow of power in administrative faculty positions like the Department Chair and Writing Program Administrator are institution-specific, entangled with the values of the institution and the forms of institutional discourse including departmental training impact the teaching practices of GTAs. And, although individual work like that done by the WPA to maintain teacher autonomy and the GTAs to facilitate individual access in their online classrooms, the individual is ultimately lost in the larger institutional conversation of access. Finally, this research corroborates work by Sara Ahmed and Stephanie L. Kerschbaum who explain how institutions co-opt intersectional terms such as diversity and access, and that neoliberal institutions' use of these terms are disingenuous, improving not the quality of instruction or university infrastructure but rather the reputation and public appeal of the university.<br>Dissertation/Thesis<br>Doctoral Dissertation English 2019
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Marshall, Tamara. "A tribal journey : canoes, traditions, and cultural continuity." 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10170/448.
Full textAbstract:
In addressing the necessity of cultural transmission from one generation to the next, this ethnographic study examines ways that Indigenous canoe journeys enable communication of ancestral teachings and traditions, particularly to Kw‟umut Lelum youth. The objective is to identify how experiences and interactions within Indigenous canoe journeys, specifically Tribal Journeys, can connect youth to traditions, environments, Elders, other individuals, and each other. Drawing on interviews with adults and participant observation, I consider relational themes of self and identity to explore the cultural impact on the young people as they participate in Tribal Journeys 2010 and symbolic ceremonies within it. Through qualitative inquiry and inductive reasoning, this interpretive epistemological approach includes concepts specific to the Indigenous research paradigm and uses a performative narrative to present results. Kw‟umut Lelum Child and Family Services is a society committed to the well-being of Indigenous children residing within nine Coast Salish communities on Vancouver Island. The agency focuses on family, community, and sacredness of culture as guided by the Snuw‟uy‟ulh model, which uses the teachings of the present to unite the past and future. Tribal Journeys is a significant cultural event that upholds the Snuw‟uy‟ulh principles while facilitating the communication of ancestral teachings and traditions.
Keywords: Indigenous, canoe, youth, culture, tradition, Coast Salish, narrative, perform