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The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
Self, Family, Community, and SchoolingLee-Beng Chua
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Lee-Beng Chua
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Harvard University
Course Description
This course, with its fieldwork component, takes gradual and small steps in grappling with the constituent parts of culture. Taking the notion of self as a center of relationship, we adopt a bottom-up approach in tracing how culture dialectically implicates individual mind and selfhood. Forming several research teams, each group will undertake an empirical studies in designated field sites: Graham & Parks Alternative School, the St. Augustine Inner City Ministries, Intel Computer Clubhouse, Oxford Street Day Care, the Josiah Quincy School, the Shackleton School, Cambridge Co-Housing, and Cornerstone Village Co-Housing. Each team will investigate researchable question(s) such as: how is the cultivation of individual heart and mind nurtured within the larger contexts of family, community, or school?, what are the discernible processes in particular interpersonal, family, educational, and communal contexts that highlight the interplay between culture and self?, what cognitive/socio-emotional traits and culturally sanctioned values are held as paramount?, how are those traits socialized, transmitted, and acquired?
Each team, using methodological tools available in visual anthropology and video ethnography (with support from the teaching and technical staff), will be required to relate their research findings to one or more theoretical themes covered in this course. Through this field exercise, course participants will collectively abstract educational and psychosocial traits that are culture- and context-specific within that field setting. The above preliminary activities will then allow us to revisit the esoteric issues of culture-mind-self and the educational claims and promises made by cultural psychology. Half Course (Spring): Monday 2-4 and a 2-hour weekly session. (Permission of the instructor required. L&T doctoral students taking this course fulfill the qualitative research method requirement.)
Course Requirements
Introductory Statement: A one-page, single-spaced introductory statement, including your background and expectation of this course. Due 2 p.m. Sunday, February 11.
Weekly Class/Section Preparation and Briefs: Theoretical Foundation: Each week's assignments include: 1) reading and critiquing a selection of background materials, 2) starting in the 3rd week, writing a 1-3 page, team-produced brief. The brief is an informal "graphic" statement of the team's reflection on the readings and how these readings might be incorporated as both conceptual and methodological resources for the team project. Each of these briefs is to be presented either in the form of graphic/concept maps or conceptual cartography (details of these exercises will be addressed in the second week). The weekly brief is to be electronically submitted to the teaching staff by 2 p.m. every Sunday. The timing of the submission will provide the teaching staff a view of the students' grasp of the reading, and will allow us to structure the next day's discussion, possibly using these ideas directly as teaching materials. The weekly briefs will constitute 15% of the final grade.
Attendance and Classroom participation: We encourage you to participate actively in discussions. You will not, however, be evaluated on the basis of the number or length of comments in class. Participation will be based on 1) your contribution to other students' learning and 2) your willingness to assume responsibility for making the class discussion work. Students who prefer emailing their remarks to the teaching staffs are equally welcome.
Section: A two-hour weekly research team meeting (section) begins in the second week of the course (the week of Feb. 12). Time and location to be arranged by research teams.
Teamwork: Group discussion, mutual support, division of labor, recognizing and amassing each individual member's strength, and coalescing into an organic unit striving for a well-focused project are just few, among many other benefits afforded by a healthy group. We urge, therefore, that you take full advantage of group collaboration and actively contribute to the learning climate of the team. Abstruse and voluminous reading materials become manageable through in-depth group discussion, if, and only if, the group is committed in making it work. Collaboration in the field, likewise, is also critical. Teamwork constitutes 15% of the final grade. Each student is asked to assess other co-workers' participation in, and contribution to, the team. The criteria of evaluation is based on the individual's quality of input and participation leading to: 1) the agreed upon researchable question(s), 2) the fine-tuning of a realistic, semester-long project, 3) the willingness to fulfill and to excel in the designated tasks**, 4) the management of group conflict and dynamics, and 5) the discernible attempt to strive for collective learning experience.
** Please note that each group will need to arrange technical training with the Media Center before the week of March 5th for using video/ photography equipment in the field and before April 8th for editing training for the final class project. (Media Center Policy: A training session is required before using the editing equipment. Also, teams will need to reserve video/photographic equipment accordingly.)
Consultation: The week before your group settles on a final project, you are asked to invite the teaching staff to attend your section and brief them on your intended project. We expect this visitation to take place in the week of February 26. Tentatively, you will be asked to defend the preliminary relationship between your theoretical framework and your research strategies. Bring your questions to this session, and the teaching staff will explore feasible solutions with the group. However, please be reminded that as your search for a defensible methodological framework is an evolving and inductive process, a spirit of experimentation and tentativeness is advisable. Real and challenging issues often arise in the field.
Presentations of Final Project: During our final class meetings on April 30th and May 7th each team will be expected to present their final analysis to the rest of the class. Presentations might include excerpts of video, photographs, audio recordings, and/or readings. Teams may also want to invite members from the field sight to participate in these discussions.
Final Product: A final product representing each team's analysis will be due May 7th in class.
Grading:
Required Course Packet: Available at Gnomen Copy.
12 Class Meetings:
February 5 - Meeting 1 - Introduction and Course Overview
Cartography: Ways of Recognizing Conceptual Patterns
Concept Mapping: Processing Information and Constructing Knowledge
I. Background
February 12 - Meeting 2
Self, Cognitive and Psychosocial Development: Concept of Socialization and Culturally Desired Competence
February 26 - Meeting 3 - Family
March 5 - Meeting 4 - Schooling
Cultural Showcases: Fear of Learning in Hoover Elementary School (L.A., California); Long Jump (Reggio Emilia, Italy)
March 12 - Meeting 5 - Community
Showcases: Cambridge Co-housing & Cornerstone Village Co-Housing
II. Foreground: Learning in/from the Field
March 19 - Meeting 6
Visual Anthropology (video/photography) - Conducting Fieldwork Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method
Digital Ethnography
April 2 - Meeting 7
April 9 - Meeting 8
April 16 - Meeting 9
April 23 - Meeting 10
III. High Ground: Theoretical-Methodological-Empirical Synthesis
April 30 - Meeting 11
May 7 - Meeting 12
Free. Available online only.
© 2016 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College
Published by Harvard Family Research Project