Introduction
The group that I chose to do my observation is a program that works together to help the community with child learning at an early age. I completed three hours of observation and I broke up those three hours into three different days and times. I did two hours of observation and one hour of participant observation. All the observations and participant observation hour was taken place inside the groups site. According to my observation and participant observation, I found that all the staffs plays different roles and status, each and everyone of them have their own status and roles of performance and how they behave in their front stage and backstage.
My interviews data was collected by interviewing staff members from my program. The program was designed to help college student who are parents and also other parents who needs help with child care. The program helps child to develop learning skills at a young age. I have used two days to complete five interviews, I interviewed two of the front office staffs, two teachers, and one student assistance. I have learned a lot about how their group members works together as a team and how they come together to better the community. My interviews have give me ideas of how their group corporate and how they come together as a team to help the community.
My program is a pretty well known organization because I was able to find websites that advertise about their group. The program helps young child to develop learning skills at an early age. In my content analysis paper, I have found about 28 sources of my group such as advertisement, Facebook, job applications, daycare websites, the program main website, news articles, university campus news, library news articles, and the yellow page's website, also many more to name. By collecting sources about my group it gives me a better understanding of what is going on in the group and things that have happened in the past and even history of the group.
Literature Review
Goffman has elaborate that symbolic interaction is a part that we focus in our social life and it is our everyday performance. Everybody in the world play a role in their social life. Goffman pointed out that we play our role based on the status that were assigned to us. When we play our social role there is always a script that tell us how to act while we are on stage performing our roles to the audience. Goffman stated that there is never a time in our lives that we are never performing to others because in our everyday lives we are always acting in our social life (Goffman,283).
Goffman have claimed that in order for us to perform a successful role it will have to affect the definition of situation. The definition of situation which is define as whatever that is happening in a situation. Perhaps there could be consequences if we do not follow the definition of the situation. When we are a student we typically act like a students going to class on time and be ready to learn.
Goffman have introduced the front and back stage. We do not just play our role in our everyday life but there is a front and back stage to our social roles. Based on Goffman, front stage behavior is when we are in the front of the stage performing our role to our audience and we have to fake a behavior to our audience. When someone is performing their role as a cashier, of course he or she will greet the customer with a smile and talk with respect. The backstage is when an individual is acting their self, they get to be the real person of themselves where they don't care because not one is watching. Goffman focus on symbolic interaction as our everyday life and it is part of our job which we perform everyday.
In the reading, Goffman has introduced one of his theory, the presentation of self in everyday life. As a performance it is a character of a self and this is known as a thing that is organic free. Erving Goffman was one of the sociologist that found the dramaturgical theory which is in nature we act in a certain way when we are in some type of situation. The way we act is the way we interact with the people around us. We choose how to behave according to the people we are interacting with and without these people we wouldn't act the way we suppose to be.
Goffman have stated that people act themselves in a different way when they are in a different setting. When we are interacting with other people we simply acting our character of how we behave and how to act in the correct way towards our audience. Impression management is controlling ourselves to behave in a certain way so others don't interpret us as a bad character. By acting in a certain way during a certain situation we might have to make things up or exaggerate in a positive way just so others can't judge us in a negative way. This is how we managed others so they don't see us as a bad person. Impression management is being the true of ourselves for being respectful and kind to others or else they will misinterpret us as having bad behaviors. Goffman elaborate on the self as situated identity, depending which role we are acting during a certain situation. As of the presentation of self, there is an obligation to act with ourselves when we are there such as presenting a role as a parents by showing respect to our child and being treated with respect.
In symbolic interaction, Mead's legacy is a theory which define us of who we are, how we are and how other would judge us. One thing that reads by others is when they are playing their role is gestures. We seem to pay attention to the people who are acting their roles by the way they moved their hands, body, and face expressions. Mead determine the role making and Turner take it as role-taking which is corresponding to Mead. In Mead's legacy, we also learn about who we really are and by taking the roles of other people.
Introducing the behavioral propensities which is when we are acting with others and will always get something out of the situation we were in. We also develop positive self-interaction which makes us feels good about ourselves. Culture take which is also role-taking is used when interacting with others and it also rely on culture to read the action of the other people. Also culture making is when we all share the symbols of our culture by using it. Culture taking is when we are supposing to be acting the role we are assigned to such as a student should act like a student and professors should act like a professor. For Goffman, he discussed the behavior propensities in two concepts which is culture take and culture make which is to take part of others.
Goffman highlighted that situation ecology is the rules and norms within the situation we're in. There is expectation for situation ecology and demography of how we were supposed to act in a certain way. Demography changes depending what is going on in a situation.
The reading introduced the principal of interactive determination highlights the relationship determine how people act in a certain way. An individual can understand one another is only through interaction. The way an individual behave which can really determine by others how that individual behave because the way we act is the way other people will define us. The people around us are the one who determines our behavior because they're the one who see how we really perform our roles. The principal of interactive determination is the basic principal to symbolic interaction which is how an individual behave in a certain way where it is determined how others will judge us. This is also a connection between relationship.
The second principal that is highlighted in the article is symbolization. This principal highlighted the symbol of the meaning. Symbolization we are always looking to frame definition of what is going on in a situation. It is mainly discussing how people act in the meaning of symbolization. The third principal that is highlight is emergence. Emergence is basically about the ideas of social life is not old, it is something new. Things can be interpreting differently in other people's household. Also we are always improvising rules and things in every situation is different because nothing is the same. The last principal is human agency. This principal highlight the choice of a human's ability to make cheerful choice you want. Human being are like robots that works and behave in a cultural way. everyone of us have the freedom to follow the expectation according to our role in our social life. In conclusion, the four principal were associated with symbolic interaction all of these principal is the perspective in our everyday life.
