Brief description: Students will take the online ethics module for social science research developed by Wynn, Mason, and Everett (http://www.mq.edu.au/ethics_training/) and the online quiz at the end of the module. 

Details: The online ethics module should be done as homework in the second week of the class.  Upon completion of the quiz, print the certificate of completion and bring to class to turn it in.  The module takes about 3-4 hours to complete.  Warning: start the quiz well in advance because if you fail any section of the quiz, it will not allow you to proceed to the next section of the quiz until 24 hours have passed, so it’s not a good thing to do at the last minute.

Brief Description: Each week, you must fill out a Discussion Preparation Guide and bring it to class. 

Details: A sample Discussion Preparation Guide (DPG) is available on I-Learn; I’ll hand out a guide in the first week of class, and after that, you should print and fill one out each week.  You will bring this to class and use it to inform class discussions.  When you first come to class, you should show it to me so that I can see if it’s been completed.  You can use it to take additional notes during the seminar discussion.  At the end of the day, you will hand in your DPG to the unit convenor.  They will be returned the following week in class.

Brief description: Each student should fully participate in class discussions and will take turns leading a discussion of the week’s readings.

Details: Each week, all students are responsible for filling out the Discussion Preparation Guide and bringing it to class (see assessment task # 2 above).  Each week, we will break up into smaller discussion groups for a portion of the class.  The unit convenor will roam from group to group, listening and contributing to discussions.

To generate discussion in class: students will spend 10 minutes at the beginning of each class just talking about their Discussion Preparation Guides with each other. This will hopefully help to wake you up, it breaks the ice, gets your mouths working and also gives you a little more confidence to talk in class with the other students so that you can maximize your tute participation marks. The point of the Discussion Preparation Guides is that you also have a clear and concise bit of info that you can refer to in the class.

Brief Description: Your 1200 word research proposal should be a formal description of the ongoing project of ethnographic description that you are engaged in for this class.  Research proposals will be original project designs for ethnographic research projects.

Details: Undertake a literary search for your chosen topic. Identify a minimum of 6-8 academic texts of high quality, which all cover relevant aspects of the topic (the texts should be suitable for comparison).

The proposal should include the following sections:

Proposal title: provide a short descriptive title of no more than 20 words.

Abstract: This should be a short summary of the project, maximum 100 words.

Background: Discusses the academic literature to set up the research question.  What other researchers have tackled this issue?  What have they said about the topic?  What are the points of difference between theorists? How is your project similar to, or different from, those of other researchers?

Aims: What will this research concretely demonstrate or accomplish?

Methods: This should include a detailed discussions of research methods, rationales for choice of methods, background readings on the research questions as they are relevant to methodology, and a plan for completion. 

Significance: What is the significance of this project?  What new insight will it shed on the research question?

Brief description: Students will engage in a small-scale ethnographic research project over the course of the semester. Each student will keep a ‘field journal’ that documents your own life ethnographically in a series of dated fieldnotes. You should collate completed writing assignments, including observational logs, research diary entries, sketches, diagrams, and other useful data related to the on-going project. You need to demonstrate that you are engaging in a varied methodology.

Details: You should begin this journal from week 2.

You are encouraged to treat the journal as a ‘field diary,’ and to write in it as often as possible (a minimum of twice a week). Because there are 10 weeks between week 2 and when the journals are due for marking, I will expect a minimum of 20 entries to pass.

You will be picking a narrow area of your daily experience to focus on.  This should be a participant-observation record of your own experiences. These fieldnotes will form the basis of your research paper and “mini-ethnography”.

Please see “Important Points to Remember Regarding Your Research Project” protocol (on ilearn) for more detailed guidelines on how to ethically approach this process of writing about your everyday interactions with others, and give everyone you wish to write about an information sheet (also at the end of this unit outline).

Brief Description: You are to write a 3000 word ‘Mini-Ethnography” based on the research you have been doing throughout the semester. Your Mini-Ethnography should describe the goals of the project, the methods employed, and what you discovered during the course of your research.

Details: Select a topic that interests you (we will discuss the appropriateness of your projects throughout the course). Narrow it down so that it is suitable for a scholarly interrogation. Keep in mind that most students try too much in their research.

Undertake a literary search for your chosen topic. Identify a minimum of 15 - 20 academic texts of high quality, from the social sciences and/or humanities (books, journal articles – the texts should be suitable for comparison).

When you are writing your paper, make sure the text engages with theory, theoretical concepts and demonstrates their application.

In addition to writing the mini-ethnography, you must also include an appendix (up to 500 words) detailing how you ensured ethical research practice.  This appendix should outline the steps you took to ensure (a) informed consent, (b) informant privacy and confidentiality, and (c) secure data collection and storage.

(Please see “talking about your research project with your informants” protocol on ilearn for more detailed guidelines on what key areas of ethical research practice should be included in this appendix.)

There is a strict 3,000 word limit for the ethnography part of this assignment.  See “exceeding the word limit” (in “Penalties and special consideration”) in this unit outline for details.  An additional 500 words is allocated for the ethical research appendix (i.e. the appendix is not included in the 3000-word limit for the ethnography).

Please note that, in order to pass this unit, you must submit a final paper (“mini-ethnography”).  Failure to do so will result in a failing mark, regardless of your performance in other aspects of the unit.