Participatory Research – Final Group Report

SARAH HAAS
BILLY PARRETI
EMOGENE SHADWICK
August 1, 2008

We have been working with GlobalHood and Global Potential for almost two months as a support mechanism for their research initiatives by teaching them how to be ethnographers. We have been teaching the youths how to see and also how to communicate what they see. This ultimately delivers value to the GlobalHood and Global Potential programs in a variety of ways. Global Potential is a not for profit that provides disadvantaged Brooklyn youth with mentoring, job skills, and the opportunity to volunteer abroad in a developing world community. In this case it was the Dominican Republic.

When contemplating what our group could offer GlobalHood, we looked at our individual knowledge of ethnography, our abilities and talents to come up with a list of objectives.  The amazing thing about this project was that we were able to create objectives for both the youth participants as well as GlobalHood as an organization.
Our objectives for the young people included teaching them the knowledge of data collecting and analysis that gave them the opportunity to see the Dominican Republic in an entirely different light.  These skills gave the young participants the ability to teach the people of the Dominican Republic ethnography as well.  In addition, we anticipated that the young people would have a more developed perspective about their surroundings and the communities in which others live.  Also, the field assignments we gave them to complete in the Dominican Republic would give them the ability to set objectives and measure their efforts.

Our objective concerning the GlobalHood organization was the contribution of the young people’s data that would be useful to market their cause to potential investors. The data also offers GlobalHood new ways to market their message (through Second Life, Facebook, etc.)

However, the most rewarding objective to all concerned will be seeing the young people consider how they can sell GlobalHood’s message based on the data they collect and interpret.  Their ability to become active participants in the marketing of the program in which they are involved will foster a sense of ownership, investment and responsibility toward their program and its message.

Through a one-hour training session in ethnography and a study sheet for them to take to the Dominican Republic, we were able to ready the young people for how to become participatory researchers.

The media platforms, which we used within our group for communication, varied. Since two of our three group members lived in NY and the third group member lived in Seattle, WA alternative forms of communication were essential to productive project development.

As such, our group communicated through face-to-face meetings, our group blog: http://4globalhood.wordpress.com, e-mail, Second Life, telephone and text messaging. In particular, our blog served as a way to keep up-to-date with one another in terms of communication and information exchange. Of the many benefits of utilizing multiple contact platforms, arguably the most significant benefit is that we were able to have real-time communication, as well as have our information logged and available for reference as needed.

Additionally, we worked with GlobalHood via multiple platforms including face-to-face, e-mail, video, cameras, blogs and the traditional paper medium. Since we did not have final analysis at the end of this course, we relied on the Global Potential blog the participants are maintaining in the Dominican Republic as a way to gauge their developing ethnographic skills. We found that the young people were implementing their observational skills.

To further shed light on the way in which the young adults have been utilizing ethnography skills, here is a blog excerpt from youth participant Keshia, who is observing her environment while in the Dominican Republic:

“There is definitely a lot to be done and I hope that we can make a big difference before we leave. The first thing that we need to focus on in the Batey is Hygiene. Lots of kids walk around without shoes. Some have deep cuts for that reason. They walk on the construction site were it’s easy to get hurt without shoes and around the Batey were there is waste at every corners.”

Since our objectives were driven by selling and teaching, our approach to the analysis of data will take (upon completion) a two-fold approach; both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitatively we will analyze the young people’s findings and materials from data collection (their photos, their journals, spoken word, etc.) through a working session when they return. We will take all the information collectively and craft stories based on how they talk to us about it. Pre-trip, we gave them an exercise to look at things and to absorb things in the environment around them. We then taught them how to interpret their data.  Relating these points to their pending trip, we sent them off with a set of guidelines (currently posted on our blog) and they are now successfully off being ethnographers.
Additionally, we gave the youths a brief questionnaire to fill out prior to the first exercise (also posted on our blog). This was to gauge interest, skills and perceptions. Upon their return (and during the work session), we will ask them to fill out another questionnaire. This benchmarked against the pre-questionnaire will allow us to quantify what the students learned and what their attitude and opinions are of their experience (in general sense and from a “researcher’s” perspective).
We believe our project leverages and creates a richer learning experience that encourages positive behavioral change in our specific target population, through empowering the young adults with the knowledge, resources and tools to refine their observational skills to gather information that will be used to benefit GlobalHood.   Seeing as our target population is the youth participants, we created a richer learning experience by expanding the young adults’ perspective through providing them with the tools and education to put into use productively many of their pre-existing observational skills. In short, the students were able to take what they already know and build upon their skill set. Having the tools and knowing what to do with them helped change and nurture their perspectives.  Subsequently, the students are implementing their skills and passing along their knowledge while in the Dominican Republic, thus transitioning roles from student to teachers; from participants to observers.