In the reading, Blumer was the one who developed the term of symbolic interactionism. Imagery was the first fundamental of symbolic interactionist, which highlights how an individual decide to organized themselves and how to behave. Family get to decide how to organized their family and do things the way they wanted. Another concept is society, which is made of interaction as a human being we interact everyday in our social lives. It also highlights that we create the interaction in society by engaging with those around us (Montgomery, 3094). As an individual it is defining as somebody who expand his or her selves by directing with others. Agency is known as an individual making a decision in life, you have the power to do what you want in the future. Also you have the freedom to control your own life and make your own decision. Imagery describe social construction as human being believe that everything we know in this world is consider as a good thing. We tend to think education is a good thing because of social construction because we believe that going to school is better than staying at home.
In the framework of symbolic interactionist, the concept of gestures is how an individual perform physical movements and body language. Gestures does not mean words can only gives meaning but the face expression and body movement can also be gestures meaning. Symbolic interaction is the idea to help us through our everyday lives by telling us what is right and what is wrong also by directing us how to behave in certain situation.
Method: Final Exam
Ethnography research is a method that include observation which study the way people interact with each other and how they communicate with each one another in certain situation. First of all, picking a setting is the first thing to do before starting the process. Ethnography research is only to be done in public setting and it cannot be done in private setting. Students are not allowed to observe places that are private, unless they are given the permission to do so. Students should choose a setting where they can do a quick study in one long semester, it can be a setting where they like to learn more of the group, and a place that they are interested in studying.
When selecting a setting, students should select a group that they are not familiar with or not a member of the group. If a researcher selected a group that they are already a member then it wouldn't be as good because the researcher already knew that was going on in the group and they already know how things goes between staff members of the group. By shadowing group members is also a great way of getting better details because it gives the researcher a better understanding of that one person experiences in his/her group.
Field notes is very important when it comes to ethnography research. Researchers should be taking field notes while observing the setting because it is the main thing to the purpose of the study. Also it is very important that researcher gets every little details of what is happening at the moment of the observation. Dressing in an appropriate way to match the group of the researcher, students will have to dress professionally if their group dress professional, and if the group dress in casual then the researcher can dress casual as well. Researchers are to dress in a way to fit the way other member of the group.
Interview is the second method that researcher use to help them get a better understanding from the interviewee. Interview is a method that researcher can use to have a conversation individually with staff members so the interviewer can ask the interviewee questions about the topic the interviewer is studying. During interview, the interviewer can ask the interviewee questions, this type of interviews is called in-depth interview. Which means going straight to questions asking the interviewee personal experience that relates to the group. Interview comes in many different ways such as interviewing someone in person, over the phone, or through internet.
Interview can help researcher in so many ways because by conducting interviews it helps discover things that had occurred over time. Also by conducting interviews it can help the researcher gets better data from the interviewee because interview is the time the interviewer can ask the interviewee the things they want to know. Researcher basically gets a better understanding when it comes to interview because interview gives the interviewer the chance to ask questions in-depth of the topic.
When conducting interviews, researcher should have questions ready to ask the interviewee, select any staff member from the group for the interview, and audio recording of the interview. Probing is an important step during interview, always be asking for clarification to make sure it is correct. Interviews can be with one or more interviewees, it does not have to be only one person at a time, it can be a group interview which is known as the focus group. The focus group interview let the interviewer ask questions from more than one person at a time. In this case the interviewer gets to focus on everyone in the group instead of one respondent, also the interviewer gets more data collected than doing one interview with one respondent at a time.
As a researcher, ethnography and interview were not the only way to collect data, by collecting data from the media, content analysis is also another thing researcher use as a qualitative method besides ethnography and interview. Data from the media can include websites, internet, Facebook, Twitters, and news paper articles, or any kind of documents talking about the group. Public documents also count as a source of data because it is printed by local (Warren & Karner 2015). There are many different kind of source such as magazines and newspaper which are very easy to discover through out the internet and available in many public libraries.
Advertisement is a data sources that can also be found on internet websites. Magazines and advertisement is a source for cultural analysis because magazines and advertisement are sources that the media wants everybody to know about the aspire. Another thing researcher use to help them analysis data are images. Images are used in qualitative research which gives them the ideas of how to identify group member's behavior and by the way they interact. By looking at an image a researcher can just tell what is going on and could tell how staff members play their role as a member of the group.
Researcher also uses visual images to help them get a better understanding of how staff member perform their roles and status, also it helps them understand individual personal experiences with the group. Internet is also an important source that researcher use for qualitative analysis. There are also many other applications on the internet such as Facebook, Twitters, and blogs (Carol & Tracy 2015). All these sites are counted as a data source because it shows the interaction between group members of how they work together in their group and things they do together as a team.
Methods: Ethnography
I have observed the program for three hours and these hours were not completed back to back but in different days, times, and different rooms with different staff members, and all take place in the program environment. I completed two hours of observations and decided to do participant observation for the last hour because I want to know how staff members interact with me with their roles and status. By observing it really gives me the ideas of how staff members play their roles and how they perform their status in different situations and meaningful action.
My very first observation hour was finished on November 2, 2018. This was an observation hour and time began was at 9:40am and ended at 10:40am. The observation was taken place in an observation room next to the toddler's classroom, there is a voice monitor where I can volume up or down to hear the talking from the room I'm observing. My second observation started on November 5, 2018 at 9:25am and completed at 10:30am. This time I was in another toddler's room but was also in the observation room as well. On November 7, 2018, I did participants observation for my last hour. I put myself to work with the staff members because I want to know how they perform their roles, status and meaningful action. All of my observations and participant observation was not scheduled, I go in whenever I have time to do my observations.
I feel like I had collected a fair amount of data during these three hours by observing staff members from the group and by doing participants observation. My important task of observation is to pay attention to theories and thick description such as how staff members play their roles, status, frontstage and backstage, along with definition of situation and meaningful action, how staffs interacts with other members of their group and how they coordinate behaviors to get things done. For this paper, I used Nvivo to help analyze the data I've collected during observations. I also used Nvivo to help coding my field notes, which makes things a lot easier. I also used Nvivo to quote the data and I did two query.
I personally thought this observation was a great experience for myself and I think it will really benefit my future because I had already gain some knowledge from this research. I have asked for permission from the director of the program before doing my research on the group and I was approved to do my research and also my professor approved my group. I was required to do a three hours of observation or participants observation so I did two hours of observations and one hour of participants' observation.
