·
Please be
prepared to take extensive notes while you are meeting with your mentees.
·
What you will be
doing is essentially ethnographic research. This form of ethnographic research
has two components
o
ethnographic research. I will make documentation available, where you can
read up on the methodology. The whole experiment is designed as an interactive
learning. You want to find out something about masculinity, and you do so by
studying others and yourself. You "study" others and yourself by
·
a) observations of interactions, including
yourself (participant observation), and by initiating what is called
·
b) "open-ended interviews (“open
ended,” because you don't know exactly where your interviewee/s will be going),
about masculinity. To make it a bit easier, please follow the suggestions for
interview themes for each week:
·
Topics for focus group and individual interviews
·
Week 1: drugs and
alcohol (getting drunk to have a good time, "girlie" drinks, parents
drink, social drinking to do stuff together)
·
Week 2: Fathers
·
Week 3: Authority
Figures, male and female
·
Week 4: Romance
and Sexuality
·
Week 5:
Male Initiation Rites
·
Week 6: Masculine
Ethos?
(What
makes someone appear masculine among your friend, what do you use to assess
that? How do men, in the student's opinion operate? What are
folk theories about men? held by both men
and women?)
·
Focus Group Interviews:
o
Take about 15-40
minutes for the group interviews, depending on how it works. And then spend
some time in
·
small group or individual interviewing
o
Try to have a
conversation about the same topic. Here is the time where you can ask more
personally about the things that were mentioned in the group, and you give your
counterpart a chance to also ask you questions. By the end of the
conversation, you should have taken notes about what you asked them, their
answers, and also what they asked you, and what you answered. This way it
becomes a more equal exchange, and you get a chance to reflect on your own
thoughts on these topics as well. In addition, you want to add important
details to the conversation. Was there a moment when the situation became
awkward? What do you think caused that? Can you comment the emotional reactions
underlying the conversation/interview? What made you uncomfortable? Were you
insecure? at ease? confused?
·
Interview Notes
o
From Interviews
(focus group and individual) It is very very very important that you are
honest and keep as much notes about these meetings as possible. If
you can, use a tape recorder, given it is okay with your mentor. You can then
use the recorded tape to listen carefully again to what you heard and asked and
said. But, it is also important that you pay attention to what people are
telling you. From my own experience, I know that it is very easy to listen only
for that that you want to hear and ignore the rest. But "the rest",
or that which you did not expect, is often the most interesting part of the
interview. So, a good interview is one where your counterpart feels encouraged
to provide long answers about the subject, interested in teaching you about
their position, and raising interesting questions that make you want to find
out more.
·
Participant Observation Notes:
o
Another set of
notes should cover what is going on as a group between you, the Clarkson
students, and the county students. You want to learn, for example, as quickly
as possible who the different students are, their names, what they are saying
about themselves, how they are getting along with each other, who are friends,
lovers, etc. among them. And, you want to keep track on the forms of
interaction between the Clarkson students and the county students. Is there
some flirting going on? From whom? How do you know? How does it make
you feel? What is the relationship between the guys on both sides, and
what is the relationship between the women on both sides? Do the students respond
differently to male Clarkson students than to female Clarkson students? How
would you describe what is going on between folks?
Requirements:
·
5 sets of Notes (ethnographic and participant
observations) or one note per meeting (satisfies your journal requirements):
Data Collection
o
these are not the “raw” notes that you wrote while you were
at the meeting, but typed up notes, that put in narrative form what was
happening. Emphasis here is not on style, grammar, but on completeness
§
(minimum 2pages
per meeting)
§
reports are due
on Thursday after the meeting
·
Presentation (as group): Analysis of Data
o
Use this
opportunity to make a midterm assessment of what you found out so far. Discuss
with your group what you have found out, the logistics, the difficulties, and
the insights you have
o
Prepare a summary
and overview for class, and give us some of the interesting bits of info you
have found so far! (I encourage everyone of you to write up a 2-3 page analysis
of your reports, but if you want to hand in one for 2-3 students, that is okay
too.)
·
Paper: Analysis of your Data
o
The 4-5 page
paper is the place where you analyze what you observed. Your reports are your
data. Look for patterns. What does masculinity mean
for the students, what models of masculinity do they have? How does it square
with yours?
o
You need to draw
a connection to some of the readings discussed in class. (some
of you have already mentioned stepfathers and …..?)
Grading Criteria:
|
Attendance |
10% |
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|
Class Participation |
10% |
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|
Quizzes |
10% |
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|
Midterm |
10% |
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|
Service Learning Component |
|
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|
40% |
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|
Presentation (can be about
CCC) |
5% |
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|
Final |
15% |
Please note: you can not miss
more than one of the 6 sessions scheduled with the high school students.
Documentations made available:
1)
Focus Group
Interviews
2)
Life History
Interviews
3)
Handout on
Interview Techniques