This was a great experience for our team.  As we learned to stay focused on the subject of social media and the marketing of a social message, we were able to supply both GlobalHood and the young participants the tools needed to make their trip more memorable and insightful.  The fortunate and unfortunate thing is that at this juncture we are not finished with the objectives we set out to complete.  We are in the process of arranging a post-excursion meet with the young people and will develop their film from the cameras we supplied and discuss the images, videos, blogs and observations they made and different ways they see to classify them.

What we continue to gain from this social marketing experience is that social causes are easily marketed with truth, reality and transformation.  Frank Cohn, Director of GlobalHood and an adult facilitator in the Dominican Republic says in his blog entry,

“They are… learning new skills and getting new perspectives on life and the world and I am learning from them”.

It is our pleasure to be a part of this life-changing excursion with GlobalHood.

Dramatizing Data – Reading Response, Emogene Shadwick

Dramatizing Data: A Primer

In the reading, Dramatizing Data: A Primer, author, Johnny Saldana defines ethnotheatre as a performance of experiences and/or interpretations on a theatre stage.  Actors utilize significant interview transcripts, field notes, journal entries and other written artifacts to structure a narrative that is communicable in the theatre genre.  In theory, ethonotheatre appears to be an innovative way to convey findings of ethnological studies, however I question the genuine realism and legitimacy of this phenomenon.

According to Saldana, ethnotheatre (also referred to as ethnodrama) can be done on any subject matter and since the stage is considered an intimate space, playwrights with research data can create credible and persuasive performances of their analysis that is easier to understand and more accessible to a wider audience.  Saldana believes that data can be performed through characters, staging, props and scenery.

My first concern with ethnotheatre is the data and analysis.  I believe that ethnography will always be an ultra-sensitive method of data analysis that will forever be scrutinized and criticized because of its methodology.  Many opponents of ethnographic research question the validity of information that originates from researchers inhabiting the environment of the very people and situations they are meant to study. Does the appearance of a camera, note pad and/or tape recorder change a subject’s behavior?  How can one say, ‘just do as you would normally do and… ohhh by the way, I need a minute to re-load’. This type of debate can carry into more than just the theatre genres of entertainment.

Is the reality television show fact or fiction?  Are the participants being themselves or some super-imposed version of how they would be if… and is the story presented what actually happened or something that was later put together with clips from the editing floor.  This same argument transcends to film in the form of documentaries.  Many filmmakers today go out and shoot to get the footage on the topic they want to represent, and proudly confess that the ultimate story was found in the editing room.

This premise has me question if it is possible to objectively relay findings in a narrative.  Just as the findings will always be subject to the opinion of a researcher, in ethnotheatre not only are the plot and storylines of these plays subject to opinion, but the performance as well.  Many times we see actors in films like, Charlize Theron’s terrifying portrayal of a predatory serial killer in Monster and Terrance Howard’s ignorant pimp turned rapper in Hustle and Flow give Oscar caliber performances that they attribute to going to the environment of the character and taking in their situations and then adding themselves to the role.  In ethnodrama is it possible or favorable to add ‘yourself’ to a role?

Saldana also speaks of using significant selections of findings in order to structure a narrative that will keep the audience’s interest.  In his admission, theatre is a medium which has the goal to entertain, the ‘juicy stuff is what is necessary in order to keep an audience interested.  What would any performance be without drama?  Can legitimate analysis be sifted through where all that is left with is the dramatic, juicy stuff? Is the non-juicy stuff as important?  I think the only result would be a play that is merely ‘loosely based on a true story’ and one that can only fictionalize possible conversations.
Saldana goes on to discuss the subject of auto-ethnography, which I believe, is an oxymoron.  How can one person be objective of his or her own life and make analysis that is not tainted by hopes, dreams and or personal experiences.