Methods: Interviews
My interview data was collected by interviewing five different staff members from my group. I interviewed two teachers, two front desk assistances, and one student assistance. I have all my interviews done during the time when the kids are taking naps, so when the kids are napping teachers and student assistance has more time to talk with me because during kids nap time, they're just cleaning in the classrooms. The kids nap time starts at 12noon until 3pm, so during this time I get to sit down with my interviewee and interview them. On my first day, I didn't know what time was best to do my interview so I went early in the morning at 8am and all the teachers, staffs, and student assistance were busy working with the kids so I was told to come back when kids are taking their naps. I came back later that day and I was able to interview a teacher in charge of a toddler's room and two front office assistance.
My first interview was on November 26, 2018 with a teacher and the interview last 8 minutes and 30 seconds, the rest were cut off by the peerapp. It was taken place inside the group facility just outside the teacher's classroom. My second interview was also on the same day with one of the front desk assistance and it was taken place inside their break room. The interview last 10 minutes and 12 seconds and my third interview was right after the second interview and it was also with another front office assistance, taken place inside the staff break room and last 8 minutes and 38 seconds. All three interview was recorded using the peerapp recording. My fourth and fifth interview was on November 28, 2018, with another teacher, and her student assistance. This time I didn't used the peerapp recording because my last three interview it cuts off majority of it. I have used my voice memos app from my iPhone to do the recording for my last two interviews. My fourth interview was with a teacher taken place outside the classroom, in the hall way, and last 16 minutes and 36 seconds. My last interview was with a student assistance taken place out in a small hall way and it last 13 minutes and 3 seconds.
I have transcribed all my interviews using several different apps, the apps that I have used was not very helpful but it did transcribe some of my interviews for me. The hard part was I have to go back, play the audio, listen, and edit it. I also used the transcriptone.tk to help with transcribing and it works pretty good because it allows me to slow down the audio and I was able to write down all the words because I have it played very slow. After having all my audio transcribed, I used Nvivo to run a word query on my interviews and it was very surprising to see that a lot of the words were used over and over. I also used Nvivo to create my five nodes which are roles, frontstage/backstage, definition of situation, meaningful action, and symbolic interaction. Each of my nodes contains three quotes from my interviewees, with a total of fifteen quotes.
Methods: Content Analysis
My content analysis data helps me a lot by giving me more information of the group such as having so many advertisement and so many different websites where I can find them just by looking up their group name on google. When I started searching for sources of my group I find it a bit difficult because there was not much of news article that talks about my group but then there is a lot of different websites that talks about my group. I have found websites that my group have partner up with like other programs that are similar to them. I start off by going to google news and search my group's name, there wasn't many news article that came up about my group but a few did. I got some sources from the Fresno bees and some from the university campus news. Though, there wasn't many news article about my group but the ones I found did help somewhat with my nodes. I took about two plus hours searching for sources, I went on to the university library website and use ProQuest to help me find some sources but unfortunately I was out of luck, nothing came up under my group name. I've also tried many different ways but still got no results so google was the only way that I got all my 28 sources.
Secondly, when I found all the sources, I enabled the Ncapture for chrome into the computer and then import it into Nvivo for coding. By using Ncapture it makes life a lot easier because it captures everything from the website but sometimes there are problems such as advertising blocking some of the texts, and sometimes nothing shows up at all, just a blank page. After importing all my 28 sources into Nvivo I start my coding. My five nodes I used for this paper is agency frame, identity frame, injustice frames, ruling text, and prognosis. I use word frequency and run query, and then I look for words that goes under each node. I found it very difficult to do it this way because a lot of my sources are advertisement and only a few were news articles. Since that way didn't work well for me, I decided to do hand coding, which makes life a lot easier for me because I read one article at a time and code the important quotes that goes along with my nodes. My Nvivo project, I got five different nodes and code fifteen quotes from my sources.
As a researcher, I feel that finding 28 sources for my content analysis paper was quite difficult for me but also good in some way. Like I had mentioned before, I used ProQuest to help me find sources of my group but no result came up. Other than ProQuest, I've used google news and found a few news article that were talking about my group. All my sources that I have found was from google, a lot of them are advertisement and just random websites that tells about the group. I found it a lot easier with this paper because I get to find all the sources online instead of going in and asked my group for any handouts or fliers.
Analysis: Ethnography
Thick Description
My very first hour of observation was on a Friday, November 2, 2018 at 9:40am inside an observation room next to the toddler's classroom and observation ended at 10:40am. Going back to my field notes of what I had collected right when I first walked into the program front office was like,
As soon as I walked into the office, the front office is so colorful with walls from both sides are full of kid's art and crafts hanging on walls and ceiling. There were all kinds of drawings and paintings on windows and walls.
The front office is a very colorful place and it is full of arts and crafts hanging from both sides of the walls. By looking around the whole office is so beautiful full of kid's arts, paintings, and crafts. The art comes in so many sizes and shapes and hanging at every angle of the office. There were children's work hanging on staff's windows and around the front desk some art was laminated, some in frames and they were use to decorate around the desk. The toddler's classroom I was observing was also full of colorful arts and painting as well and the room is full of resources. Going back to my field notes I wrote down,
In the toddler's classroom, there are four stations; the library, block station, arts and crafts station, and play house area. There is also a turquoise bicycle sitting right in the middle center of the class room.
In the classroom, there are four stations which is the library, the block station, arts/crafts station, and play house station. Each staff members have to monitor each stations by keeping it clean. The room has two fish tanks, the fish tanks are not so big and not too small, it looks like a medium size fish tanks, it is placed against the wall near the windows. There were a total of four staffs in the toddler's room, and what I have down on my field notes was,
The classroom has two small sink on one side of the room, a big calendar near the exit door, there are four doors total in the classroom, one on each side of the room. Near the door that exit out to the playground has a round light brown table with eight small chairs around it and the table have about four plain white posters paper sitting on top of the table.
The classroom is full of resources for children. The staffs are preparing the station and have them clean for the children. I have exited the observation room at 10:40am and that was the end of my first hour of observation.
