The only way is ethics: methodological considerations for a working-class academic

ABSTRACT

Ethnography as a methodological approach presents the fieldworker with many ethical crossroads throughout the research process. This is because of the unique position that ethnographers find themselves in, the environments that they research and the relationships which are formed. This paper presents four confessional vignettes from a broader ethnographic research project that illuminate the underside of fieldwork, and how the author dealt with a number of difficulties and dilemmas in the field as a working-class academic. Fieldwork was undertaken in a Welsh (UK) secondary school for one full academic year, and the paper argues that researcher identity must be remain fluid so that successful field relations are established and maintained. The paper concludes that researchers must think intersectionally about their endeavours and to also consider how one’s own social baggage might impact upon the research process.     

An output comparison of open university and conventional university students

Previous economic studies of the Open University have concentrated on the cost side; this paper looks at the output of the Open University compared to conventional universities. In 1976 multiple choice questions were included in the two second level economics examination papers (D222 and D282); norming data for these questions had already been generated for thousands of university students from 1970 to 1973 during the course of the Economics Education project. The findings show that OU students score at the same level as first year conventional university students in microeconomics, and score significantly higher than third year CU students in macroeconomics. To check whether the favourable performance of OU students was due to being “test-wise” in multiple choice questions, two essay questions from the 1976 Open University D282 paper were set in a conventional university and a “blind” marking exercise was carried out. The result indicated that OU students performed at least as well as their CU counterparts. Further tests were carried out to check on the effect of students previously having taken OU economics courses and whether OU economics students are representative of all students.     

Recognising desire: a psychosocial approach to understanding education policy implementation and effect

It is argued that in order to understand the ways in which teachers experience their work—including the idiosyncratic ways in which they respond to and implement mandated education policy—it is necessary to take account both of sociological and of psychological issues. The paper draws on original research with practising and beginning teachers, and on theories of social and psychic induction, to illustrate the potential benefits of this bipartisan approach for both teachers and researchers. Recognising the significance of (but somewhat arbitrary distinction between) structure and agency in teachers’ practical and ideological positions, it is suggested that teachers’ responses to local and central policy changes are governed by a mix of pragmatism, social determinism and often hidden desires. It is the often under‐acknowledged strength of desire that may tip teachers into accepting and implementing policies with which they are not ideologically comfortable.     

Bibliographies of Interest

C. David Mortensen's Communication: The Study of Human Interaction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972—$7.95)

Alex Groner and the editors of American Heritage and Business Week's The American Heritage History of American Business &; Industry (New York: American Heritage with distribution by McGraw-Hill, 1972—$17.95 to January 1st, then $20.00)

Herb Sanford's Tom and Jimmy: The Dorsey Years (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1972—$8.95)

Nicholas Johnson's Test Pattern For Living (New York: Bantam Books, 1972—$1.25, paper)     

E-Mentoring in Physical Education

Mentoring can be a critical component of teachers' professional development and retention, yet logistical and fiscal challenges often limit the amount of contact a protégé can have with a mentor teacher. This investigation explored a school district initiative to address this need for more mentor interaction by supplementing traditional face-to-face mentoring with electronic mentoring. Thirty elementary physical education teachers participated in a year-long program that involved workshops, school visits, videotaped lessons, and electronic mentoring via chat rooms. Data were collected from chat room postings and analyzed for frequency of response and quality. In addition, a series of interviews were analyzed via constant comparison process to further understand teachers' perceptions of electronic mentoring. In general, teacher postings were minimal in frequency and quality. The limited use of the chat rooms was likely linked to the teachers' perceptions of electronic mentoring, which included several concerns with the technical and human dimensions of the process.     

Communication anxiety and teacher communication competence among Native American and Caucasian students

This study compared self‐reported communication anxiety and student perceived teacher communication competence among fifth and sixth grade Native American and Caucasian students being taught by Caucasian teachers. A survey of 67 Native American and 51 Caucasian students was conducted in an elementary school located on a Northwestern reservation. Native American and Caucasian students differed significantly only on their communication anxiety associated with approaching new people. No significant difference was found on factors of communication anxiety more specific to classroom communication. Native American students perceived the teachers to have significantly less communication competence. Additionally for Native American students, perceived teacher communication competence predicted reported enjoyment of classroom communication, fear of classroom communication and willingness to approach new people. For Caucasian students perceived teacher communication competence only predicted willingness to approach new people.     

‘Designing the plane while flying it’: concept co-construction in a collaborative action research project

In the field of collaborative action research (CAR), the quality of the collaborative partnerships between university researchers and practitioners has received much attention. Most accounts focus on three areas: the question how to organise and optimise the encounter of these ‘worlds’ of scientific and practical reasoning; the professional development and emancipation of practitioners; and the enhancement of the practical utility of a CAR-project. In this article, we look at CAR projects from a different angle and explore the question how theoretical concepts are co-constructed in CAR-projects, thereby acquiring both practical as well as scientific relevance. We have focused on the participatory process of conceptualization during a CAR project in primary education, in order to find out how a key concept in the considered project is co-constructed and operationalized in multidisciplinary communities of practices. Both the theoretical validity of the concept is evaluated as well as the validity of collaboration. An ‘hourglass’ model is introduced for analysing participation in CAR projects, holding a more relational and dialogic interpretation of participation than the ‘Participation Ladder’ model. Furthermore, a heuristic approach to conceptualization in CAR projects is proposed.     

An Exploration of Moshe Greenberg's Religious Vision and its Manifestation in His Bible Scholarship and Writings on Bible Education

This article is an attempt to explore the religious vision of Moshe Greenberg in some detail, and in particular, to analyze how his approach to education is applied to and reflected in his ideas about the teaching and learning of Bible, and in his own Bible scholarship itself. The paper examines the connection between Greenberg's philosophy of religion and Wilfred Cantwell Smith's conception of religion as a collection of religious “symbols,” one of which is the sacred text itself. The article includes an analysis of Greenberg's Bible scholarship and writings on Bible education.