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Yik Yak as an Ethnographic Tool: A Look at Duke University’s
Campus Culture Through the
Lens of an Anonymous, Location-based Smartphone App
Angela Silak
Loyola Marymount University
YIK&YAK&AS&AN&ETHNOGRAPHIC&TOOL& & & 2&
Yik Yak as an Ethnographic Tool: A Look at Duke University’s
Campus Culture Through the
Lens of an Anonymous, Location-based Smartphone App
In recent education news, a new app called Yik Yak has been
making headlines. Simply
put, Yik Yak is an anonymous smartphone app that displays a

newsfeed for a specific geographic
location—users can log in to the app and see both a “new” and
“hot” feed of recent posts within
a 1.5 mile radius of their area and may post (or “yak”) or
comment on posts (Yik Yak, 2014a).
Users can “upvote” posts they like or “downvote” posts they
dislike, and when a user’s post
receives a significant number of upvotes, it moves into a
location’s “hot” feed and earns the user
“Yakarma,” Yik Yak’s version of reputation points (Yik Yak,
2014a). Yik Yak is specifically
targeted at college students and has become immensely
popular—over 1,000 U.S. schools use
the app, and it recently raised $62 million in venture capital
after its valuation was rumored to be
over $100 million (EdSurge, 2014). Unlike fellow anonymous
sharing apps Whisper and Secret,
Yik Yak is less centered on confessions or private information
and acts as more of a humorous
newsfeed; this may be why college students have so readily
adopted it (Parkinson, 2014).
However, Yik Yak has come under fire for facilitating cyber-
bullying and providing a
home for offensive and threatening content, forcing

administrators to take action either by trying
to ban the app or to educate students on its use (eCampus News,
2014). Yik Yak’s response to
cyber-bullying is an internal filter that helps weed out illicit or
derogatory posts—if a Yik Yak
post is downvoted to a score of -5, the post is removed (Yik
Yak 2014b). It is unclear whether
Yik Yak is an actual problem on campus or if insensitive posts
are simply a result of widespread
negative convictions within a campus’s culture. Can Yik Yak be
blamed for issues that
administrators have failed to bring into the open and create a
constructive dialogue around? Or
is Yik Yak an instigator of hateful comments?
An anthropological analysis of a sample school that uses Yik
Yak could bring some
clarity to these questions. Additionally, because the app is
mostly targeted at college students, it
may be a useful device for virtual ethnography on college
campuses in general. Virtual
ethnography, also called online ethnography, can be defined as

“the application of ethnographic
research methods to specific online communities through the
observation and analysis of online
dialogue and other online artefacts” (Prior & Miller, 2012, p.
503). What is interesting about Yik
Yak is the ability to “peek” into other schools’ or locations’
feeds to see what is being discussed
remotely, so the app lends itself well to virtual ethnography
(Parkinson, 2014). Because they are
so new, ethnographic analysis of anonymous, location-based,
social media apps on smartphones
is uncharted territory, but virtual ethnography as a whole has
become a well-developed field. A
review of the literature will outline key methods and challenges
of virtual ethnography, the
impact of anonymity on ethnographic research, the benefits of
studying location-based media,
and how college students use social media apps on smartphones.
Literature Review
Virtual ethnography changes the role of the ethnographer in a
few ways and presents
some challenges not present in traditional ethnographic
research. First, the task of collecting data

is primarily conducted at a desk rather than in the field, which
is helpful because large amounts
of data can be gathered efficiently and saved for later analysis
(Prior & Miller, 2012; Rutter &
Smith, 2008). As Wolcott (2008) noted, time constraints force
ethnographers to be selective
about their methods, but this is less true in the case of virtual
ethnography. On the other hand,
because researchers cannot be physically present in the online
space, their roles are not as active
as if they were in the field. The virtual world automatically
makes the ethnographer an
“observer,” rather than a “participant-observer” (Rutter &
Smith, 2008). In some senses, this can
an advantage, as the ethnographer does not have to disturb
participants and can objectively
monitor a culture in its natural setting (Hine, 2000; Prior &
Miller, 2012). But Marshall (2010)
argues that passive observation does not allow ethnographers to
check their understandings, and
Prior and Miller (2012) warn that it can result in “potentially
inaccurate representations of user

thoughts and feelings, and difficulty in interpreting non-
contextualized data” (p. 504). This may
be more of a complication in certain forums than in others,
depending on what the ethnographer
is looking for and what types of communication are possible.
As a solution, some scholars
(Orgad, 2005; Prior & Miller, 2012) recommend that to properly
contextualize and add
authenticity to findings, online researchers should include an
offline component to their methods
if possible, especially when a community conducts some or
most of its interactions offline.
Researchers (Hine, 2000; Ho & McLeod, 2008; Marshall, 2010;
Joinson, 2005; Matic,
2011; Rutter & Smith, 2005) have specifically looked at the role
of identity in online
communities and how it can affect the validity of online
ethnographic studies. The question of
identity complicates the field of virtual ethnography in a few
ways. The first is what Hine (2000)
calls the “problem of authenticity”—there is no way to gauge
the “reliability of statements and
the identity of authors” when conducting an online ethnography
(p. 11). Several researchers

(Hine, 2000, Joinson, 2005, Matic, 2011) have observed
differences in expression of online and
offline identity, warning that cultures cannot be fully
understood through online modes of
expression. Furthermore, it is difficult or impossible to
precisely define the membership of a
virtual community (Rutter & Smith, 2005). The composition of
online groups can change
quickly and is usually impossible to track (Marshall, 2010). A
virtual ethnography also creates
an inevitable bias toward very active users; it is challenging to
assess the entire community
accurately because ethnographers cannot account for the
thoughts of “lurkers,” those who
passively observe online activity but do not post (Rutter &
Smith, 2005).
On the other hand, anonymity may actually be beneficial in
creating a more accurate
understanding of communities that use computer-mediated
communication. Joinson (2005)
found that people are more open and honest in the virtual

setting, and self-disclosure is typically
higher than during face-to-face interactions, Prior and Miller
(2012) noticed that anonymity
facilitates “heartfelt, emotionally rich responses” (p. 508), and
Matic (2011) discovered that
respondents who posted in anonymous forums felt a sense of
freedom to assume new roles.
Because anonymity levels the playing field and makes
participants less vulnerable, they are more
willing to express opinions that may be viewed as socially
unacceptable in offline settings (Ho &
McLeod, 2008; Joinson, 2005). Although the issue of identity
in virtual ethnography creates a
few drawbacks for ethnographers, the feature of anonymity
provides a unique opportunity to gain
insight into topics that would not be readily brought up in face-
to-face communication.
Another difficulty in virtual ethnography cited by researchers
(Hine, 2000, Marshall,
2010) is the inability to define boundaries of physical space, but
using location-based media as
the basis for research may help solve this problem. Locative or
location-based media can be
defined as “media of communication that are functionally bound

to a location” (Wilken, 2012, p.
243). As a result of Google’s use of geolocation services and
the proliferation of the
smartphone, location-based media have become mainstream
among smartphone consumers
(Weiss, 2013; Wilken, 2012). Little ethnographic research
exists in the way of location-based
media, but its popularity suggests that apps that use this
technology may be a good starting point
for ethnographers trying to capture virtual communications
within a defined set of boundaries or
for getting a different perspective on a community in a
particular geographic location.
Finally, a broad review of social media-related studies is
outside the scope of this project,
but Mihailadis’s (2014) analysis of the use of social media on
mobile devices among college
students is particularly relevant. Mihailidis (2014) found that a)
aside from texting, college
students mostly use their smartphones for social media
activities, and b) respondents believed

that mobile devices promoted community engagement and
communication and provided
valuable information. From this research, Mihailidis (2014)
concluded that college students
around the world are “tethered” to their smartphones. Not only
does this study set a precedent
for examining the role of social media on smartphones in
college students’ lives, it also indicates
that because college students are inextricably tied to their
mobile devices, it may be impossible
to fully understand a university’s culture without incorporating
some type of virtual ethnography.
Given that college students use their smartphones as extensions
of themselves
(Mihailidis, 2014), that the popularity of location-based media
is growing (Weiss, 2013; Wilken,
2012), and that anonymity often produces unfiltered, honest
responses (Joinson, 2005; Matic,
2011), an anonymous, location-based smartphone app like Yik
Yak may prove to be a valuable
ethnographic tool for studying culture on college campuses.
The body of scholarly work
presented above leads to the following research questions:
1. How does Yik Yak function in the daily lives of students at

