Ethnography is an exceptionally difficult subject to teach and learn in a classroom setting. This article, written by an ethnography professor and five graduate ethnography students, reflects on how a short-term and collectively executed fieldwork study can help alleviate this problem. Within three months, we logged over 100 hours of observations…

The Alien Worlds project teaches ethnographic skills using the societies of dystopian, postapocalyptic, and science fiction texts as imagined field sites and targets for analysis. These exercises and assignments, which illustrate principles of qualitative fieldwork, were developed when COVID-19 precautions made it impossible to assign tasks that…

In this article, the author describes the use of active and collaborative learning strategies in an undergraduate sociological theory course. A semester-long ethnographic project is the foundation for the course; both individual and group participation contribute to the learning process. Assessment findings indicate that students are able, through…

Describes two teaching simulations which can be used to introduce students to problems encountered in field research. The first simulation deals with gaining access to a research setting, while the second concerns some ethical difficulties which may potentially confront a field researcher. A number of reasons for using simulations in preference to…

As a discipline, sociology has produced a rich understanding of social processes, and yet the pedagogical implications of this scholarship remain largely untapped. In this paper, we employ a framework of sociology as pedagogy to show how sociology can enhance and inform teaching and learning. We select examples from a range of classical and…

Notes that one-semester field methods courses in sociology often lack adequate time for students to learn appropriate techniques and still collect and report their data. Describes how undergraduate students bypass this problem by using multiple observations of a single event to quickly form a corpus of ethnographic data. (JDH)

An alcohol studies program offered at the undergraduate level in the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts (Boston) is described. Students combine classroom work with applied practice in alcohol agency settings. Sources of information are identified for those interested in developing alcohol courses. (Author/RM)

Court ethnography assignments provide a wonderful way to teach observation skills in an unfamiliar legal setting. Most people obtain their knowledge of legal proceedings from television or movies and students are no exception. But teachers can teach students to closely examine court process and legal behavior in a sophisticated way by assigning…

Discusses difficulties of classroom-based research and obstacles to conducting classroom-based ethnographic research. Identifies temporal obstacles, personnel, safety, and traditional classroom orientation. Suggests experiential approaches for fieldwork instructors such as individual projects, a choice of group projects, or a single designated…

Discusses a project in which students in an upper-division methods course conducted field research on racial discrimination and presented the findings to students in Introductory to Sociology classes. States that the aim of the project is to encourage white students to see beyond textbook examples of institutional racism. (CMK)

Across the field of higher education and within the discipline of sociology, several important reconceptualizations of academic work have emerged. While not absolutely in sync, there is a striking overlap across three of the most visible of these: Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered, Carnegie's Stewardship of the Discipline, and Burawoy's Public…

At the 2007 annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, we presented a workshop entitled "How to do the Scholarship of Teaching." The workshop had three main goals: to introduce participants to the literature on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and to various SoTL outlets, to guide participants in the process of doing…

Considers the complete ethnographic project as a strategy for teaching qualitative methods. Describes an undergraduate class where students chose an ethnographic setting, gathered and analyzed data, and wrote a final report. Settings included Laundromats, bingo halls, auctions, karaoke clubs, and bowling leagues. (MJP)

Presents an interview with Phil Nyden, a professor at Loyola University (Illinois). Describes his qualitative methods course. Includes his suggestion of a group project rather than individual research projects enabling students to focus on methodology rather than substantive issues. Lists course objectives: learning qualitative methods, applied…

While the scholarship of teaching has risen in prominence in the past few decades, little is presently known about the structure of knowledge creation and dissemination in that area of scholarship. Such basic facts as the characteristics of programs that perform and publish the research (e.g., B.A., M.A., or Ph.D.), or the identities of specific…