WA3

Ethnography

Research is a sensitive matter because one has to conduct it while making sure that one does not offend any of the objects or people researched and not offending one’s audience. There are two core principles that are meant to help you with this. Firstly, you have to have the principle of “no harm” (beneficence) and secondly “do no harm” (non-malfeasance).

As a community of student athletes, the members of the Men’s Basketball team serve the larger society by promoting the sport of basketball. In order to embrace this sport, we require freedom of inquiry. However, this freedom carries with it the responsibilities of professional conduct. We intend this statement to embody reasonable norms for ethical conduct in teaching and learning as well as in scholarship. The statement's governing premises are as follows:

1. The responsibility for protecting free inquiry lies first with athletic staff, who may be called on to speak out against the unethical behavior or defend the academic and athletic freedom of students at any rank. In addition, athletic staff members have ethical obligations to Student Athletes, colleagues, and staff members; to their institutions, their local communities, the profession at large, and society.

2. Our integrity as staff and student-athletes requires the responsible use of evidence in developing arguments and fairness in hearing and reading the arguments of both colleagues and Student Athletes.

3. As a community valuing free inquiry, we must be able to rely on the integrity and the good judgment of our members. For this reason, we should not

• exploit or discriminate against others on grounds such as race, ethnicity, national origin, religious creed, age, gender, sexual preference, or disability
• sexually harass Student Athletes , colleagues, or staff members
• use language that is prejudicial or gratuitously derogatory
• make capricious or arbitrary decisions affecting working conditions, professional status, or academic freedom
• misuse confidential information
• plagiarize the work of others
• Practice deceit or fraud on the academic community or the public

4. Free inquiry respects variety in the modes and objects of investigation, whether traditional or innovative. We should defend athletic practices against unfounded attacks from within or outside our community.

5. Our teaching and inquiry must respect our own cultures and the cultures we study.

6. Judgments of whether a line of inquiry is ultimately useful to Student Athletes, colleagues, or society should not be used to limit the freedom of scholars to pursue their research.

When researching any topic it is vital that one respects all parties that are involved in the research. These parties include the participants, the observers, and the readers. It is important to protect the reputation and status of the people or objects being observed. While respecting the privacy of the participants the researcher also needs to take care to acquire valid unbiased data. When there is a bias the data will then be corrupted and cannot be used. A bias is also a single for discrimination and malpractice. 

Code of Conduct

1. Athletic Staff should represent to their Student Athletes the values of free inquiry.

2. At the outset of each course, Athletic Staff should provide Student Athletes with a statement on approaches to the course materials, on the goals of the course, and on the standards by which Student Athletes will be evaluated.

3. Athletic Staff should offer constructive and timely evaluation of Student Athletes ' work and specify the times and places when Athletic Staff are available to consult with Student Athletes.

4. Athlete-student collaboration entails the same obligation as other kinds of research. Athletic Staff and Student Athletes should acknowledge appropriately any intellectual indebtedness.

5. Athletic Staff whose research in any way includes Student Athletes as subjects must make clear the obligations, rewards, and consequences of participation.

6. Athletic Staff, in devising requirements for written work and oral discussion, have an ethical responsibility to respect both Student Athletes ' privacy and their emotional and intellectual dignity.

7. Athletic Staff should keep confidential what they know about Student Athletes ' academic standing, personal lives, and political or religious views and should not exploit such personal knowledge.

8. Athletic Staff must provide unbiased, professional evaluation of Student Athletes seeking admission to graduate study or applying for financial support.

9. Athletic Staff should provide direction to Student Athletes, especially graduate Student Athletes; should respect their scholarly interests; and should not exploit them for personal or professional ends. Athletic Staff should not expect Student Athletes, graduate or otherwise, to perform unremunerated or unaccredited teaching, research, or personal duties.

10. Athletic Staff working with teaching assistants have a special responsibility to provide them with adequate preparation, continuing guidance, and informed evaluation.

11. Athletic Staff must weigh the academic performance of each student on its merits.

12. In overseeing and responding to the work of graduate Student Athletes, whether they are in courses or at the thesis or dissertation stage, advisers should periodically inform them of their standing in the program.

13. Before graduate Student Athletes begin searching for jobs, advisers and Athletic Staff should provide them with adequate and timely counseling and should be prepared to write honest and constructive letters of recommendation. Advisers or Athletic Staff who doubt their ability to evaluate a student fairly should decline the task of furnishing such a letter.

Informed Consent Form

You have been asked to participate in an ethnographic study to be conducted on the men’s basketball team. This is done for the English 1302 class of Professor Frank Alexander’s at Texas A&M University-Commerce. The study is completely voluntarily and you may choose to give as much or as little information as you want to. Any information given will be used to write an essay at the end of the course in order to complete a study of literacy across several different sub-cultures. All information given will be treated completely confidential between the participant and the researcher until the final work is completed at which point the participant may request to view this final study before it is released in order to ensure all ethical guidelines discussed were not violated.

By signing this document I understand Rebecca Mueller has permission to release any information I divulge during any part of my participation in this research project. I understand all guidelines and if at any point I choose NOT to participate in this study I may contact Rebecca Mueller at rmueller1@leomail.tamuc.edu/ (903)-335-8793.

    ______________________________­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­______________________________________

      Signature         

___________________________________________________________________

Printed Name                                                                                                        

____________________

 Date

Works Cited

"Statement of Professional Ethics." Read the Statement Online. Modern Language Association, 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.