Duke University?
2. What conclusions about campus culture can be drawn through
an analysis of Yik Yak
content?
3. Does Yik Yak accurately reflect campus culture?
Methods
As a research subject, I selected Duke University for several
reasons. First, I attended
Duke as an undergraduate, so I am familiar with the campus.
This was helpful in understanding
campus-specific terminology used on Yik Yak--for example, I
know that “Perkins” refers to a
library. A complete outsider would likely have a difficult time
trying to decipher Yik Yak at
Duke (or any unfamiliar university), but I was able to move
through the content with ease. This
also made the interview process later on run more smoothly, as
I could spend time gathering
valuable information rather than clarifying. My status as a
Duke alum could raise questions of

objectivity, but I have been out of school for five years, so I no
longer feel like an insider.
Second, Duke is a relatively isolated campus, which is crucial
when studying a location-
based app. As a result, Duke’s Yik Yak feed really belongs to
the Duke population, rather than
displaying a mixture of comments from Duke students and
Durham residents. A school in a
more urban setting like New York University would be a less
ideal site for research with Yik
Yak, because the integration of campus buildings with non-
university locations blurs the
boundaries between college culture and city culture. Choosing
Duke made the research easier
because I felt confident I was getting a representative sample in
the postings I read.
Finally, Duke has a very active Yik Yak feed, and I knew I
would have a lot to work with
when beginning my research. Before committing to this project,
I monitored the Duke feed for a
day or two, ensuring that students posted frequently, and they
did—usually a post popped up
every minute or two. Yik Yak does not report the number of
users at each campus or the

percentage of students that use the app, but by looking at the
feed, it appeared that the amount of
activity would be sufficient for my research purposes.
After selecting a school, I began data collection. I scheduled
November 1st to November
7th, 2014 as observation days, so I could account for every day
of the week. Once a day, I signed
into Yik Yak on my iPhone and used the “peek” function to look
at Duke’s “hot” feed. I checked
in at random times during the day, so as not to favor students
who may be out of class and
posting at a certain time. I chose to use the “hot” feed rather
than the “new” feed as my data
source, because the “hot” feed contained posts that created the
most engagement through upvotes
or comments, and these seem to demonstrate shared opinions.
When checking the feed, I took a
screen shot of every post so I could aggregate and review all
data later, as Rutter and Smith
(2008) recommended. This helped me comb through data more
systematically. For this portion

of the research, I took the role of passive observer, as Yik Yak
does not allow those outside of a
school’s geographic location to post in that school’s feed. This
did not seem to be a drawback,
as Marshall (2010) argued, because I later supplemented this
data with interviews.
I then reviewed each screen shot, looking for common themes,
and I created a document
for categorizing the various posts. I knew I was looking for
information about Yik Yak itself and
also opinions about the Duke experience in general, so when
either of these came up, I put them
into their respective categories. As I continued going through
the posts, patterns emerged, and I
added new categories for each. After synthesizing the data, the
final major categories I identified
were posts about Yik Yak, humor, self-reflexive comments,
campus happenings and
observations, and commentary on the Duke experience.
As experienced scholars (Orgad, 2005; Prior & Miller, 2012)
have pointed out, more
complete and authentic findings occur when virtual ethnography
is combined with other
methods. Therefore, I set up a video chat interview with two

current Duke seniors—Jenny and
Sarah (names changed for privacy purposes), both female. I
selected these students mainly out
of convenience—Jenny is one of my former interns, and Sarah
is her friend. The girls know
each other, but they do not share majors and are involved in
different social groups—Jenny is a
scholarship student in a selective living group (a dormitory
section dedicated to a group of
students with a shared interest), and Sarah is an athlete on the
women’s rowing team. I
interviewed Jenny and Sarah at the same time, which seemed to
make the process more
comfortable for both of them and led to a lively discussion—one
girl’s comments often sparked
additional input from the other. Because my time was limited, I
only conducted one interview,
but Jenny and Sarah were very helpful and were able to answer
all my questions thoroughly.
The purpose of the interview was to get a clearer sense of how
many students use Yik

Yak and its purpose, confirm or deny themes I previously
identified, and find out if there was
anything missing from what I had gleaned after reading a
week’s worth of posts. The interview
format was casual to encourage discussion and deliberation, so I
kept my questions general and
flexible. I began by asking Jenny and Sarah to describe how
they use Yik Yak and to assess the
app’s popularity on campus. I then inquired about some of the
incidents that sparked debate and
problems students complained about on Yik Yak. I also asked
for their take on certain recent
campus happenings and specific aspects of campus culture
based on themes I pulled from my
Yik Yak analysis.
As they were speaking, I typed up careful notes. After the
interview, I took all of Jenny
and Sarah’s input and integrated it into my previously defined
categories, noting similarities and
discrepancies between my information sources. After compiling
my data, I now have a good
sense of how students use Yik Yak, what I believe is a clear
grasp of Duke’s campus culture
today, and how Yik Yak can help administrators moving

forward.
Results
Function of Yik Yak
In trying to capture the Duke culture through the lens of Yik
Yak, it first became
necessary to understand why students use Yik Yak and how it
functions in their daily lives. The
Yik Yak feed itself during observation week was very telling of
how students feel about the app,
and it seemed that its primary purposes are news and
entertainment. Users sometimes
commented that journalists would benefit from using Yik Yak,
and several posts remarked on
how funny the feed was and how it can be a distraction from
homework. Jenny and Sarah agreed
that news and entertainment are the two reasons they use Yik
Yak—Jenny said it was “like a
news outlet” and that it has essentially replaced Twitter on
campus because it is “more funny and
more relevant.” The girls both like how the app provides
“random entertainment,” noting that it

is great for when they have some down time.
Interestingly, students seem to value originality in their yaks,
denouncing those who re-
posted others’ yaks. At the same time, many students rebutted
this argument by saying that all
funny posts should be shared. Jenny and Sarah acknowledged
that students feel a sense of pride
when posting on Yik Yak and that they often overhear other
students bragging to friends about
getting a top yak. This hints that Yik Yak posts are important
to Duke students.
Although I got the impression that Duke has a very active Yik
Yak feed and that users
enjoy reading it, it was only through Jenny and Sarah that I
could understand exactly how
popular the app is. Both girls check Yik Yak several times a
day, and they prefer to read the
current feed, so as not to miss anything or see any “spoilers” on
the “hot” feed. Jenny and Sarah
specified two different types of users—those who read and
sometimes upvote or downvote but
rarely post, and those who post several times a day and try to
earn “Yakarma”—both girls fit into

the first group. Most importantly, according to Jenny and
Sarah, everyone is reading Yik Yak—
when Jenny revealed to her friends that she had just downloaded
the app a few weeks ago, she
was met with surprise. Furthermore, Yik Yak is not an activity
that students quietly monitor—
Jenny and Sarah reported that students actively talk about the
app on campus, mostly asking if
others saw a noteworthy yak. I am unable to track down the
actual number of students using Yik
Yak at Duke, but it seems to have a significant presence in
students’ lives and has found its way
into face-to-face conversations as well as serving as a form of
social media.
Campus Culture
After categorizing my data, the main types of posts I identified
over the course of the
week (aside from posts about Yik Yak itself) were humor, self-
reflexive comments, campus
observations and happenings, and commentary on the Duke
experience. According to Jenny, on