Frontstage/Backstage
My second hour of observation was on a Monday, November 5, 2018 at 9:25am and I ended observation at 10:30am. During this hour of observation, I was kind of in and out of the classroom into front office, so I was in the classroom observing for about half an hour and then walked out to observed the front office for the other half hour. In my field notes I wrote down,
walked out of the observation room going towards to the front desk, I saw a group of three female staffs talking in a pretty loud voice, giggling, and laughing in the hallway. When they saw me they seemed to lower down their voices but right when I turned to the other corner where we can't see each other any more I can still hear their loud voices.
These female staffs were in the hallway just talking and having fun probably on their breaks but when there is a parents that walks by one of them said, "Good morning." All three of them have badges on them so I can tell clearly that they are staffs from the group. The front desk lady sits in her chair like she is sitting at home relaxing, she seems so comfortable because no one is around.
The front desk lady sits all the way back on her chair doing something on the computer and looked very relaxed.
The front desk lady is seemed very relaxed because there is nobody at the front desk with her besides me but when someone walks into the office she pulls herself back up and greet them nicely. I walked around the corner and saw two female staff sitting in a room talking quietly and softly, they seemed to be discussing about something. In my field notes I wrote down,
After observing the front desk for a couple minutes, I got up and walk around the other side of the hallway and saw two ladies in a room talking quietly, I can't even hear what they were saying. They were sitting facing each other and I slowly walked passed the room.
The lady sitting in her office talking with another lady is acting in frontstage because she is talking with a smile to the lady facing her but after the lady had left her office, I saw her came out of her office with a paper and walked over to the front desk lady and just handed the paper to the lady with a serious face, no smile, and didn't even say anything at all and walked straight back to her office. She seemed to be very tired by the look of her face. The front desk lady took the paper and starting typing on her computer and continue on what she was doing. Going back to my field notes, before I left the observation room to go observed the front office,
Teacher was in the room by herself in her office, on her cell phone and eating snacks then another member came in, they both said hi. The teacher got off her phone, the lady that just came in put her backpack away came and leaned against the door and they both were chatting.
When no body is in the room, the teacher was on her cell phone with someone but right when another staff member walks into the room she seemed to quickly put her phone away. The teacher is performing her backstage as being on her phone when nobody is around or when she has nothing to do. She does put away her phone when there is another member inside the room with her. When teachers and staff are in the room with no children, they seemed to relaxed and layback.
Roles
On my first hour of observing, my observation consists staff member's roles. When observing the front desk, the lady upfront seems to do multiple things at the same time. On my field note I wrote down,
I saw the lady in the front desk answers phone calls, putting calls on hold, transferring calls, other staff members bring her folders, she reminding parents to sign out when they are taking their child home.
The lady in the front desk is performing her roles as an office assistance. She is taking calls and also transferring calls. She greets parents with smiles and tells them good morning. She also does things for other members in the group like making copies or making phone calls. She seems to be a very busy front desk lady because she takes care of college students who comes in for volunteers and students who are doing research like me. After observing the front desk lady for about 15- 20 minutes, I went to the the observation room and start observing staffs inside classroom, in my field notes I wrote down,
One staff member is preparing some posters and setting it on the round table, I think she is a college student volunteering or she could be a hired staff member. I saw a staff sitting at a table with her elbow on the table, one hand on her face watching the teacher teaching.
There were a staff member playing her role as a member by preparing things on the table. She could be a volunteer member or a staff that is hired. She seems to know what she is doing by putting things on the table and going to grab more white poster at the counter near the sink. The staff is performing her role by doing what she has to do instead of sitting around not knowing what to do. Another staff was also in the classroom at the same time but not doing anything besides watching the teacher teaches. She was at a table with her elbow on the table, hand on her face looking at the teacher teaching looking very comfortable.
There is a staff member probably an observer or she is waiting to speak with the teacher after she is done teaching because she is just literally sitting there relaxed and watching the teacher.
I ended my observation and walked out of the observation room at 10:40am.
Definition of situation
My last hour was a participant's observation started on a Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 4:15pm and ended at 5:30pm. I work with teachers and staffs by cleaning the room, it was towards the end of the day and on my field notes, I have written down,
The teacher in charge of the room asked another staff and I to help sweep the floor and washed all the paint brushes, dry them and put them away. In the meantime, the teacher was at her office and having to do some paper works. She then asked if myself or the other staff could bring the sign in sheet to the front desk lady. I have volunteer to bring take the paper.
We both cleaned the room, sweep the floor, and I helped the other member washed the paint brushes and pat them dry, I've asked her to put the paint brushes and she pointed to the cabinet underneath the sink. The staff that I work with was very quiet, she doesn't talk much but if I asked her questions she'll talk. While we were cleaning the teacher seems to be doing some paper work at her office inside the classroom. She came out of her office with a sign in sheet of paper in her hands, asking if one of us can take the paper over to the front desk lady. I've told her that I can take it over to the lady at the front desk. In the definition of situation, the teacher is performing her status as a teacher in charge of the classroom and the staff is performing her role in the situation as a staff member doing her job and following what the teacher says. I play my role as volunteer in the situation and listens to the teacher and the staff and getting things done.
I saw the staff member sanitize all the toys at the play house area, while I wiped down the tables and chairs. A man walks in, talk to the teacher in her office, came back out and took a blanket that was in one of the tubby and left.
The staff performs her roles very well; the teacher doesn't have to tell her what to do. There was a man came into the classroom and talk to the teacher for a minute and he then went to the tubby took out a blanket and left the room.
The man left the room, so at this point I assumed he is a parents of a child who probably left the blanket and forget to take it home earlier the day.
Teachers and staffs gets together really well, I noticed that the teacher is very nice to her staff member who is helping her clean while she is doing her paper work. On my field notes, I have written down,
The teacher reminds her staff nicely about the painted posters that were still hanging outside to don't forget to bring them inside.
The teacher is interacting with the student in a very nice and polite way by telling her staff nicely to don't forget to bring in kid's posters inside the classroom. They split up the work according to their status and roles, they staff cleans and the teacher do her paper work. Time was 5:30pm and I ended my participant's observation by leaving the classroom.