WA2

The Basketball Team

                        I have decided to do my research within the cultural group of the men’s basketball team of the Texas A&M University Commerce. In order to conduct this ethnographic research I will study the literacy of the team. To conduct the research I will attend practices and also attend games to observe the ways that the men’s basketball team communicates with each other, the way they behave with each other and how they interact with one another. This is considered their literacy. While observing the men’s team, I will look for a variety of communication starting from verbal all the way to non-verbal such as signs they show each other. By observing the Texas A&M University Commerce men’s Basketball team and their very own ways of communication and interaction, I am doing field working.

                        While doing this fieldwork that is linked to ethnographic research, I the researcher will observe and describe the way the players are in connection with each other. I will focus on their behavior with one another, their coach, their life with basketball and finally, the language they communicate in. In order to collect this data and get accurate information and a better understanding of their communication I will not only go there once, but several times over a collected time period. If I get the chance I might also get to look at their plays and find out how their written down communication works in contrast to their verbal and non-verbal one.

                        I have also thought about asking a few of the players questions about how their sport and the literacy they learn through it helps them in real-life off the court and outside the field house. Through talking to them I might also see myself if it effects their normal speech and behavior in any way possible as this could be happening.

                        The study will take place here at Texas A&M University in the field house, where all the action takes place - the basketball court! The field house is a very important location to observe the language within the team because the sport takes place especially on the court. By choosing to observe and collect data in the field house I can accurately gather information on the men’s basketball team because they’ll be in their natural habitat.

As I am a track and field athlete and a former gymnast myself I have taken interest in a variety of sports. Ever since I came to this university and met a couple of the basketball players on the team, I have found interested in their season, on how they compete during the season and now want to find out more about their culture. I anticipate learning more about the interaction of the team and how this interaction helps them on the court and more importantly in the game. This knowledge of their interaction might also help me see and feel my own communication in the sport of track and field.

 

 

Works cited

 

Adkins, Tabetha. Ethnographic Inquiries In Writing. Southlake, Texas: Fontainehead, 2010. Print.

Sunstein, Bonnie Stone and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. FieldWorking: Reading and Writing. 4^th Edition. Boston, MA: Belforn/St. Martin’s. 2012. Print.

 

WA1

Literacy!

Literacy is all around us. The question concerning it is what literacy really is. One definition given by John Szwed is that literacy is “the capacity to read and write” (Adkins 1) which nowadays plays a big role in earning a living, achieving personal enlightenment and enjoyment as well as maintaining a stable and democratic society and in history helped in the rise of civilization. It also means to have competence or knowledge in a defined area which does not have to be a tied to reading and writing words but can also be something else. He adds that literacy is a necessity in education and modernity.  As it is said, “The idea of knowledge and competence is often part of our lives about literacy. What you are competent in is what you are literate in.”. This describes perfectly what is considered as literacy.

In addition there seems to be the question of how much literacy really relates to civilization and also that we still do not know what “literacy” is really about (Adkins 1,2). All this is founded on reading in today’s society. In the United States of America there is a severe decrease in the reading of novels and even worse in the reading of plays and poetry, which is at zero percent. Nowadays the genre that English classes in the United States are focused on is fiction, drama and poetry. (Adkins 4)

In contrast to Szwed, Barton and Hamilton have a theory that arranges literacy in two different types. There are literacy practices and literacy events, which help you, observe literacy in its “national habitat”.

            You have to understand what is counted as an event and what as a practice. A literacy event is an activity where literacy has a role which means there is usually “a written text, or texts, central to the activity and there may be talk around the text” whereas literacy events are “observable episodes which arise from practices and are shaped by them”. These literacy events occur mostly regularly and can be used as a starting point of research on literacy (Adkins 23). This shows that a lot of things count while talking about literacy.

In order to understand the literacy of and culture certain different groups of people surrounding us, you have to conduct research within them. Not only do you have to talk to the group of people but you also you have to study all their behavior and the way they interact. A research like this is called ethnographic research and is conducted by so-called ethnographers.

The research papers coming from this are called ethnography. Ethnography is one of the two things that make up culture. The study is the written down version that sums up the fieldwork the researchers did. This getting to know the group and their ways is called fieldwork (Sunstein, Chiseri-Strater 4).

The fieldwork consists of living, observing and describing life, behaviors and language of the certain group of people for an extended time period. The ethnographic researchers do that fieldwork in an attempt to understand cultures and by observing learn the patterns of the others. This also helps them to understand their own cultures better as they see how other groups work. Ethnography helps people who did not conduct the research understand the cultures. Many people like anthropologists, linguistics, sociologists, folklorists and a lot of other groups use the ethnographer’s techniques to conduct their own researches in their fields of study (Sunstein, Chiseri-Strater 3,4).

Knowing now that not only things connected to reading and writing are considered literacy I can now observe the world in a different way. Even if a person might not be able to read and write as good as another one does not mean that somebody is illiterate but that their strength might just lie in a different field of interest which I might not know that much about because I have different interests and education.

 

Works Cited

Adkins, Tabetha. Ethnographic Inquiries In Writing. Southlake, Texas: Fontainehead, 2010. Print.

Sunstein, Bonnie Stone and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. FieldWorking: Reading and Writing. 4^th Edition. Boston, MA: Belforn/St. Martin’s. 2012. Print.

Class material