an average day, the main topics on Duke’s Yik Yak are “potty
humor, sex, homework, and
stress”—so the feed is mostly reflective and just about day to
day life. She also mentioned
“random shoutouts” to people doing unusual or funny things on
campus—for example, one
student gained notoriety on Yik Yak for his staged dramatic
readings of Harry Potter in the
middle of the quad—which falls into the category of campus
happenings and observations. As
far as understanding the Duke experience and overall campus
culture, this was mostly tied in to
posts about what was going on each day. On the day I
interviewed Jenny and Sarah, a football
game against the University of North Carolina was scheduled
for that evening, and they said the
Yik Yak feed was overflowing with posts expressing Duke pride
and emphasizing the rivalry
with UNC, as well as some posts about how the game was
affecting their daily lives, like
complaints about having to move cars from the parking lot.
Finally, the girls mentioned that
there are a few more serious posts each day about students
struggling with personal matters or

having problems fitting in. I noticed these types of posts in my
analysis and determined that
some fit better in the self-reflexive post category, and others fit
more into the Duke experience
category. By breaking down the categories of Yik Yak posts, it
then becomes possible to
understand the realities of Duke’s campus culture.
Humor. As I pointed out, humor is one of the main reasons
Duke students use Yik Yak.
This category is probably the least informative in terms of
interpreting campus culture, but two
things did come out of it—first, Duke students are very clever
and smart (and appreciate others
who are clever and smart). This is unsurprising, considering
that the university’s status as an
elite school, but there were several posts calling attention to
this point—for instance, students
commenting that they are proud of Duke’s yaks after peeking at
other schools’ feeds. Second, the
Duke/UNC rivalry was highlighted in the humor category. Quite
a few posts poked fun at UNC,

and Jenny and Sarah noticed that this intensified on game day.
The humor category connotes a
sense of Duke pride, but as other categories will show, this is
only a portion of the picture.
Self-reflexive comments. Self-reflexive comments are one of
the most common types of
posts on Yik Yak. Many of these cross into the humor category
(self-deprecating comments and
confessions/embarrassing stories), but others demonstrate
deeper personal struggles, and I
noticed a few patterns. Even though the humor category
implied that Duke is a place filled with
smart people, many posts in the self-reflexive category
expressed feelings of inadequacy—
“feeling dumber than everyone else”—insinuating that Duke’s
reputation for admitting smart
kids can cause added stress as students try to keep up.
Additionally, some posts took on a much
more serious tone—students dealing with depression or mental
health issues—Jenny also
corroborated this finding, and she felt that students were
generally supportive. Sarah agreed,
adding that she had peeked at Princeton’s feed and found it to
be very derogatory and mean,

unlike the camaraderie seen in Duke yaks. However, Jenny
pointed out that Duke’s Yik Yak
feed is more sympathetic than campus in real life. Duke
students seem to be generally sensitive
of others’ feelings and want to help, but because this is not
reflected outwardly in campus
culture, struggling students may feel more isolated than Yik
Yak would lead a reader to believe.
Campus happenings and observations. Perhaps the clearest
image of Duke can be
realized through Yik Yak posts about campus happenings and
observations. To start, yaks
sometimes describe the look and feel of the campus. I am a bit
biased in this area, since I’ve
spent time on campus, but based on Yik Yak alone, I would
imagine an outsider would pick up
on the fact that Duke is a beautiful place and that there is lots of
activity on campus—students
going about activities, artwork and displays to check out, and
ongoing construction to improve
campus buildings. Something that struck me as funny was the
large number of posts about the

squirrel population running around on campus. Weather also
came up frequently, as students
were beginning to sense the impending onset of winter when a
major cold front blew in. Some
students expressed frustration at the cold weather, but others
were excited about the upcoming
Christmas season. These types of posts were not remarkably
significant in terms of the more in
depth and controversial features of campus culture, but they
provide a good starting point for
someone trying imagine life at Duke.
Discourse about the academic portions of Duke also surfaced
frequently during my
observation week, as spring registration had just opened, and
students were also in the middle of
midterms. Several posts came from students seeking advice
about which courses to register for,
and responses tended to be helpful. Criticism of ACES, the
online course registration system,
also popped up. Conversations about midterms were extremely
prevalent in the overall feed
during my week of observation, and these were overwhelmingly
negative—many students

expressed how stressed they were over midterms, and this was
accompanied by posts about how
hard Duke is. There were a few moments of triumph and pride,
but many students criticized
Duke for having unnecessarily difficult curriculum.
More Yik Yak debate about academics surfaced later in the
week when a cheating
scandal was exposed at Duke—it was discovered that students
in one computer science class had
been getting answers to homework assignments from a website.
This brought up a heated debate
about where to place the blame. Many students felt that the
department was at fault for not doing
a better job of monitoring and changing assignments or for
putting too much emphasis on grades,
which encourages cheating. Other students seemed very upset
about the cheating scandal,
expressing their disdain for cheating and worrying that the story
was going to get into the
national news media and hurt Duke’s reputation.
When I brought up academic concerns that appeared on Yik Yak

to Jenny and Sarah, they
acknowledged that Duke was hard, primarily during junior year,
and could be extremely
stressful, but Yik Yak may also make Duke sound
disproportionately difficult. Jenny is an
English major and finds her coursework manageable. The girls
concluded that many students
griping about the amount of work or difficulty of exams are in
“weed out” classes, meaning
prerequisite courses for premed, computer science, engineering,
or similar majors that are
designed to force students to decide if they actually want to
continue an exceptionally demanding
course of study. As for the cheating scandal, they responded
that the answer was not clear cut—
students at Duke are generally opposed to cheating, but the
standards for cheating in computer
science courses need to be reevaluated, because a major like
that requires use of the internet to
find solutions to problems. Jenny and Sarah did bring up the
high pressure to perform well—for
most Duke students (who graduated from high school at the top
of their classes), an A is the only
acceptable outcome, substantiating some of the sentiments on

Yik Yak that cheating could be
driven by a desire to excel. Ultimately, it appears that Duke is
a challenging and demanding
school, but students’ academic paths are also a very personal
experience that could be harder or
easier depending on what major they choose. The discussion of
academics is a good example of
how Yik Yak can bring statements of vocal students to the
forefront without accounting for
lurkers who are satisfied with their grades. At the same time, it
is clear through both Yik Yak
and my conversation with Jenny and Sarah that Duke students
take academics very seriously and
are proud of Duke’s academic reputation.
The campus happening category also included weekend
activities—the weekend during
my observation period included the aftermath of Halloween.
Analysis of weekend activities did
not present any unexpected findings—in short, the party culture
at Duke is alive and well.
Students commented on their Friday night Halloween activities,

including drinking and hookups,
and their subsequent hangovers; Saturday was meant for being
lazy, but students planned to go
out in costume again that evening and were excited about the
extra hour of partying afforded by
daylight savings time. Jenny and Sarah did not have much to
add to this assessment, agreeing
that much like students at other colleges across America, Duke
students like to party.
Sports also came up on Yik Yak a surprisingly small number of
times over the course of
the week, despite Duke’s well-known status as a premier
basketball school. The men’s
basketball team played their first game during the week I was
observing, and a few students
commented on how empty K-Ville was (the area where students
line up to get into games and
camp out in the spring). I asked Jenny and Sarah about this—is
basketball culture losing its
steam, as a Yik Yak reader might infer? They conceded that
basketball had been losing a little
bit of intensity over the past couple of years, positing that this
may be because Duke students are
so grade-conscious, and now that football has become big

