Mapping Conceptual Worlds: Using Interpretive Ethnography to Explore Knowledge-Making in a Professional Community

Smart, Graham

doi:10.1177/002194369803500107

Cited by 41 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We used an interpretive approach (Denzin 1999;Smart 1998) to share our experiences about the program and thus better understand and question the assumptions about how various activities are meant to achieve specific objectives. This ethnographic approach assumes that shared understandings and experiences come about through and emerge from our interactions as researchers with our participants (Hunt 2009;Thorne et al 1997).…”

Section: Interpretive Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Going Off, Growing Strong: A program to enhance individual youth and community resilience in the face of change in Nain, Nunatsiavut

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dispossession from social and ecological support systems is a major concern for many Indigenous communities. In response to community health challenges in these settings a number of initiatives such as youth mentorship programs have shown some value in enhancing adaptive capacity. The pilot Going Off, Growing Strong program provides opportunities for at-risk youth to engage in community- and land-based activities and build relationships with positive adult role models in Nain, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada). This paper offers an interpretive description drawing from autobiographical accounts of the development of this innovative program. A collaboratively developed conceptual framework, based on the literature, is used to present and explain program operator’s experiences and rationale for program development. The emergent goals of Going Off, Growing Strong are to strengthen individual youth and collective community resilience through intergenerational exchange of land, social, and cultural skills and knowledge by drawing on social supports, such as a community freezer and experienced harvesters. We found that the process of collaborating over time with multiple stakeholders in creating this conceptual framework was an important one for solidifying the goals of Going Off, Growing Strong and creating context-specific, meaningful evaluation outcomes to enable future measurement of impacts on the community.De nombreuses communautés autochtones redoutent de se voir dépossédées de leurs systèmes de soutiens sociaux et écologiques. En réponse aux défis que pose la santé communautaire dans de tels contextes, un certain nombre d’initiatives, telles que les programmes de mentorat pour les jeunes, ont démontré une certaine valeur sur le plan de l’accroissement des capacités adaptatives. Le programme pilote Going Off, Growing Strong (« Sortir, grandir ») procure aux jeunes à risque des opportunités de s’engager dans des activités communautaires – et enracinées dans le territoire – et de nouer des relations avec des adultes jouant le rôle de modèles à Nain, au Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada). Cet article représente une description interprétative de l’élaboration de ce programme novateur à partir de récits autobiographiques. Nous utilisons un cadre conceptuel développé en collaboration et se basant sur de précédents travaux pour présenter et expliquer les expériences des acteurs et la raison d’être du développement de ce programme. Les objectifs émergents de Going Off, Growing Strong sont de renforcer la résilience des jeunes de la communauté au niveau individuel et collectif par l’intermédiaire des échanges intergénérationnels de compétences et de savoirs relatifs au territoire, à la société et à la culture, en se fondant sur des appuis sociaux tels qu’un congélateur communautaire et des chasseurs-pêcheurs...

show abstract

Section: Interpretive Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Going Off, Growing Strong: A program to enhance individual youth and community resilience in the face of change in Nain, Nunatsiavut

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, the research on analytic essay writing as a tool of WTL does measure cognitive change that occurs through the organization, synthesis, and stance taking that are part of this school genre, as revealed through standard school measures and text evaluation. Similarly (but in greater ethnographic detail linking situated activity with text production and text produced), research on writing in the disciplines, workplace, and community (such as the work of Swales & Najjar, 1987;Bazerman & Paradis, 1991;Medway, 1994Medway, , 1996Dias et al, 1999;Swales, 1998;Smart, 1998;Beaufort, 2000;Bazerman & Russell, 2002) demonstrates learning of new forms of situated cognition by learning to write in the disciplinary, professional, and community genres.…”

Section: Vygotsky On Learning and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 96%

Genre and Cognitive Development : Beyond Writing to Learn

Bazerman¹

2009

pratiques

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…According to Smart's (1998) description, interpretative ethnography is a search for meaning about some shared cultural phenomenon occurring in a professional space. In this case, that phenomenon is English language teaching in a primarily non-standard dialect speaking context and the professional space is the language teaching classroom.…”

Section: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deficits, Elitism, Fears (DEF) and the Eastern Caribbean English Language Teacher

Denny

2015

JET

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This is a qualitative research study underpinned by a constructivist philosophy. In this study I collect data by means of questionnaires and interviews primarily. The questionnaire responses however serve as additional voices to the interviews rather than as statistical information. The sample is purposive, comprising 14 questionnaire respondents and 4 interviewees, with whom I sought to explore the challenges they encountered as they taught Anglophone Caribbean students standard English (SE). I also attempted to understand the reasons for these challenges, as well as try to establish, from these teachers, the appropriate strategies for addressing these issues. I discovered that the teachers primarily blame students for the challenges they face professionally; yet irreconcilably, they advocate addressing these challenges by implementing strategies aimed at improving the teacher and teaching. I therefore concluded that between the premises and conclusions teachers make about language learning and teaching lay many contradictions, contradictions which I term DEF, an acronym for issues relating to deficits/diversity, elitism and fear, as well as a pun on the word 'deaf'-the inability or unwillingness to hear what contradicts their beliefs about language learning and teaching for fear of processing what the reality might mean.Keywords: English language teaching, Eastern Caribbean, teacher proficiency, teacher training BackgroundThis research is the second part of a study carried out in 2008 into matters relating to Eastern Caribbean teachers' language proficiency, entitled "Easy as ABC: Attitudes, Barriers and Contradictions in issues of teacher language proficiency". This first part investigated attitudes exhibited by fourteen Eastern Caribbean teachers from seven islands, towards the coexisting vernacular and standard language in their territories. These attitudes, were argued to have given rise to certain psychological and learning barriers which led to conflicts between language-related theories and pedagogical practices. As a continuation of that research, this ISSN 2330-9709 2016 www.macrothink.org/jet 66 current study, is aptly titled 'DEF and the Eastern Caribbean English language teacher". DEF is both an acronym and a pun, which I contend, contributes to the challenges teachers both face and create in the classroom. In this article it is proposed that between the premises and the conclusions these teachers make, sits DEF, issues of deficits/diversity, elitism and fear which are not being adequately addressed, but which require urgent attention if language education is to be more progressive in these territories. In this educational sphere sits another kind of DEF, the inability/refusal to hear what contradicts one's beliefs and values about language learning and teaching. In this work, I will refer to a "space" where there is a meeting of perspectives and interpretations, mine and the participant teachers', and so the research is structured as a discussion between Eastern Caribbean teachers of Engl...

show abstract

Mapping Conceptual Worlds: Using Interpretive Ethnography to Explore Knowledge-Making in a Professional Community

Cited by 41 publications

References 35 publications

Going Off, Growing Strong: A program to enhance individual youth and community resilience in the face of change in Nain, Nunatsiavut

Going Off, Growing Strong: A program to enhance individual youth and community resilience in the face of change in Nain, Nunatsiavut

Genre and Cognitive Development : Beyond Writing to Learn

Deficits, Elitism, Fears (DEF) and the Eastern Caribbean English Language Teacher

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About