Anthropology of education with an introduction, and samples M.b.kojok

1. Anthropology and Play
Theory
Edited by:
-M B kojok

2. From the physical to the cultural

3. Main Disciplines of anthropology
Anthropology
Physical
Linguistics
Sociocultural
Archaeological

4. How it works!?
Monography
Ethnography
Anthropology
Sociology

5. Introduction
• Ethnography is a branch of the qualitative research.
• The names of this branch may varied: sometimes it is called
ethnographic research, sometimes Qualitative Research, Action
Research, Field Work, Naturalistic research, interpretative research.

6. The concept of Ethnographic Approach
• Ethnographic approach is a method or tool used to understand
the techniques and methods of group of people or a community
in everyday life, by examining the:
• knowledge of its members, ideas, beliefs, values and behaviors,
and what they do - things- and how they deal with it,
• and this is done by a participant observation in the normal
situation of their life, from the researcher point of view. (Ogbu,
1996: 33).

7. Some Types of Ethnographic
Methods:
History of life
Ethnography
Tradition
Ethnography
Analyzing
Image
Ethnography
Narration
Ethnography
Monetary
Ethnography
Feminist
Ethnography

8. Characteristics of Ethnography Method
• 1- Ethnography research studies the behavior in its normal
situation, or, as it happens in nature:
• like when an ethnography researcher studies the behavior of
students inside the classroom or school, with a deep belief in the
importance of understanding the behavior in its natural-actual
contexts free from any control or restraint, and for more
substantiation the researcher will try to repeat his observation
and participant observation.

9. Characteristics of Ethnography Method
• 2- Ethnographic approach depends on the description and analysis,
using the keyword phrase instead of numbers and tables of statistics.
• And its importance is concentrated in providing us an intense
description of the phenomenon under study.
• As Miles and Huberman notes, ethnographic research seeks to reveal
the "unexpected" or "hidden" or "untold story", through the study of
the educational phenomenon, depending on the deep participation of
the researcher about the community under examination, and because
of that the researcher is a key tool in the collecting, classifying and
analyzing the information ((Miles & Huberman, 1999: 15.

10. Characteristics of Ethnography Method
• 3- Ethnographic research depends on the concept of involvement of
beneficiaries and show their point of view in a holistic and effective
way :
• so it is not that the course of research and questions are derived from
the vision of a researcher and the cultural and intellectual background
of him, but on the contrary, it is expected from the ethnographic
researcher to com to a field of study with cultural knowledge and an
opened mentality to focus on his mission in experiencing the
integrated society (through participant observation) and in looking
and transporting and describing what he sees and hears through the
recorded observations, opinions and ideas, proposals and visions from
within the field of study (school or class, or library ... etc)

11. Characteristics of Ethnography Method
• 4- Ethnography of education researches require specific data
collection mechanisms; like writing the daily views in the
classroom, or outside, as well as interviews with students,
teachers, administrators, parents, and analyzing documents and
diaries relevant.
• This type of research requires a long time, it may take -in an
ethnographic research- a period of time between one to 3 years.

12. Characteristics of Ethnography Method
• 5- Gathering and analyzing data in an ethnographic method work
differently than in traditional research.
• Often it passes through four overlapping phases and are separated from
each other in a complementary way:
• where the information are collected in the first phase, and then it will be
organized and classified in the second stage, and then we have the stage
which the information will be presented shortened and in the form of
matrices and centrality of ideas, and the final stage related to the process of
drawing conclusions, and showing it, and make sure that they are
conformed.

13. 3. ‫و‬ ‫تجزیه‬
‫داده‬ ‫تحلیل‬
‫ارزیابی‬
1. ‫جمع‬
‫ها‬ ‫داده‬ ‫آوری‬
2.‫طبقه‬
‫ها‬ ‫داده‬ ‫بندی‬
Ethnography circle!

14. Characteristics of Ethnography Method
• 5- Within the flexible framework offered by the ethnographic study ,
researcher has the possibility of changing the plan of his study, design
and even change its questions at the discretion during the field work, as
perhaps through cohabitation he may compose a new or different
research questions deemed more important than it has when he entered
the field of study.

15. Characteristics of Ethnography Method
• 6- If an ethnographer wants to achieve his objectives
which are: underlying factors behind the social and
educational behavior, and to know it goals and objectives,
it is necessary that he depends on the social relationship
with the respondents
• and he must obtain the ability to gain their trust and
their cooperation by using tools less formal like
participant observation, and cohabitation, and integration
with the life of the studied groups.

16. Characteristics of Ethnography Method
• 8- Ethnographic research depends on researcher as a key tool in
collecting information,
• where the researcher looks at the behaviors and social practices a
holistic view within the frameworks:
• of social, cultural, economic, political and regulatory dimensions,
• and he depends -to achieve all of that- on a number of tools like:
deep interview and participant observation, analysis of
documents, folders, and the study of the physical effects and
biographies (Angrosino, 2008: 66).

17. How do we do Ethnography?

18. Goals of Ethnography Method
1.It aims to understand human behavior without intentional or
unintentional control.
2.It occurs in natural situations, studying behavior in its natural context.
3.Based on a single case study of a small group or a particular community.
4. Based on direct observation of the researcher.
5. Testing what actually happens without relying on preconceived
notions.
6.Depends on an intensive data collection that let the researcher extends
the period of the study.