(which was also mentioned on the
app), that has taken over somewhat, since the games do not
require waiting in line for hours.
Still, both girls believe that Yik Yak will start to go crazy when
basketball season gets into full
swing, so it is hard to tell at this early stage if it has really lost
popularity. Regardless, it seems
that Yik Yak did mirror student attitudes toward sports—both a
reduced interest in the early
season game and concern that basketball was not going to be as
popular.
One final major event that happened during my observation
week was Election Day,
which prompted a good bit of political commentary (and is not
likely to have been as prevalent
during any other week). Because of this, I was able to gain
some insight into the political
climate at Duke. Based on the posts I read, Duke gives the
impression of being a very liberal
campus, and conservatives tend to feel left out or afraid to
express their views in this

environment. The general disappointment with election results
on Yik Yak provides evidence
that Duke is largely liberal, but there is definitely a
conservative contingent. Jenny and Sarah
corroborated these findings, saying that Duke seems very liberal
because liberals are more vocal,
but they think an honest ballot would be pretty evenly split—
conservatives are just reluctant to
bring their views up in conversation. It may be possible to infer
that Duke has the feel of a
liberal-leaning campus from the social issues brought up on Yik
Yak, but having Election Day
occur during my observation week supported this assumption.
Commentary on the Duke experience. Outside of specific
campus happenings, students
also expressed opinions on various parts of the Duke
experience. Some of these comments were
positive—Duke has a beautiful campus, great classes, and a
smart student body—most were
neutral, and many were negative. Yik Yak is definitely used as
a forum for complaints, notably
that the IT infrastructure is subpar, there are not enough good
food options, parking is a pain, and
the construction occurring on campus this year is unsightly and

annoying. Jenny acknowledged
that people love to grumble about these things, so it is no
surprise that they show up on Yik Yak.
Construction in particular has put a damper on campus culture
because it is so visible and
dictates routes students can use to get to class. One recurring
complaint that stirred up some
debate was the idea that Duke is too expensive—is it worth the
money? This was intriguing,
because it brings to light views that are usually only expressed
on an anonymous forum. Jenny is
on scholarship, but does hear people fuss about spending so
much money when they are being
inconvenienced (like being asked to move their cars during
football games, even though they
paid for parking permits). Otherwise, money is not talked about
much—Sarah noted that Duke
is a wealthy school and people will not talk about financial
difficulties socially; the app give
students the freedom to talk about money in a way they would
not bring up with friends.

More complex thoughts and opinions bubbled up in yaks about
the social experience at
Duke. Many comments dealt with social status and the way
students choose to spend their time.
Several comments attested that Duke is a difficult place
socially, and that it is not easy to make
friends because people are a) too busy with passion projects and
spread thin with time, or b) too
focused on social status and willing to abandon friends to social
climb. Jenny and Sarah
acknowledge a “culture of busyness” but do not feel this way
about their friends. However, they
imagined that there probably are a large number of people on
campus who go through all four
years without developing close friendships—they both recalled
how often they see comments on
Yik Yak of people expressing how lonely they are. Jenny
remembers having those worries
freshman year, especially since friends shift around quite a bit,
but by senior year, her
insecurities were gone. She explained that the biggest
transition occurs after freshman year,
when students decide to cling to their freshman friends or leap
into another social group as they

enter fraternity and sorority recruitment or rush selective living
groups, and in this process,
people who do not get into the organization of their choice “fall
through the cracks.” Jenny
called this as a “horrible situation” for those students, as
affiliation with campus organizations,
namely Greek or selective living groups, defines social life at
Duke. Sarah thought some people
are overly concerned with social status, and this can cause
insecurities, but she is pretty sheltered
from social climbing in her rowing team “bubble.” Overall, it
seems that the social scene at Duke
can be difficult for many students to navigate, but Yik Yak may
afford these students a
disproportionate amount of attention.
I also picked up on a trend of students advocating for social
justice—for example,
women’s issues of sexual harassment, body image, double
standards, and feminism came up a
few times. Although I did not see an overwhelming number of
posts on social issues, Jenny and

Sarah have seen them repeatedly on Yik Yak over time. Both
girls commented on how Duke is
very sensitive about political correctness, and women’s and gay
rights are hot topics right now.
In particular, they said acceptance and fighting for social causes
is “cool.” Strikingly, no signs of
racism or talk of race relations showed up, which is somewhat
surprising considering how
opponents of Yik Yak have blamed the app for promoting
racism (eCampus News, 2014). I
asked Jenny and Sarah why they think the subject of race was
avoided, and they surmised that
Duke feels like a predominately white institution and that
blacks (and other minorities) have their
own subcultures on campus, but this is not talked about much,
even if it should be addressed.
Based on Yik Yak, outright racism does not seem to be
prominent at Duke, but Yik Yak also
reproduces the lack of discourse about race relations that occurs
on campus. Despite this, Jenny
and Sarah’s answers demonstrated that the rallies for social
justice that showed up occasionally
on Yik Yak are a part of Duke’s culture.
Evaluation of Yik Yak’s Portrayal of Campus Culture

In assessing how accurately Yik Yak reflects campus culture, it
is necessary to evaluate what
the app accounts for and what it leaves out. In comparing my
preliminary findings to my
interview with Jenny and Sarah, it appears that by looking
solely at Duke’s Yik Yak feed, one
can accurately conclude:
• Yik Yak is popular on campus, and users enjoy it.
• Yik Yak is used mainly for news and entertainment.
• Duke students are smart and appreciate being around similarly
smart people.
• Duke has a beautiful and vibrant campus.
• Duke can be challenging and stressful academically.
• Students take academics seriously and are proud of Duke’s
academic reputation.
• Students are social and like to party.
• Sports have a presence in campus culture.
• Politically, the Duke atmosphere feels liberal, and
conservative voices are overshadowed.

• Students share common reasons to praise and complain about
Duke.
• It is difficult for some students to navigate the social scene.
• Duke’s student body is committed to social justice.
• Racism is not prevalent at Duke, but race relations are rarely
discussed.
Furthermore, Yik Yak affords insight into underlying issues that
are not broached publicly as
well as knowledge of events and occurrences that are happening
on campus each day.
Even so, using Yik Yak alone does not account for all segments
of campus culture.
Granted, the app is useful for understanding what is going on at
a specific moment in time and
how students respond to campus happenings, but when using
only Yik Yak, it is difficult to
ascertain the ongoing and overarching perceptions and themes
that are so deeply ingrained in
campus culture that they are not mentioned or questioned on a
daily basis. One example of this
is the absence of Greek life-related themes on the Yik Yak feed.
Jenny and Sarah made it clear

that Greek life really defines the social scene at Duke, and
one’s social circle is determined by
affiliation with a group. Some posts featured digs at certain
fraternities (and Jenny and Sarah
said that the top frats were usually the ones being made fun of),
but other than that, it was
difficult to get a sense of how much the social culture is
dominated by Greek life. This may have
been because there was no major happening related to Greek life
during my observation week. It
seems that Greek life is such a widely known aspect of Duke
culture that no one feels the need to
comment on it unless an event or scandal arises. On Yik Yak,
major observations are usually
linked to some type of campus happening, so timing plays a role
in what an observer will find.
Secondly, it is difficult to determine which topics on Yik Yak
are avoided during face-to-
face communication on campus. This is not necessarily a
disadvantage, but it does demonstrate
the difference between how Duke is perceived on a surface level
and the deeper, underlying

attitudes of students, expressly those who are struggling. After
speaking with Jenny and Sarah, it
became clear that some types of Yik Yak posts were a result of
the anonymous forum—these
matters, like money and mental health, would rarely be
discussed with friends on campus. Jenny
and Sarah also asserted that there is a pressure to act very happy
at campus and to seem put
together, so anxiety is hard to gauge—people who seem very
content may not necessarily be. It
is only through an anonymous app like Yik Yak that students
are willing to admit their
vulnerabilities and express compassion for struggling students.
This further supports the findings
of Joinson (2005), Matic (2011), and Prior and Miller (2012)
that anonymity allows for more
honest responses that may be viewed as socially unacceptable in
a face-to-face setting.
Discussion
Especially when combined with other ethnographic methods,
Yik Yak seems to be a
valuable tool for studying university culture, particularly at
Duke. Because college students are

