Week Three Reading Reflection - Ethnography

The first thing that I learned was that in order to put "outrageous" behavior in context and to truly understand it, one must suppress their rage and stay with that culture's "outrageous" behavior.  One can use their rage as a way of measuring their tolerance of the act (9).  This is important because if one does not control one's feeling during observations, then one is more likely to write a biased report, and from that report, the bias can spread.  A second thing that I learned was that the behavior we take for granted, such as greeting people and having a laugh at lunch, turn out to be the most significant behaviors in a final report (10).  The author is saying that these behaviors are so ingrained and unnoticeable by us and when a researcher examines this and puts it in a report, we often find that these behaviors are normal and really stick out in our minds.  The third thing that I learned was that students who belong to a certain group, such as athletes and scholars, experience a change in their social status (6).  This explains why certain groups in high school tend to associate with each other and distance themselves from other groups.  These associations tend to give a social hierarchy in schools, with the popular kids at the top and the relatively unknown kids at the bottom.

The first question that I have is why did the author leave out the teacher's perspective?  He briefly stated the common teacher myths in the article and noted that he did not study them in depth, but I am just wondering why he chose to publish the article without gaining an insight from teachers.  Although he did provide some brief insight from elementary school teachers, the insight from middle school and high school teachers was lacking.  The second question that I have is what information or evidence is considered "good" or "valuable," as ethnographers have an array of information to choose from?  Since an ethnographer can study the hierarchy, customs, rituals, members and other factors in a school, which is/are the critical components to study - the author does not go into much detail.  This lack of detail has left me wondering.

One thing that I would like to explore further is if there have been any ethnographic reports done on schools in North County or in San Diego County, as this information can be crucial in choosing a possible school to teach at.