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  2. EDU S527

Ethnographic Methods
EDU S527

Course Information

Description

This seminar explores the epistemology, conduct, and politics of ethnographic fieldwork. Along with engaging several classic and contemporary texts, seminar members will collect, analyze, and wrestle with ethnographic data. In service to the seminar's broad goals, members will engage in various stages of the ethnographic process: gaining access to a research site or population, taking field notes, conducting and transcribing interviews, and engaging in preliminary analyses of their data. We will also discuss the challenges of entering, being in, and leaving the field. The seminar is therefore designed for students who are willing to engage in focused, hands-on training on ethnographic theory and practice. To best take advantage of what this seminar has to offer, members are urged to come in with a preliminary sketch of a research plan that they would be ready to either directly study in the field or explore through field exercises. This will be a working seminar with members sharing field notes and experiences from the field as well as offering advice and constructive criticism at various stages of the process. This course structure requires a high level of responsibility, respect, and risk-taking among all members.

 

School Graduate School of Education
Credits 4
Cross Reg

Available for Harvard Cross Registration

Department Education
Course Component Research Seminar
Instruction Mode In Person
Subject Education
Grading Basis HGSE Student Option (Letter Graded, Sat/Unsat)
Learning Goals To acquire additional skills in ethnographic fieldwork, analysis, and writing. To learn how theory and methods are related in ethnographic work. To read full length ethnographies that show the depth of engagement needed to conduct fieldwork.
Career Focus Academic research involving ethnographic qualitative methods. Designed for intermediate to advanced qualitative methods students.
Content N/A
Pedagogy N/A