From rite of passage to a mentored educational activity

Fieldwork for master’s students of anthropology

in Learning and Teaching
Author:
Helle Bundgaard University of Copenhagen helle.bundgaard@anthro.ku.dk

Search for other papers by Helle Bundgaard in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
and
Cecilie Rubow University of Copenhagen cecilie.rubow@anthro.ku.dk

Search for other papers by Cecilie Rubow in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2016.090303
Keywords:
collaborative fieldwork; cooperative reflection; ethnographic fieldwork; master’s fieldwork; university reforms
Restricted access

All currencies in US Dollar

PayPal Logo

Abstract

This article discusses the teaching of anthropological fieldwork during a period of comprehensive educational reforms in Danish universities. We trace widely held conceptions of fieldwork among master’s students of anthropology and the efforts they make to live up to what they assume to be classic fieldwork. We argue that the ideals of classic fieldwork too often fail to support the learning process when fieldwork is squeezed into the timeframe of the curriculum and show how fieldwork as part of an educational programme can be mentored by online feedback. Our suggestion is that cooperative reflection during fieldwork can improve the quality of the empirical material and the analytical process significantly.

Contributor Notes

Helle Bundgaard, PhD, is associate professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen. She has previously worked with craft matters in India and ethnic minority families and their children in Danish pre-school institutions. From 2007 to 2016 she held the post as head of studies, a task which has stimulated her current interest in educational matters. Email: helle.bundgaard@anthro.ku.dk

Cecilie Rubow, PhD, is associate professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen. She has previously worked with religion and everyday theology in Denmark, anthropological method and analysis, and with environmental change, nature ethics and eco-theology in relation to the Cook Islands. Email: cecilie.rubow@anthro.ku.dk

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Learning and Teaching

The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences

Cover Learning and Teaching
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
20
Keywords:
collaborative fieldwork; cooperative reflection; ethnographic fieldwork; master’s fieldwork; university reforms
Print Publication Date:
01 Dec 2016
Online Publication Date:
01 Dec 2016
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2016

  • Barry, C. (2009) ‘Response to Amy Pollard’s paper “Field of screams: difficulty and ethnographic fieldwork”’, Anthropology Matters 11, no. 2: 1–3.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bennett, S. and Barp, D. (2008) ‘Peer observation – a case for doing it online’, Teaching in Higher Education 13, no. 5: 559–570.

  • Carney, S. (2006) ‘University governance in Denmark: from democray to accountability?’, European Educational Research Journal 5, nos. 3 & 4: 221–233.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cerwonka, A. and Malkki, L.H. (2008) Improvising Theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Crapanzano, V. (1977) ‘On the writing of ethnography’, Dialectical Anthropology 2, nos. 1–4: 69–73.

  • Faubion, J.D. and Marcus, G.E. (eds) (2009) Fieldwork Is Not What It Used to Be: Learning Anthropology’s Method in a Time of Transition, London: Cornell Univeristy Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J. (1997) ‘Discipline and practice: “The Field” as site, method, and location in Anthropology’, Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science 100: 1–47.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hattie, J. and Timperley, H. (2007) ‘The power of feedback’, Review of Educational Research 77, no. 1: 81–112.

  • Healey, M. and Jenkins, A. (2009) Developing Undergraduate Research and Inquiry, Heslington: The Higher Education Academy.

  • Hoek, L. (2014) ‘Sorting things out: organizing and interpreting data’, in N. Kopinski (ed.) Doing Anthropological Research: A Practical Guide, London: Routledge.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jones, J.S. and Watt, S. (2010) Ethnography in Social Science Practice, London: Routledge.

  • Lave, J. (1982) ‘A comparative approach to educational forms and learning processes’, Anthropology & Education Quarterly 13, no. 2: 181–187.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Malinowski, B. [1922] (2002) Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea, London: Routledge.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Marcus, G.E. (1995) ‘Ethnography in/of the World System: the emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 95–117.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Marcus, G.E. (ed.) (1999) Critical Anthropology Now: Unexpected Contexts, Shifting Constituencies, Changing Agendas, Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Marcus, G.E. (2007) ‘How short can fieldwork be?’ Social Anthropology 15, no. 3: 353–367.

  • Marcus, G.E. (2009) ‘Introduction: notes toward an ethnographic memoir of supervising graduate research through anthropology’s decades of transformation’, in J.D. Faubion and G.E. Marcus (eds) Fieldwork Is Not What It Used to Be: Learning Anthropology’s Method in a Time of Transition, London, Cornell Univeristy Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mills, D. (2011) ‘Have we ever taught anthropology? A hidden history of disciplinary pedagogy’, Teaching Anthropology 1, no. 1: 12–20.

  • Nicol, D.J. and Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006) ‘Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice’, Studies in Higher Education 31, no. 2: 199–218.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Okely, J. (2012) Anthropological Practice: Fieldwork and the Ethnographic Method, London: Berg.

  • Pollard, A. (2009) ‘Field of screams: difficulty and ethnographic fieldwork’, Anthropology Matters 11, no. 2: 1–24.

  • Race, P. and Brown, S. (2015) The Lecturer’s Toolkit, London, Kogan Page.

  • Sigeau, L. (2009) ‘A collective ethnographer: fieldwork experience in the Brazilian North-east’, Social Science Information 47, no. 1: 71–97.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Spencer, D. (2010) ‘Emotional labour and relational observation in anthropological fieldwork’, in D. Spencer and J. Davies (eds) Anthropological Fieldwork: A Relational Process, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 1–47.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Stocking, G.W. (1983) Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

  • Stocking, G.W. (1992) The Ethnographer’s Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Strathern, M. (2004) Commons and Borderlands, Working Papers on Interdisciplinarity, Accountability and the Flow of Knowledge, Oxford, Sean Kingston.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, T. (2003) ‘Tilblivelser i tid og rum’, in K. Hastrup (ed.) Ind i verden: En grundbog i antropologisk metode, København: Hans Reitzels Forlag, 93–115.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wallace, T. and Iris, M. [2004] (2009) ‘Mentorship and the field school experience’, in M. Iris (ed.) Passages: The Ethnographic Field School and First Fieldwork Experiences, Blackwell Publishing: 142–146.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wright, S. and Ørberg, J.W. (2008) ‘Autonomy and control: Danish university reform in the context of modern governance’, Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences 1, no. 1: 27–57.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wright, S. and Ørberg, J. (2011) The double shuffle of university reform: the OECD/Denmark policy interface’, in T. Halvorsen and A. Nyhagen (eds) Academic Identities: Academic Challenges, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 960 471 23
Full Text Views 27 8 1
PDF Downloads 35 8 0