Meaningful action
Meaningful action, I focused on how group members interact with each other. I also observed the behaviors between staffs, director, teachers and the front desk lady how they coordinate their behaviors by getting things done. I remember on my first day of observation day which is November 2, 2018 I was in the observation observing staff members, in my field notes I wrote down,
I saw a staff member came from the outside playground asking another member where can she get more of the poster paper. The staff walks her to the sink and grab her about two sheet of big poster paper and she walks right back out to the playground.
Staffs member help each other out by locating where things are at in the classroom. The other staff response nicely and walk her to the sink counter and give it to her the poster paper. On my field notes I also written down,
I saw two ladies helping each other bringing in stuffs from outside and left it in the sink.
They help each other to get things done and also they help one another cleaned up after an activity. They tell each other things nicely if they want something done in a certain way. The teacher in charge of the classroom works with her staff about setting up activities and how things should be done in a certain way. In my field notes I wrote down,
I saw a staff walks up to another staff showing her a sheet of paper, they both were nodding their heads, and talking.
At this point I thought to myself that they are probably talking about a project, maybe one lady is asking the other if it's a good idea to do this or that, that's why they are nodding their heads. The teacher and the staff in the classroom works together to help prepared things before students starts coming inside from the playground. Time is 10:40am and I stopped observing right when I walked out of the observation room.
Analysis: Interviews
I have collected all my data by interviewing staff from my group and all my interviewees have their own way of describing the differences of what they learned and experience from their group. Though, many of them holds the same position all of them have their own experiences and own ways of working around their fellow members. The image below is from Nvivo when I run a work query using all my interview. It is pretty surprising how the words like and interview were repeated so many times in all my interviews.
Roles/Status
All my interviewees have their own roles and different status. Some of them are teachers, student assistance, and front desk assistance. I have interview two teachers and they each explain their status and roles differently. The two front desk assistance also talks about their roles which are very similar to each other. The student assistance roles are also different from her teachers. In one of my interview with a teacher educator explains her role and status as,
"As a staff member, I am responsible for my preschoolers umm so making sure of course their safety of the environment and stuff, curriculums planning, and then I have my co teacher that kind of responsible for kinda letting them know what their like delegate what the they need to do so I have student employees also come in who kinda come in to support were umm they do umm you know small group or what not but cleaning stuff for me."
Another of my interviewee which is a student assistance explains her roles as a staff member,
"I just facility and then classroom along with the teacher.
I'm with the other teacher there and just make sure that the kids are on topic like keeping them engage most of the time cause if not then they just don't want to be doing an activity so we tried to engage them as much as possible."
They have different roles and status and their jobs can be different and it can also be the same at times. The teacher mentioned that she is responsible for her students making sure what they needs to do such as planning things out for the kids. The student assistance roles are to facilitate the classroom with the teacher in charge. In the mean time she also seems to be running things like the teacher such as watching over the kids and making sure they are on top of things. The front desk assistance roles are quite different from the student assistance and the teacher,
"Um I'm the administrator assistance so I help you know all the admin up here and then also aids with anything the classrooms needs additionally to so they're calling me to help them as well."
In the front desk assistance's case, her role is more like helping everyone in the group, not just people who needs help at the front desk. Her role and status seems to have more task to complete since she is maintaining the classrooms and her admins.
Frontstage/Backstage
Frontstage explains an individual when they are performing something in front of others. An example of frontstage would be a college student who dress nicely and appropriate to school and acts like a student. This is when someone is performing to their audience, when a person is performing he/she does not want the audience to know the back side of them. Backstage explains an individual as their true self such as being their real self. For example, when a college student comes home, he/she will just wear shorts and t-shirts and not care because there is no on around to judge them.
Some of my interviewees explain how it was different when they are at work and at home. Here is a quote from a teacher,
"Definitely different because at home I am a mom I am a wife umm of course my responsibility at home are a little different from school where at school I have to make sure I'm professional where a lot of people see early educator as baby sitter so I I love my job and I'm really proud of what I do so I make sure people understand that like no we're not baby sitting and then so I make sure I tell my students who comes in like um I give them a hard time where I tell them you need to come in dressed in professionally no ripped jeans,, no yoga pants, because people already think you're baby sitter so when you come in people when you walk in your first impressions means a lot I think for me culturally I just grew up in a culture were I knew that I couldn't just go somewhere like IF I just wear like sweat pants and dirty nappy hair people would treat me the same like I knew that I would have to go looking a certain way so people would take me umm I guess what's the word not respect but kinda the word is out of my mind right now, for example I teach part time here so when I walk in a lot of students see me as kind of young so they don't take me serious so like your a professor so I always make sure I change out of preschool clothing when I go teach so I look more like a professor where some other people who might not have got worry about the stuff but for me I think culturally umm its just one of those thing we been taught growing up explicitly you know like you have to present your self a certain way so people respect you or kinda hold you accountable for a certain way for example even my self as a preschool teachers sometimes I have parents come in and they think that I'm a student and I'm like no, I'm the main teacher here and they're like oh you are you."
The teacher explains how she have to dress like a professor when she is going in to teach, and when she's at home its totally different from when she's at work. She talks about how to be professional by the way we dressed when we are going out somewhere. Here is another quote from another staff member, she is a student assistance explaining her front and back stages,
"Um, yes and no. Yes, because like sometimes you really do have to show the children that they can't like step on you don't like I do sometimes it will test your limits think they'll try to get away with things so I feel like that why you do have to be a little bit firmer but there's some times where it's like It's more lenient like you're you having conversations with them so you know I feel like in that part I am at like I am at home but in the other part like being firm with them."
The student assistance explains how she have to act differently when she's at work because if she doesn't her students won't listen to her. She feels like she has to be a little firmer than when she's at home because at home she doesn't have to act like a teacher, but at school she has to be like a teacher so her students will listen to her.
The front desk assistance has her ways of explaining her frontstage and backstage,
"Yeah definitely there's always you have to have that professional environment umm you have to be balance between not letting it be social and then letting it stay professional at the same time but you can be friendly because like a lot of my job is interacting here or older people."