tethered to their cell phones (Mihailidis, 2014), location-based
apps help define boundaries for
research (Wilken, 2012), anonymity allows for unfiltered
expression of opinions (Joinson, 2005;
Ho & McLeod, 2008; Matic, 2011; Prior & Miller, 2012), and
Jenny and Sarah have confirmed
the app’s popularity on campus (and the value students place on
it), it follows that an analysis of
Duke culture may not be complete without paying attention to
Yik Yak. Students’ attitudes were
expressed in posts, and accounts of campus happenings
provided context for students to express
opinions and debate. Furthermore, the “peek” function allows
researchers easy and quick access
to a wealth of information that would not be easily obtained by
other means.
However, if a researcher’s explicit goal is to gain an all-
encompassing understanding of a
college campus’s culture, Yik Yak (or other forms of virtual
ethnography) should only be one
piece of the puzzle. Without the experience of attending Duke
and a basis for comparison, I do

not think I would have been able to get a full sense of what life
at Duke is actually like. As I
learned from my interview with Jenny and Sarah, certain
characteristics of campus culture are
left out or slightly misrepresented on Yik Yak, and dominant
themes tend to shift depending on
what is going on at a given time. For an outsider, Yik Yak
might be most useful for studying a
specific aspect of campus culture. The app would be uniquely
helpful when trying to compare
universities through a singular lens--for example, if a researcher
wanted to deal with sensitive
subject matter, like the prevalence of racism across various
campuses, Yik Yak would probably
be more valuable than interviews or campus visits, and is
certainly more efficient.
Implications
Limitations
Several limitations arose during my research process. First, the
amount of time I was
able to monitor Yik Yak was limited. A long-term study may
have yielded different or more

comprehensive results, as would a study that incorporated both
the “new” and “hot” feeds.
Secondly, as informants, I interviewed two female seniors who
were friends. Although there
were advantages to the conversational format that resulted, it
would have been more inclusive to
interview several pairs of diverse students—multiple grade
levels, men and women, participants
in Greek life, students independent from Greek or selective
living groups, and minority or LGBT
students. Finally, researcher subjectivity did come into play.
Even though there were advantages
to having deep familiarity with Duke, it is likely that posts that
stood out to me and the questions
I chose to ask my informants were colored by my Duke
experience and pre-existing
expectations, which could have affected my results. A truly
objective researcher may not have
been able to get as clear of a grasp of Duke culture as I feel that
I have.
There are also limitations inherent in the field of online
ethnography that showed up in
my research. As Rutter & Smith (2005) pointed out, there is an

inevitable bias toward very
active users in online communities, and this was probably true
in my research, as Jenny and
Sarah believed that most Yik Yak users only posted
occasionally. At the same time, this
information came from their interactions on campus, as neither
of them have a way to quantify
exactly what percentage of students post. This identity problem
stems from a larger issue of
trying to define membership in anonymous online communities
(Marshall, 2010). Unfortunately,
the anonymity afforded by Yik Yak will bring these limitations
to any study that uses this app.
Future Research
In terms of evaluating Yik Yak as an ethnographic tool on a
broader scale, one school site
with a small student body is not sufficient to definitively
pronounce the app integral to the
culture of every college in America (the app’s popularity likely
differs between campuses).
Future research should aim to repeat my process at other
campuses, ideally over a longer period

of time and with a slightly broader sample of interview
participants. In light of allegations that
Yik Yak is the cause of hateful, threatening posts, it would be
useful to select a school whose
feed prominently features these types of posts as a research
subject. I did not find Yik Yak to be
a problem at Duke, but other universities may produce different
results.
Additionally, since Yik Yak’s “peek” function affords
researchers the ability to easily
analyze multiple sites at once, it may be even more appealing to
conduct a study that compares a
single aspect of university culture across many campuses. Yik
Yak on its own may not be ideal
for depicting a comprehensive picture of campus culture, but
when looking at one issue in depth,
Yik Yak is perfect for gathering large amounts of data across
multiple locations in a short
amount of time. An app like Yik Yak is probably one of the
only tools that would allow
researchers to conduct a large-scale, purely virtual ethnography
on college campuses without the
results suffering.

Conclusion
Ultimately, if the goal of anthropology of education is to “track
variations in educational
processes . . . and examin[e] efforts to improve schools,” rather
than banning Yik Yak,
administrators and teachers would do well to use Yik Yak to
identify issues that need to be
addressed on college campuses (Wolcott, 2011, p. 97). Because
Yik Yak’s element of
anonymity provides a place for students to speak their minds
freely and without repercussions,
topics arise through the discussion forum that are not widely
spoken about on campus. As Jenny
and Sarah affirmed, Yik Yak exposes underlying problems on
college campuses that are not
readily noticeable on a surface level—at Duke, one of these is
the excessive stress that occurs
when students try to appear happy and successful at all times.
An administrator following
Duke’s Yik Yak could meet with students and proactively find
ways to address this problem with

an open dialogue. It appears that Yik Yak is not only an outlet
for students to express concerns
anonymously, but a valuable tool for identifying room for
improvement on college campuses.
Even though Yik Yak has caused controversy after being blamed
for promoting derogatory and
threatening posts (eCampus News, 2014), these types of posts
were absent from Duke’s feed,
suggesting that campuses having trouble with Yik Yak may
want to take a deeper look into the
culture behind these posts. If racism is showing up on a Yik
Yak feed and not being downvoted,
it is likely reflective of the sentiments of a good portion of the
university’s student body and
should be dealt with by the administration. Even though Yik
Yak does allow unfavorable
comments to be broadcast widely, if administrators can learn to
harness the information the app
provides, it could end up benefitting college campuses in the
long run.
References

eCampus News (2014, October 9). Anonymous apps pose new
campus concerns. Retrieved
from http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/anonymous-
social-apps-947/2/
EdSurge (2014, November 30). Again? Yik Yak raises $62M in
third round of 2014. Retrieved
from https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-11-30-again-yik-yak-
raises-62m-in-third-round-
of-2014
Hine, C. (2000) Virtual Ethnography. London, GBR: Sage
Publications.
Ho, S. & McLeod, D. (2008). Social-psychological influences
on opinion expression in face-to-
face and computer-mediated communication. Communication
Research, 35(2), p. 190-
207. DOI: 10.1177/0093650207313159
Joinson, A. (2005). Internet behaviour and the design of virtual
methods. In C. Hine (Ed).
Virtual Methods: Issues In Social Research on the Internet (p.
21-34). Oxford, GBR:
Berg Publishers.
Marshall, J. (2010). Ambiguity, oscillation, and disorder:
Online Ethnography and the making of

culture. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Journal, 2(3), p. 1-22.
Matic,1. (2011). The social construction of mediated experience
and self identity in social
networking. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary
Social Sciences, 5(11), p. 13-
21.
Mihailidis, P. (2014). A tethered generation: Exploring the role
of mobile phones in the daily life
of young people. Mobile Media and Communication, 2(1), p.
58-72. DOI:
10.1177/2050157913505558
Orgad, S. (2005). From online to offline and back. In C. Hine
(Ed). Virtual Methods: Issues In
Social Research on the Internet (p. 51-65). Oxford, GBR: Berg
Publishers.
Parkinson, H. (2014, October 21). Yik Yak: The anonymous
app taking US college campuses by
storm. The Guardian. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/21/yik-yak-
anonymous-app-college-

campus-whisper-secret
Prior, D. & Miller, L. (2012). Webethnography: Towards a
typology for quality in research
design. International Journal of Market Research, 54(4), p. 503-
520.
Rutter, J. & Smith, G.. (2005. Ethnographic presence in a
nebulous setting. In C. Hine (Ed.),
Virtual Methods: Issues In Social Research on the Internet (p.
81-92). Oxford, GBR:
Berg Publishers.
Weiss, A. S. (2013). Exploring news apps and location-based
services on the smartphone.
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 90(3), p. 435-
456. DOI:
10.1177/1077699013493788
Wilken, R. (2012). Locative media: From specialized
preoccupation to mainstream fascination.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New
Media Technologies,
18(3), p. 243-247. DOI: 10.1177/1354856512444375
Wolcott, H. F. (2008). Ethnography: A Way of Seeing. Lanham,
MD: Altamira Press.