19. ‫پرورش‬ ‫و‬ ‫آموزش‬ ‫زمینه‬ ‫در‬ ‫نگاری‬ ‫قوم‬ ‫روش‬ ‫از‬ ‫استفاده‬ ‫مزایای‬
1. Positivism school has hid the quantitative concepts (research
participation) and lived experience of the beneficiaries in a bid
illusory for objectivity and access to general rules which can
be generalized.
2. In this context, comparative studies have demonstrated the complexity of
the humanitarian and educational phenomenon, and the effect and
influence of individual and cultural background and data environment in
which individuals experience arises, which makes the process of
generalization of findings in human phenomena extremely complex.

20. ‫پرورش‬ ‫و‬ ‫آموزش‬ ‫زمینه‬ ‫در‬ ‫نگاری‬ ‫قوم‬ ‫روش‬ ‫از‬ ‫استفاده‬ ‫مزایای‬
2. Ethnographic approach may be useful to dissect
school knowledge including basic sources like
curriculum, textbooks and teacher –in which they
are an Epistemological authority- and analyze this
knowledge ethnographically through cognitive,
ideological and social analysis of their sources, and
the extent of its importance and its approval to the
needs of students and society.

21. ‫پرورش‬ ‫و‬ ‫آموزش‬ ‫زمینه‬ ‫در‬ ‫نگاری‬ ‫قوم‬ ‫روش‬ ‫از‬ ‫استفاده‬ ‫مزایای‬
• 3- The cultural, social, economical and technological disparities
between schools which can not be ignored at the moment,
makes ethnographic approach an important way to detect these
differences and learn the educational and social effects on the
educational process.
• In this context, we can -across ethnographic- approach to
achieve these differences through visions, concepts and
meanings carried by the practitioners in the field of education
and their vision towards reforming the educational reality and
scalability.

22. ‫پرورش‬ ‫و‬ ‫آموزش‬ ‫زمینه‬ ‫در‬ ‫نگاری‬ ‫قوم‬ ‫روش‬ ‫از‬ ‫استفاده‬ ‫مزایای‬
• 4- The importance of Ethnographic approach is that the
ethnographer in the educational field will offer us an critical
sociological analysis to the reality of school, not from the
standpoint of "experts" and the makers of educational policies,
but rather a realistic analysis from inner and from the educational
reality across participants and actual practitioners in the
educational process, including the student, the teacher and
parents..etc

23. ‫پرورش‬ ‫و‬ ‫آموزش‬ ‫زمینه‬ ‫در‬ ‫نگاری‬ ‫قوم‬ ‫روش‬ ‫از‬ ‫استفاده‬ ‫مزایای‬
• 5- Ethnographic research enables us to have a deep understand to the different
practices that occur within the walls of the school and how the school transfers
of this culture, through the so-called school culture.
• This ability to have an exact description and deep details, makes using the
ethnographic research in the field of education absolutely necessary, there are a
lot of educational issues -_ especially that which is related to culture and society-
that can not be understood or studied only using ethnographical approach.
(Creswel, 2007: 280).
• Even the curriculum, Instructional Design, Educational technology, may be the
subject of a holistic ethnographical study!

24. Questions and goals
1. How and where do people learn?
2. What kind of deliberate learning/teaching takes
place outside of schools?
3. Why are there schools, and how is schooling
culturally organized?
4. Why do school experiences tend to vary by
“race,” “social class”, “political order” and
“gender”?
5. What insights does anthropology bring to
practical problems of learning and teaching in
schools?

25. Goals
1.understand the place of schooling within the broader
phenomenon of education/learning through history
and across cultures.
2.be able to analyze the organization and functions of
schooling–and of particular schools and classrooms–in
your own society.
3.be able to make a sophisticated and well-supported
contribution to the public debate about race, social
class, gender and multiculturalism in schools.

26. Right question!
•Schools (and who says schools, says classes,
playgrounds..etc) are cultural communities. Through the
interaction among its members, they also set, like the tribes
in a symbolic way, rules of social coexistence, beliefs and
values, hierarchies and customs. These environments are
socially constructed. And their participants struggle for the
construction of their own identities. Is it possible, or at least
ethical, for the curriculum to ignore and neglect this reality?

27. How do we break the paradigm!

28. Entrancestothegame
theory
Game theory
philosophy
Education
Anthropology

29. What is the play theory
A Common
definition
What do education
scholars say?
What
anthropologists
say

31. Resources
• Critical Ethnography in Education: Origins, Current Status, and New Directions, Gary L.
Anderson, Review of Educational Research, Fall 1989, Vol. 59, No. 3, University of New
Mexico.
• Anthropology and Education An overview, G.spindler, Stanford university. 1963.
• The child and play Theoretical approaches and teaching applications, United Nations,
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris
(France), Printed in France 8 Unesco 1980
• anthropological perspectives on education, Murray wax, Basic books, London.
• Sociology and Game theory: Contemporary and historical Perspectives, Richard swedberg,
Stockholm University, 2010.
• THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF HUMAN PLAY, Edward Norbeek, 1999.
• The Anthropology of Schools, Children, and Power , Cindy Dell Clark, University of Chicago, 2005.

32. Thank you for listening
And Participating!