The front desk assistance has to act more professional at work because she is in an environment
where everyone is professional so she'll have to put her professional hat on when she is at work. Also when she's working she have to behave in a very professionally way and not too socializing.
Definition of Situation
Staff members in the same group deals almost with the same thing on a daily basis. In my interviews, my interviewees talk about how they go through situations with other staff members in the group. A quote from a teacher says,
"Yeah, so I have to really make sure umm you know the way I talk them, the way I talk to children when I talk to umm other adults like we're professional so kinda keep it professional where at home you know I am silly here to the kids called me silly all the time I'm silly at home so a lot of my traits will be the same but the same but the same time my thing here is like I'm a true advocate for young children playist very important so even if I, I have mentis who are maybe mantis at community college and now they're my students here and now they're menthes so we have the relationship but when we get here they know that I'm like no we do not talk about our outside life like you can ask how things are going but really keeping it professional making sure its a public children hearing."
Staffs members knows how to be like in a certain situation, such as not talking about their outside lives when they are working. They also have to be professional and not talk about inappropriate things from the outside that have nothing to do with work related. Another quotes from a student assistance says,
"Pretty well when we're having trouble with something she communicates to me and I can meet with her and we kind of work we tried to group I like have a meeting and discuss how we can solve the problem or how we can get the children engage like with activities and stuff like that and it's a communication that we have."
In this quote, she explains how they solve a problem when something happens, they communicate with each other and how to work things out, instead of bring it to the outside staffs. A quotes from a teacher telling how things gets difficult in times,
"Well sometimes it's a little harder you get overwhelmed sometimes in the classrooms guess there's a lot going on and so sometimes there are times when I'm like you know I can't help solve your problem right now you gotta have to problem solve yourself a little bit so there is that usually I feel like I I try to be open and as warm as possible so that the people and try to give them I don't know when they're doing things that are working well, they have the work really well maybe we'll discuss how why that works so well or maybe that didn't work so well how can we work on that so I try to be informative and pleasant and friendly and all of that."
The teacher talks about times when things gets hectic and overwhelmed. When things turned out this way she tells her staff to kind of solve their own problems. Then they'll discuss how to work things out when situation like that happens between them.
Meaningful Action
Meaningful action is when an individual sees something that is actually important to them. This also means how they react to other people actions as well. One of the teacher I interview says,
"Well that's hard to say because it's not like we're friends or anything like that we're co-workers some of them I just barely met because they just started this semester so I have a couple that were here last semester to fact only one I think that was here last semester and everybody else is brand new so we're all just trying to work together and gel together release so I don't know if I feel like we have fairly good relationships I would tell them you know if we're big people if there's something wrong or there's an issue or something that we should we need to talk about it. Umm, I think our relationships are fairly good."
Though, they are not friends but they are co-workers and not knowing each other much but they still manage to work together as a team and to get things done. Working together seems to be very meaningful for them even though they only know each other for a short period of time. She also talks about how they divide the work and how she does stuff like cleaning so her assistance won't think she's doesn't do anything.
"Well, we it's the same as tasks every single day yeah so like for example at lunch time after lunch is over and the kids are at window somebody has to sweep somebody has to clean the tables and somebody has to clean the bathroom and somebody has to mop, so the reason we did that was I don't know if I should say or not but the custodian aren't doing it so I'm oh no we're not coming into a room that hasn't been mopped so usually I try to do at least one of those chores cuz I don't want people to think oh you know I don't do the work too so I do one of the chores and then they just decide amongst themselves."
As a teacher in charge of the class room and having student assistance she helps them cleaning so they won't think that she's the boss and have all the staff does the work. The front office assistance says,
"Obviously all the classroom staff is like good with connecting with the family most of them like the admin up here. And I mean I was a parent here before so it's kind of like like a mix of all the aspect kind of you know so I don't know, probably really didn't answer that."
She talks about how staff members have relationships with family, also they are really good at connecting with the child's family. She once has a child in the program before so she knows how staff members are like.
Symbolic Interaction
Symbolic interactions explain how people interact with each other by responding to how other act in certain ways. The front office assistance talks about how she and the other office assistance manage to get things done,
"We each have like our own separate tasks but we do on like a daily or weekly basis but then also just work together on lot so whenever we have project whatever happening to.
It works really well with with her up there actually how we separate out the duties and."
She talks about how they each have their own task but they still help each other out to get task done. She also tells me how things work so well with her and other office assistance by sharing the duties they have.
A teacher explains how she and her co-teacher help each other out dealing with kids that whines,
"We have a really great relationship um its because like part of working with children is you have to be in sync with each other. you know like she understands the whining voice like eeh like just crying, that's like my red spot as a teacher, I don't mind the aggressive kids punching, pulling hair beating other kids up cause I feel like I can help them where the whining ones I'm like um I'll look at my co teacher she's like I know that 's yours and all deal, so so we're really in sync. So if she have an off day or she's not feeling so good I can tell I just kind of step in we take, you know because we're like a family so its just like a dance like you know when your in sync with the kids they understand your feelings and then just so brief. my co teacher and I have a really great relationship and my student assistance some of them I have now a couple year so they know my temperament they know what I need them and you know they know to not yawn I'm like oh are you bored let me find something for you, you know cause I feel like as a teacher there is always something to do so if we're not interacting with the kids definitely cleaning and getting all the stuff done but I I feel like I have a really great staff supporting me so we're in sync."
In her quotes, she talks about days when her co-teacher is not feeling well, she'll help her get things out of the way. The relationship between the teacher and her co-teacher is really great because they both works together all the time to get things straight and always having each others back.
A teacher is explaining how she works with her student assistance when they don't know how to work things out.
"I don't I don't use that term. I would say that there are times when I have to remind people that the reason we're here is this is a learning center it's not it's not a daycare it's a learning environment and so we want those conversations to be meaningful for children so how do you do that you have to look at what's out and think of questions so sometimes you have to think so sometimes I ask them to do a little research on their own so like right now we have a another teacher in here and she hasn't been a lead teacher before but she having to take on that role right now so I'm having to tell well look you know we're working on these pulley so okay now pulley how do you know what a pulley is and how can you set up a pulley system so she's had to I got books for it she's had to take them and read them so that's sort of descendants we have to do."