Wolcott, H. (2011). “If there’s going to be an anthropology of
education . . .” In B. Levinson &
M. Pollock (Eds.), Companion to the Anthropology of
Education (p. 97-111). Hoboken,
NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Yik Yak (2014a) Features. Retrieved from
http://www.yikyakapp.com/features/
Yik Yak (2014b). Support. Retrieved from
http://www.yikyakapp.com/support/
West Contra Costa County and the surrounding Bay
Area school districts are home to beautifully diverse
communities. We are home to many cultures, languages and
traditions.
Each child enters our school system as whole-
individuals with knowledge and culture from home, who have
unique learning styles and interests, and who bring
individual social and emotional skills into the classroom.
Education needs to be accessible to all students, which
means lessons will need to be presented in multiple formats,
at multiple opportunities, and must make real world
connections that students can best identify with.
Education needs to extend outside of the classroom and

allow students to learn about their communities, each other,
nature, and the structure of society around them. Learning
occurs through social contexts, and students become excited
and motivated to learn when their education is student-
centered.
In order to educate the whole- individual, educators
must be able to meet students’ language needs, especially in
communities of dual-language learners.
The Bilingual Child:
How parents and families
can support children’s
home language
2
5
Early
Childhood
Edition
Preschools in Our
Communities
Bay Area Parent Magazine
January 2015
Inside
Language in Early Childhood Education
Peer Language
Preference:

A recent study at a
preschool site in West
Contra Costa County
Lorem Ipsum Dolor [Issue] :: [Date]
2
1
A recent study
conducted in a
local preschool
classroom
identified peer
language
preferences
among dual
language learner
students.
- Emily Orlando
1
A preschool teacher in West
Contra Costa Unified School District
asked herself that very question:
What languages do my students
prefer to speak to one another?
English or their home language?

How can their language preferences
affect both my teaching design and
overall student learning?
For most students, preschool is
their first exposure to public
education, school structure, and
many times it is also their first
experience interacting with children
their own age.
Students must acquire social
skills, increase impulse control, gain
persistence and engagement skills,
follow directions from adults,
In a culturally diverse and language rich classroom,
what language do students prefer to use with peers?
2
become familiar with routines and
set schedules, and use language to
express their needs, wants, and
academic understanding.
For all young children,
especially dual-language learners,
language is the key for enabling
learning. As John Dewey stated in
his piece My Pedagogic Creed,
“school must represent present life -
life as real and vital to the child as
that which he carries on in the
home, in the neighborhood, or on the

play-ground” (Dewey, 1929). In
order for students to be able to
relate school to life and life to
school, they must be able to
communicate with teachers and
peers effectively.
2
Lorem Ipsum Dolor Issue [#] :: [Date]
3
!
Total&Interactions& English&Interactions&
Spanish&Interactions&
Student!A! 23! 74%! 26%!
Student!B! 27! 8%! 92%!
Student!C! 14! 78%! 22%!
Student!D! 25! 16%! 84%!
The Methods:
The preschool class observed
has 22 students enrolled, 21 are dual
language learners. Due to enrollment
requirements, all students in the
program are low-income based and

receive free lunch. The classroom
teaching team consists of 3 staff
members, a 1-to-8 ratio of teachers to
students. There is 1 credentialed
teacher (English speaking only) and
two support instructional aides (both
bilingual in Spanish/English).
During the 4-day study the
classroom teacher observed 4
students of varying dual language
abilities. She recorded interactions
using anecdote notes and tally marks.
Frequency was measured by change
of peers, and code switching between
languages was also noted. Each child
was observed for one day, during a
60-minute span of free-choice time
where students are allowed to
interact with any peer of their
choosing. The teacher noted which
language was spoken during each
frequency, and if more than one
language was spoken to a peer.
Students A and C are both fully
bilingual, while students B and D
have only been introduced to English
in a school setting for 4 months. All 4
students’ home languages are
Spanish.
The Findings:

Student A spoke English with peers
during 74% of her interactions, while she only
spoke Spanish 26% of the time. 23 total
interactions were observed, 4 of which
involved code switching between languages.
Student B spoke Spanish 92% of the
time, with zero code-switches and he engaged
in English only twice during 27 observed
frequencies.
Student C spoke English during 78% of
her interactions with peers, the remaining
22% was in Spanish and code-switching
occurred 2 times out of only 14 frequencies
observed.
Student D spoke English 16% of the
time, with the remaining 84% of interactions
in Spanish. 25 total frequencies were
observed, with zero code-switching.
See Table
Below:
Additional
Findings:
Students A and C
spoke English
with all 3
teachers.
Students B and D
spoke only
Spanish with the
two instructional
aides.
Student D spoke

English with the
English only
teacher, while
student B spoke
both languages
with her.
Lorem Ipsum Dolor [Issue] :: [Date]
4
U The Teacher’s Evaluation of the Study
1
2
3
When I selected the 4
students for my study I
wanted to observe
varying language skill
sets in order to find out
how heavily students
rely on their home
language during
language acquisition,
and if students who are
bilingual will chose to
use English instead of

their home language.
Since my classroom
is taught primarily in
English, my students are
encouraged to use
English during
structured lessons and
activities, however free-
choice time does not
have a language
structure.
During my
observations I found my
two students who have
strong skills in the
English language used
primarily English with
each other and other
peers in the class who
have similar language
skills. I concluded that
since English is the
primary and socially
accepted language in our
school setting among
teachers and students,
they have chosen to use
it over their home
language.
Things to Remember:
Use key vocabulary
words in Students’
home languages to

reinforce language
acquisition in
English. Use icons,
pictures, simple
words, and items from
home.
Establish Daily
Routines: repeated
practice and exposure
to routines gives dual-
language learners’
predictable exercises
for using the English
language as well as a
safe setting to take
risks.
Introduce and use
advanced vocabulary in
both students’ home
languages and English.
This allows students to
continue building a
strong foundation and
competency in their
home language, while
acquiring English.
However, they both
used Spanish with
peers who have
limited English skills
or who are entirely
Spanish speaking
One student in the

study code-switched
with a Spanish-only
speaking peer during
a puzzle activity “the
gato piece goes aqui,
that means it goes
here”. His code
switching and
restating of his words
demonstrated to me
that he was aware of
his peer’s skill sets,
and understood how to
use language to both
express himself while
also supporting the
needs of his peers.
This small-scale
study has helped me
solidify the
importance of home
language support in
the classroom,
especially in early
childhood when the
home language is still
being acquired in
addition to English.
Classrooms need
to be culturally rich
and encourage the
development of both
home language and
English.

Lorem Ipsum Dolor Issue [#] :: [Date]
5
The Bilingual Child
What Can Parents Do at Home to
Support Their Dual Language
Learner Student?
• Preschool is designed to
encourage family
involvement. Ask you teacher
for ways you can involve your
home culture and language in
the classroom.
• Continue to reinforce and use
home languages outside of
school. This will help your
child reach a high level of
fluency in their first
language, while supporting
growth in English.
• Be aware of current lessons
and themes taught in the
classroom, so you can practice
vocabulary and content
knowledge at home.

