Learning to See: The Role of Ethnography in Learning Sociological Processes

• In Event: 4304 - Teaching and Learning Paper Session

Abstract

A common goal in undergraduate sociology courses is to develop students’ capacity to interpret social processes sociologically, that is, to develop a perspective sometimes referred to as the “sociological eye” or “sociological imagination.” While it has been suggested that teaching students to conduct ethnography might be a compelling pedagogical tool for achieving this goal, an essential problem of evaluation persists; the intrinsically subjective nature of conducting ethnography makes it hard to evaluate how students develop the ability to interpret social processes within and across social venues. Quantitative and qualitative data on students’ processes of learning to see, and the degree of uncertainty demonstrated in their observations (as measured in the use of hedges), were collected in three waves across a two-semester medical sociology sequence beginning in the classroom and ending in the hospital. In each of these three waves of data collection, students analyzed social interactions in three short videos that each represented social processes with which they had varying degrees of familiarity: a high school routine, the medical school socialization process, and an encounter between indigenous tribesmen and an outsider. Students showed the most similarity in their learning processes when they analyzed the venue most unfamiliar to them. We conclude that the processes by which students learn to see, as well as the degree to which they become certain about the validity of their observations, are guided by their familiarity with the venue under analysis.

Authors

• Nicole Lehpamer, Michigan State University

• Daniel A. Menchik, Michigan State University