She asks them to do research on their own if they come across something they don't understand, to get them a better understanding of something. The teacher also helps her assistance by giving resources to help her.
Analysis: Content Analysis
I have collect all my data from the sources I found on google and google news. After collecting all 28 sources, I now get a better understanding of how my group works to help the community and what their mission was like. It gives me information about my group when finding all different kind of sources. I found that my group is not a very big group or a popular group but they are big enough to help out those we are seeking help. There are all kinds of different websites that advertise about my group's program which I never thought that others would advertise about my group besides their own website.
Agency Frame
Agency frame is basically explaining about the organization. The program tells stories about their group such as success. This also gives people the empowerment to do something. Faculty members are to help families by giving them the empowerment to do things. The group is design to help many people such as student parents who are a full-time student that needs help with child care in order to go to school. The program will help this parent by offering the program so they can finish their education. Agency frame gives people empowerment. This also let the agency talks about their history, things that had happened in the past. Below is a quote I code from one of the sources I found,
Reference 1 - 21.79% Coverage
The learning center is a school age day care center facility which provides day care services for all children. Children who experience quality early education and child care in the learning center in the city of Fresno receive long term benefits. They have better math, language and social skills as they enter school, and, as they grow older in the county of Fresno, state of California, they will require less special education and will progress further in school. This day care is located in the Fresno in the county of Fresno, in the state of CA. Several research studies have found that high quality child/day care centers have common characteristics, specially near Fresno.
This quotes explains about how to program works and how it benefits young children. The learning center helps young children with many different things daily. The quotes also explain about children learning at an early age will increase their skills in math and reading skills along with other social skills.
Reference 1 - 3.89% Coverage
The learning center also sponsors a variety of professional development programs for educators in the region and state. The learning center has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards for its innovative professional development programs. The newly established D. Institute for Leadership in early learning is developing additional professional development programs based on the learning center model.
The quote above talks about how the learning center have so many different professional that can help young children within the area they're living. The quote is talking about them getting grants to help their students and makes the program a better place for their young learning youth.
Reference 1 - 2.08% Coverage
At this university we focus on children. We see our work as helping to develop early childhood professionals who focus on children. I'm thankful to be at this university -- it's a place where I can be an advocate for children every day.
This quote actually talks about faculty member being thankful that the program is a great place to start for the young children to learn. This staff member is talking about the success of the group that is giving to the community by helping young children learning at an early age. The last quote says,
Reference 1 - 3.03% Coverage
"The most important thing we want is for parents to continue their education. We understand that families come in all types," M. said. "That's what we try to emphasize. That's why we are here."
The agency wants to help those who are a parent and want to pursue their education and needed child care. At this organization they are there to help anyone who are in need of child care. The program is there to helped students with child care so parents can go off to finish their education.
Identity Frame
Identity frame explaining who the group are and what do they do. Identity frame is basically about how the group see themselves, such as creates the bonds between each other and creating the sense of belonging. More likely it is about drawing attention to how to deals with their problems within the group.
Reference 1 - 5.29% Coverage
Second, the learning center at this university provides services for young children based on an approach that emphasizes child play and exploration, child initiated projects, the arts and diversity. In the learning center, children joyfully build outdoor canals, create and share stories, experiment with tunnels and ramps and observe and care for baby chicks. Children are encouraged to try ideas out; they are allowed to be independent, but they learn to collaborate with others and to value diverse friends and cultures. They are happy, healthy and participatory.
The quote above explains about who they are in their group and what they do with the program. This quote talks about how the children collaborate with one another such as the bonds between each other.
Reference 1 - 11.47% Coverage
The learning center is an early education research, training and demonstration center that serves 150 children ages 3 months to 12 years-old and fully includes children with special needs. The learning center provides training, demonstration and research opportunities for undergraduate, graduate students in education, child development, marriage, child and family counseling and other related areas as well as for professionals in the field. The center is accredited by another program and has aligned its infant and toddler program with other principles and practices.
The quote explains how the program works by not helping only children but it also gives university students the opportunity to educate themselves. This is create the sense of belonging, university students needs hands on training and they need to do research in order to do better in the field they're studying. The last quote says,
Reference 1 - 1.84% Coverage
These classes also serve as a lab site for students on campus who are studying in the fields of education, child development and psychology. The facility has two-way mirrors to conduct observations of children and provides an opportunity for aspiring professionals to receive lab hours for their credentials.
The program is also a place for college students to learn more about the field and get a better understanding when studying the group. Many college students need to be experienced in the field that they are studying.
Injustice Frames
Injustice frames explains about issues the group might encounter. When there is a problem going on with the group how do they do to alleviate the issues. The quote below says,
Reference 1 - 4.98% Coverage
The Facebook post in the university Book Trade and Advice page quickly gained the attention of several students Monday when Leak first reported the fleas. It led others students to report their kids also showing bumps and that they, too, were possibly bit by fleas on campus.
The quotes talk about parents complaining that their child are bitten by fleas at the program site. What the program do to alleviate this problem is by having the pest controlled come to the site and inspect the whole area.
Reference 1 - 1.82% Coverage
Travel distance becomes an obstacle for lower-income families in isolated Valley farming towns. Some parents don't know how to recognize telltale indicators of developmental delays in their infant or toddler, or don't realize that services are available to help them. Others may be in denial that their child has a problem and resist reaching out for help. And there is often a lack of capacity in preschool programs for children with special needs.
The quote above talks about distance as a problem that families of low-income are facing. Many parents do not realize that not putting their child in school or some type of learning program can really affect their child's learning. What the program can do to help is provide low-income families programs to help their child with learning. The last quotes for injustice frame say,
Reference 4 - 1.40% Coverage
A lack of program capacity is another concern, particularly after a child with special needs turns 3 and is eligible for preschool. "For preschool, there is absolutely a lack of resources," said the program manager. "Preschool is not mandated by the state, so school districts have the option to provide it or not."