• Ask for home activities and
volunteer in the classroom.
• Enroll your student in a
bilingual preschool program.
Research shows English only
programs may decrease a
child’s competency in their
home language, as well as
social and academic
competencies (Espinosa,
2008).
• Expose your children to
peers of varying language
abilities; children learn
through peer support,
practice, and peer teaching.
• Provide ideas and
suggestions to make your
child’s preschool program
more effective for your child
and family’s language
acquisition needs.
• Read, talk, and sing to your
child as often as you can, in
both your home language
and English. This will help

build early vocabulary.
• Create a language and
literacy rich home. Find
bilingual books at your local
library, or encourage you
children to create stories
based on illustrations in
books.
• Engage in daily
conversation with your
child.
Credits
Study and Article
Written By:
Emily Orlando
Loyola Marymount
University
Fall 2014
References:

Dewey, J. (1929). My Pedagogic Creed. In D. J. Flinders
& S. J. Thornston (Eds.), The Curriculum Studies
Reader (4th ed.) (pp. 33-40). New York, NY: Routledge.
Espinosa, L. (2008). Challenging common myths about young
English language learners. Foundation for Child Development
Policy Brief No. Eight..
http://fcdus.org/sites/default/files/MythsOfTeachingELLsEspino
sa.pdf
Websites:
Helping Your Child Learn in Two Languages
http://illinoisearlylearning.org/tipsheets/bilingual.htm
Raising a Bilingual Child
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=888
Why Should Parents Talk to Their Child in Their
Native Tongue?
http://www.multilingualliving.com/
Books:
7 Steps for Raising a Bilingual Child
by Naomi Steiner MD

The Bilingual Family: A handbook for Parents
By Edith Harding-Esch and Philip Riley
Learn more at:
Bay Area Parent Magazine January 2015
*Student names have been changed or omitted for the
purpose of this magazine, in respect to student and
teacher privacy.
Anthropological Analysis of Cultural Diversity December 10,
2014
Student perspectives on
social promotion and high
school readiness
East Los Angeles, California
This study focus on students of Design Charter High
School, a charter school located in East Los Angeles, CA.
Specifically, it seeks to understand what students’ thoughts
are on social promotion and how their middle school
experience has prepared them for high school. The research
question explored in this small study is the following: What
are students’ perspectives on social promotion?
�1By: Diana Roh
On social promotion

Social promotion is defined as allowing
a student to move on to the next grade
level or to the next course even though
he or she did not meet the criteria for
doing so.
Opponents of social promotion believe
that retention is beneficial as it allows a
student to have extended time to
become proficient in their area of
weakness. On the other hand,
proponents of social promotion believe
that retention severely damages a
students’ self-confidence and leads to
negative attitudes towards school
(Kariuki & Page, 2001). However, social
promotion suggests that students may
not be held to the same standards and
may create situations were students are
“excluded from the right to have high
expectations for learning and for the
access to the general education
curriculum” (Quenemoen, et al., 2000).
But the pendulum on social promotion
continues to swing on both ends as
there are studies that show how both
social promotion and retention can be
beneficial or detrimental for students.
For example, a study in the Cleveland
Public Schools suggests that high
promotion rates lead to increased
scores in reading at the elementary
level (Kaczala, 1991), while results in a
study in a Northeast Tennessee High

school suggests that students who are
socially promoted in middle school
perform poorly in their high school
math classes (Kariuki & Page, 2001).
TEACHER RESEARCHER
NEWS
Loyola Marymount University | EDUR 6100 | Dr. Ernesto Colin
2014
Results
Social interactions appear to be an important factor for middle
school
students. The participants described their middle school
experience
solely on social terms (whether or not they made friends) and
not on
academic terms (whether or not they learned a lot). In fact, in
one of
the open-ended survey questions, none of the participants
described
their middle school experience based on academics.
When the survey specifically asked about students’ academic
experience in middle school, four participants responded it was
easy
and only two participants described their experience as
challenging but
enriching. Five out of the seven participants believe that their
middle

school experiences affected their high school performance
(Figure 1),
while four students believe that middle school did not prepare
them
for high school.
Figure 2 shows the result of a survey question that asked
students
whether a student should move on to the next grade level even
though
he or she did not pass any or all of his or her middle school
classes. All
participants disagreed.
During individual interviews, students expressed why they
disagreed
with socially promoting middle school students to high school:
“…They [students] are not really prepared. And some of the
stuff that
you learn in middle school are things that you need for high
school. They
are obviously going to fail.”
“…They [students] didn’t take school seriously. I think it’s
good that they
stay in middle school because if they fail it’s because they
probably
didn’t understand it.”
However, one student in particular shared a slightly different
response
than the rest. This student has shared concern about how
students are
not the only ones to blame for student failure at the middle
school

level:
“The teachers sucked because they didn’t know how to teach.
They
would even drink beer [in class]… They didn’t really teach
anything.
They would just give us packets but they never actually taught
us how to
do it. Only when LAUSD would check, they would teach.”
When asked whether a student should move on to high school
despite
having failed some middle school classes, this same student
responded:
“It’s a hard question. Yes and no. They [the students] might
have gotten
the material but they didn’t pass because they [the teachers]
didn’t
teach [well]. And yes because they [the students] didn’t try.”
�2By: Diana Roh
About Design Charter High
School
Design Charter High is located in
East Los Angeles, California. Design
High has a student population of
341, and it consists of 99% Latino and
1% Asian. 22% of the student
population are English Learners, and
94% of the students are free or
reduced lunch participants.
Survey Results

The majority of the students surveyed
agreed that their middle school
experience affects their high school
performance. See figure 1.
When asked if students who did not pass
middle school courses should move on to
the next grade level, all of the students
surveyed disagreed (6 disagreed, 1
strongly disagreed). See figure 2.
Figure 2
Figure 1
2014
Relation to Schooling and Education
One thing to note is how students remember middle school.
What students
remember when they are asked about their experiences is their
attempt to fit
into the social stratification that is present in public schools,
which is shown
by a students testimony:
“I did not enjoy some of my middle school times because there
were too many
students and there were different groups of students that were
arranged
based on how they acted or [based on] intelligence and I

honestly didn't like
that.”
The experience of this student is similar to many of the students
that Laurie
Olsen studied at Madison High in her book, Made in America.
This text
vividly shows the cultural transitions that students face in an
attempt to fit
in, as well as the importance of teachers to understand the
difficulties that
immigrant students face in order to succeed in school. Based on
student
responses and on Olsen’s study, it appears that “successful”
students are those
who are able to assimilate well into the culture of the school
and of the
“American” expectations (2008).
Another interesting finding from this small study is that
students do not
want their grades or their status handed to them. The
participants of this
study at Design High generally did not think it is right or fair to
socially
promote a student who does not show effort and therefore is
unable to
demonstrate mastery over certain content. This resonates with
the idea that
social promotion at the secondary level may strip students from
the right to
have high expectations for learning and access to a rigorous
curriculum that
is competitive and comparable to the education that non-ethnic
minorities
have access to (Quenemoen, et al., 2010). On the same token,

students
who’ve experience low-quality education under an ineffective
teacher don’t
necessarily believe the responsibility of a student to pass a class
falls on the
student himself or herself in its entirety.
After analyzing student voices and their experiences, it’s crucial
that
educators and policy makers engage in critical pedagogy.
Critical teachers
must understand the political structure of their school and be
dedicated to
prevent students who are socially marginalized from being hurt
(Kincheloe,
2004). High school teachers should be aware that incoming
students may or
may not have all the necessary skills or knowledge needed to
attain mastery
in their classrooms. With that said, teachers should take
advantage of the
fact that students are socially motivated and build strong
teacher-student
relationships to guide student learning and foster motivation. In
addition,
teachers should be aware that every students can bring a wealth
of
knowledge from which the teacher can build upon to guide the
student into
the mastery of a content-based standard that was determined by
the state,
because “[g]ood schools [shouldn’t] blame students for their
failures or strip
students of the knowledges they bring in the classroom”
(Kincheloe, 2004).

