A Vertically Integrated Project Approach to Ethnographic Methods Training
School of Language, Culture, and Society, Oregon State University
How they used Delve
Faculty and students at Oregon State University used Delve to teach undergraduate and graduate students to code interview responses and observation notes in an ethnographic methods course, and the students then coded their own anonymized post-trip reflections as the data for this evaluation of the Vertically Integrated Project teaching model.
“Students were taught to code interview responses and observation notes using DelveTool software. Select students coded the reflections after Copeland separated comments for anonymity as part of deploying the VIP model for end-of-class project class marks.”
- Field
- Anthropology pedagogy / ethnographic methods training
- Data
- Student fieldwork data from a marine-tourism field study — interview responses and participant-observation notes — together with post-trip student reflection essays, faculty fieldnotes, and group discussion records
- Approach
- Reflexive evaluation of a teaching model: students' fieldwork interviews and observation notes plus anonymized post-trip reflection essays were coded, and themes drawn from the reflections were read alongside faculty fieldnotes and group discussions
- Data types
- Interviews, Observation, Documents
Abstract
The Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) model, developed in engineering, is a methodological approach that integrates undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty in projects for both research and student training. Recent applications of this model report that it could foster student-faculty collaboration, empower senior students to mentor juniors, transcend disciplinary silos that often hinder research, and promote diversity and inclusivity in higher education. Our cross-disciplinary experimentation with this model in ethnographic methods training demonstrates its value to facilitate or even institutionalize faculty-student collaborative research and mutual learning in social sciences. We also suggest transforming this model to be less hierarchical in collaboration, more mutually beneficial for all involved, and more sustainable for long-term projects.
Citation
Shaozeng Zhang, Kellen Copeland, Bastian Thomsen, Michael Harte, Shelby Copeland, Dane Nickerson, Sam Fennell, Bryan Breidenbach, Kelly Faulkner, Chiayi Chen, Marshall Floyd, Liann Goldmann, Reilly Scheffing, Megan Mooney, Price Willoch, Matea Mihaljevic, Sommer Dalla-Bona, Max Duggan, Amy Schneider, Mayley Taylor, Asier Hernandez-Saez, Laun Michael (2023). A Vertically Integrated Project Approach to Ethnographic Methods Training. Teaching Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.22582/ta.v12i2.688