My first field observation

This week's assignment is a practice observation.  We are to pick a public place and record what we observe for one hour.  I chose the coffee shop at B&N. While I can't discuss what I observed, I can discuss my feelings about the observation experience.

So there I sat for one hour fifteen minutes. Making notes. Watching folks.  Trying not to appear like a pervert or a noseybody. The experience was under-whelming.  Thankfully the activity level in the space is limited, so I had plenty of time to record what I saw.  However, I don't feel like I recorded enough or very much.  I didn't move from my seat, and with the except of one exuberant pair of young women, I couldn't hear any conversational details.  Was I to describe in detail each person's physical appearance? This observation stuff is harder than I thought.

A little intimidating

Last week's class and reading left me feeling a wee bit intimidated. I am not an academic scholar.  My classmates discuss their desire to study how people "negotiate" identity in different situations.  Huh?  The prof discussed different filters through which we frame our understanding of the world -- feminist, post-modern, critical post-moden feminist.  ?????  I'm sure I have a filter, just don't ask me to tell you what it is.   How do you learn to analyze using a particular genre of thinking?  I just think.  Most of the time, that is.

Sidewalk

I'm reading a fascinating ethnography called Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier.  It's about street vendors of printed media in Greenwich Village, New York during the 1990's.  I lived in NYC near where the research was conducted.  It was enlightening to read about the culture of the vendors I used to pass on the street everyday and to learn how this informal economy came to be, as well as learn about the culture of these individuals.  It puts panhandlers in a different life.  Our economy doesn't provide economic opportunity for such individuals to support themselves.  

If it doesn't kill me...

Okay, this class both excites and terrifies me.  Just need to put that out there. 


The idea of me conducting qualitative research is intriguing.  Me and Jane Goodall -- out in the field, observing and taking notes.  Then again, the idea of me doing this is scary: What if I really suck at this?  Oh well, guess it's better to discover that now rather than when someone pays me to collect qualitative data.  


My focus for this class is ESL.  I'd love to be able to observe how English is taught to immigrants who come from a culture so radically different from that of western culture.  I recall from my LVGS executive director interview that Dr Ruth Colvin is creating an ESL/literacy training for immigrants from either Ethiopia or Sudan.  These immigrants share no cultural reference points with us in the USA, which makes it difficult to use the LV ESL tutoring method.  It would be interesting to observe how these immigrants are currently taught English.


Or, I might simply sit in on any ESL class to which I can gain access.  In this case, however, I don't know what my focus might be. Why would I be observing them?  What am I trying to learn/understand?


Oh well, back to my reading.  
Felt the need to reflect while the feelings are still hot.