�3By: Diana Roh
Methodology
Students in the 11th grade were
selected for this study because they
have been in high school for 2-3 years,
which would give these students a
solid high school experience. This time
period is also comparable to the 2-3
years they have spent in middle
school.
Selection of the students were based
on their academic performance and
based on student interest in this
research topic. Participation was
voluntary. In this study, a small sample
of seven 11th grade students were
surveyed and interviewed. The
students that were selected have
different levels of academic
performance. Two students are at
advanced levels, three students are at
a proficient level, one student is at the
basic level, and one student is at
below basic. Their performance levels
was determine by their academic
grades.
The goals of the research were
described in class, and students were
given the survey online. The survey
asked students to recall their middle
school experience and their general
opinion on social promotion.

Out of the seven 11th grade students
who took the survey, four were willing
to do an interview. The interview
questions focused on students’
thoughts on high school
preparedness, and their opinion on
promoting a student from middle
school to high school.
A copy of this report will be given to the
students who participated in the study.
2014
Author’s note on methodology
Due to the small sample size of this study, no statistically
significant data or results can be concluded.
However, the goal of this study was to gain an understanding of
their perspectives on a topic that
educators, school leaders, and policy makers still struggle with
today: whether a student should be socially
promoted and under what circumstances should that happen.
And so, qualitative data was collected
analyzed. A large sample size and a more extensive analysis of
the data was not carried out due to time
constraints.
References
Kaczala, C., & Cleveland Public Schools, O. A. (1991). Grade
Retention: A Longitudinal Study of School Correlates of Rates

of
Retention.
Kariuki, P., & Page, L. (2001). The Relationship between Social
Promotion in the Middle School and Academic Achievement in
a
High School Math Class.
Kincheloe, J. (2004). Critical Pedagogy Primer. New York:
Peter Lang.
Olsen, L. (2008). Made In America. New York, NY: The New
Press.
Quenemoen, R. F., Lehr, C. A., Thurlow, M. L., Thompson, S.
J., Bolt, S., National Center on Educational Outcomes, M.
M., & National Association of State Directors of Special
Education, A. V. (2000). Social Promotion and Students with
Disabilities: Issues and Challenges in Developing State
Policies. Synthesis Report 34.
�4By: Diana Roh
School Observation Research Proposal
The study will take place at Private High School located in
Orange City. The school was built in 1960's to teach and spread
knowledge to the young generation who were to be future
leaders.
The research will focus on the factors that influence the people
to yearn for education in California. The study will also
examine the impact of staffing on the provision of education.
The study will also focus on the influence of the availability of
financial resources in the delivery of education service. The
study will also focus on the effect of availability of resources
for the provision of education services.

A population is a whole group of individuals, objects or events
with the same characteristics that are observable (Liang et al.,
2009). The people in the study will include all staff of Specific
Private High School, working on different sections. These
comprise of the head teacher, deputy, teachers, support
personnel and pupils.
The research will employ a cross-sectional descriptive study as
the method study. The cross-sectional descriptive method is a
chosen method because it confirms full depiction of the
condition, ensuring that there is less biased in the assembling of
facts and coming up with what, how, where of a
phenomenon(Levin, 2006). The procedure of data gathering
will take place for the duration of 15 working days.
References
Levin, K. A. (2006). Study design III: Cross-sectional studies.
Evidence-based dentistry, 7(1), 24-25.
Liang, Y. B., Friedman, D. S., Wong, T. Y., Wang, F. H., Duan,
X. R., Yang, X. H., ... & Wang, N. L. (2009). Rationale, design,
methodology, and baseline data of a population-based study in
rural China: theHandan Eye Study. Ophthalmic epidemiology,
16(2), 115-127.
EDUR
6100,
Dr.
Colín
EDUR 6100

Instructions and Rubric for
The (Final)
Anthropological Analysis of Cultural Diversity (Project)
The purpose of the final project is to invite you to deepen your
understanding of
the anthropological analysis of cultural diversity. It invites you
to take an
anthropological stance, to consider cultural contexts and
practices, and the
various meanings assigned to these, from a perspective other
than your own. One
important aspect of the anthropological understanding of
cultural diversity is for
researchers to consider cultural contexts, practices, and meaning
from the emic or
insider’s perspective. Furthermore, this assignment invites you
to reflect upon
what you learned that might help you understand the cultural
dynamics of
schools and schooling.
Recognizing that course members are in different academic
programs, work sites,
and have different career aspirations, and in an effort to have
this culminating project be the most meaningful for each,
students
are required to design their own final project in consultation
with the professor. Students are required to go out in the field,
and do
some basic ethnography (utilize anthropological methods) in an
education setting (broadly defined), but how they approach that
experience, what they focus on, and what they produce to turn
in is generally open. The product will be linked/submitted both

in
LiveText and on the course website.
Final Project Proposal
The proposal for the final project due date is on the course
syllabus. It should be submitted as a private journal entry on
the course website. The proposal can be brief (150-200 words)
but should relay the selected research site, focus, context,
methods and timeline of data collection, and product to be
delivered. Also, students will discuss their project proposal
and their progress with the professor in a web appointment.
SOME FINAL PROJECT “Product” POSSIBILITIES:
• Short Ethnographic Documentary Film
• Radio Story/Podcast (c.f. StoryCorps, NPR, etc.)
• Small scale replication of a previous study
• Community Mapping Project & reflection
• Cultural Plunge & reflection
• Funds of Knowledge Project toward K-12
Curriculum Design
• School Observation
• Visual Ethnography (e.g. PhotoVoice)
• Institutional History
• Auto-Ethnography
• Investigative reporting
• . . .another approved project
Each project must demonstrate an understanding of and be
grounded in the methods, and theories of cultural anthropology.
It may

be inspired by the texts reviewed in class. In the final product
students may consider relaying the following components
(depending
on the project you design, these may or may not apply. I
provide them here for your consideration):
was my research focus? What community and/or setting did
I select for my project? What background information do my
audiences need to know? Why did I choose this
setting/experience for the assignment? What was I hoping to
learn from the setting/experience prior to going in? What was
my prior knowledge related to this setting/experience? What are
my previous beliefs/preconceptions/stereotypes related to
this setting/experience?
methods did I employ for the project? How did you garner
consent? Outside of the direct findings of the project, what did I
learn as a result of having gone through this type of
research? How did I feel before, during and after the
experience? What were the challenges of the research? How did
I
address these? How do others in this setting see me? Why do I
believe this to be true? What did I learn from doing this
assignment? What value does ethnographic research have?
EDLC
6100,
Dr.
Colín

the key findings of my project? What key observations did I
make? Is there any other significant data to report? What did I
experience? (continued on back. . .)
terms of the core concepts of the course. For example: How do I
understand/describe the emic perspective related to this
setting/experience? What relevant theories apply? What
scholarship/research is evoked by the experience? What
connections do I make to the course content? What is evinced
about the anthropological notion of culture in my findings?
What did I learn from the perspective of cross-cultural
comparison with my own group?
ethnographic experience influence my educational
practices? What does this assignment teach me about the
experience of individuals and communities related to schooling?
Final Project: General Rubric
10
Exemplary. Insightful.
Connected.
8
Adequate. Complete. Reflective.
6
Approaching Standard.

Incomplete. Casually executed.
Looking at: ê
Demonstrated
Understanding of
Anthropological Analysis
Assignment provides strong
evidence of preparation for
and engagement in a
challenging community. Clear
connections and extensions
are made to the course
content. Insightful analysis of
fieldwork. Evidence of deep
reflection related to personal
educational practice. Well
executed, polished, complete
and meets all the guidelines.
Complete. The basic
objectives of the project are
met. Experience is reported
adequately. Student reflects
on the experience through his
or her own experience and
through the course concepts.
Meets minimum guidelines.
Executed and delivered
incompletely or with flaws
in one or more areas.
Content is somewhat
disconnected from course
content. Analysis is
delivered at a basic level.

Guidelines are unmet.
Depth of Methodological
Engagement
Connection to Practice
Quality of
Production/Analysis
Total out of 40

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