This issue is about the program not having the size for their children can be a problem for the organization. Since it is only preschool, the program has the right to either fix it or not.
Ruling Text
Ruling text explains about how the organization guides people how to act, behave, and by shaping their behavior. The group guides people by telling everybody how to act. Members don't just tell their employees how to act or behave but also tells parents how to act and behave in front of their child in certain situation.
Reference 1 - 6.00% Coverage
At university, early education isn't about smaller desks, fatter pencils, and colorful worksheets. It isn't a simpler and cuter version of what older children typically experience in the upper grades. Our education programs are based on an entirely different approach that fits the developmental needs of young children. They are guided by developmental principles that emphasize children's active engagement, social and emotional competence, and cultural and linguistic diversity. The goal is for these principles to aid us in designing programs that help early educators develop practices that help children be happy, healthy and participatory.
The quote above explains that their children are guided by certain principals that are taught in class. The program goal is to help their children be able to behave in certain way and act appropriately such as being respectful. The second quote say,
Reference 1 - 2.17% Coverage
"For language development, for socialization and learning the rules and routines of the classroom, and even cognitively and intellectually, having these children in the classroom to hear the questions their peers are asking and starting to have conversations can really help bring those children along, to kind of stretch what they can do," O. said. "If children are thriving in their environment and interacting with their peers, memorizing the names of shapes and colors…ends up being easy compared to navigating the classroom."
This quote is basically talking about how children are interacting with their peers in the classroom. The staffs from the classroom are teaching lessons as having conversation with other students in the class and how to work together by asking questions.
Reference 2 - 1.54% Coverage
The adult support groups and classes help parents learn to understand how they can provide the best care for their special needs child. "We know we can treat the child, but if we don't strengthen the family, the child doesn't stand a chance," P. said. "We see things like substance abuse, domestic violence, poverty, food instability, housing instability, all kinds of issues."
The quote above is explaining how they not only teach their young children how to interact with others but also teaches their family how to be able to understand what their child needs are. Staffs knows how to guide their young learners but they also need to guide parents so they know how to behave in front of their child.
Prognosis Frames
Prognosis frames explains about how the organization solve a problem that the community have. There are a lot of student who are a parent that needed help with child care but cannot afford one, there are programs like my group that provides child care while parents can go to school or work.
Reference 1 - 2.06% Coverage
"It's possible to be a parent and truly succeed. These resources are there to help you so you can go to school," said C, a masters teacher at the learning center in the Education Building. "Just because children are in school or daycare doesn't mean they're OK, but a quality site makes a difference."
The quote above explains about how the program help the community by giving student parent the opportunity to take advantage of the program by enrolling their child so they can go to school and pursue their education. The next quote says,
Reference 1 - 5.44% Coverage
"This is going to reinforce the importance of supporting faculty and staff parents on campus," A. said. "When we recruit, people always ask where they can put their kids. We tell them about our great programs, but then we tell them there are only a few slots and you have to wait. But expanding and making this solely for faculty and staff shows the importance of supporting them."
Parents are probably afraid that the program might not be good for their children. Staff members explains to parents how good the organization is and it can benefit their child's learning skills in the future.
Reference 2 - 1.17% Coverage
"We're mentoring the future teachers on how to be great facilitators and hopefully keep in mind that the idea of projects that go off a child's interest will build a better curriculum," Y. said.
The quote above is talking about how to better the program in the future for their new teachers and by letting them know how great the organization is and how much they have helped the community and the young children.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believed that I have collected a fair amount of data that focuses on thick description and theories that were cover in class lectures. The groups staff member work together to get things done by interacting with each other in the manners they are supposed to such as presenting their roles and status in definition of situation. Staffs perform their front stage when they are with their co workers or performing their backstage when nobody is around or watching them. Overall it was a great experience doing this observation and participant observation because I get to see in the real world of how people interact with each others by paying close attentions.
The five staffs that I have interviewed seems to give me a good amount of data, and I believed that the data I collected from my interview was very helpful which covers everything about theories that I have learned in class lecture. All the data was collected from all five people I had interview in my group. The main theories I have covered in my interview paper are roles/status, frontstage/backstage, definition of situation, meaningful action, and symbolic interaction. These five theories were all covered in my findings from data I have collected during my interviews.
My content analysis contains 28 sources about my group that I have chosen to study this semester. Some of the sources I've found is pretty useful but majority of them are advertisement and just random websites. I found that news article are the most helpful sources of all because it gives me a whole explanation of what happened and what is going on in the group. In my analysis, I have found many of the sources that gives me data about my research topic. I was able to find some news article that talks about how great my program was and how staff member work together to solve problems when things occur. Overall, the finding of my analysis was great because I get to learn more about the history of my group and things that had happened within the program before.
Ethnography, interview, and content analysis were the three methods I had use for my qualitative research. Ethnography method was the first method I've used to observed my group, by observing I was able to collect tones of data that happens during the hours I was observing with my group. The interview methods allowed me to talk with individual group members and this gives me the chance to ask my interviewee questions regarding my research topic. Last but not least, content analysis was a method I use to collect data from the media. I was able to find many sources that talks about my group. There are a few news articles that talks about what was going on years ago and history of the group.
References:
Montgomery, Rhonda J. V., and Edgar F. Borgatta. Encyclopedia of Sociology. Vol. 2nd
ed, Macmillan Reference USA, Gale Group, 2000. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=73898&site=ehost-live.
Snow, David A. "Extending and Broadening Blumer's Conceptualization of Symbolic
Interactionism." Symbolic Interaction, vol. 24, no. 3, 2001, pp. 367–377.
Turner, Jonathan H. "Extending the Symbolic Interactionist Theory of Interaction
Processes: A Conceptual Outline." Symbolic Interaction, vol. 34, no. 3, 2011, pp. 330–339.
Warren, Carol A.B., and Karner, Tracy Xavia. 2015. Discovering Qualitative Methods
Ethnography, Interviews, Documents, and Images. New York.
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