Lastly, ethnodrama presents a clear problem with blurred genres.  When looking at the medium of theatre, it is synonymous with entertainment. Do we ever really look for truth in entertainment?  Film, television, music and theatre are mediums of make believe where nothing is true. Can one train the eyes and mind to believe an ethnodramatic presentation as legitimate findings?

Although I can appreciate the potential of ethnodrama to reach a larger, broader audience than any research paper ever could. The questions it creates, negates any gain with the loss of authenticity and reality.  Moreover, I may never get over my last question:  Do I clap at the end?

Our PowerPoint Presentation

Billy’s Notes for Final Project Presentation

Talking Points for slides 1-3

 

Participatory Research

 

Our group is the Participatory Research and Ethnography group… it consists of 3 members, Sarah Haas, Emogene Shadwick and myself – Billy Paretti.

 

Since there isn’t much time, I want to give a quick framework of the presentation and what we want to cover. More specifics to be discussed in the next 10-15 minutes by each of us

 

We have been working with Frank from Globalhood and the young people from Global Potential and Youth Venture for almost 2 months now as a support mechanism for their initiatives in the Dominican Republic…

 

Globalhood…Update on what it is if necessary….. Global Potential provides disadvantaged Brooklyn youth with mentoring, job skills, and the opportunity to volunteer abroad in a developing world community.

 

So we will be presenting

Ø       What our team set out to do with Globalhood

Ø       What are objectives were/are

Ø       How we approached it as a group

 

Slide 8: Projected Analysis

 

Since our objectives were driven by Selling and Teaching, our approach to the analysis of data will take (upon completion) a twofold approach….Qualitative and Quantitative… specifically what did they see and what did they learn…but more importantly, how can this be applied to GH and YV.

 

      Qualitative – Analyzing the young people’s findings and materials from data collection… (their photos, their journals, spoken word, etc.) through a working session with the group when they return…. We’re going to take all the information collectively with their photos and craft stories based on how they talk to us about it.

Initially we gave them an exercise for them to look at things and how to absorb thing in the environment around them, then we sent them off with a set of guidelines (on our blog) and they’re being ethnographers

 

 

            Quantitative – We will quantify what the students learned and what their attitude and opinions are of their experience (in general and from a “researcher” perspective). We will do this through pre and post trip questionnaires…

 

                 

 

 

 

 

Final Presentation Structure

Slide Numbering, Outline of Talking Points…

 

Note: Talk time should be 1.5 minutes

Black Dot, slide number: title, indicate what appears on the slide

Arrows and misc. other notations indicate what we discussed in our notes

 

 

Billy

Slide 1: Participatory Research

 

Slide 2: Project

 

Slide 3:  Introduction:

l       Social Marketing

l       GlobalHood

 

Ø       what our team set out to do

Ø        what are our objectives,

Ø       how we approached it as a group

Ø       read from the initial proposal

Ø       Give framework of presentation – more specifics to be discussed in rest of presentation

Ø       If necessary, explain what is GlobalHood and youth venture

 

 

Emogene

Slide 4: Frank Quote

 

Slide 5: We are Selling and Teaching

l       Technology, data collecting and analysis

l       How to sell GlobalHood’s message

 

Ø       selling and teaching

o       An opportunity to teach technology as well as data collecting and analysis.

o       How to read information as researchers.

o       How to sell Globalhood’s message based on the data they collect and interpret.

o       They will become active participants in the marketing of the program in which they are involved, the reward then being a sense of ownership, investment and responsibility toward the program and its message.  

o       A more developed perspective about their surroundings and the communities in which others live.

o       How to set objectives and measure their efforts.

Ø       Interaction with the kids – presentation information about what is ethnography, questions for young people to ponder

Ø       talk about bullet points

 

 

Sarah

Slide 6: Our Platforms

l       Multimedia

l       GlobalHood Blog

l       Relevency

 

Ø       our platform – media methods and relevancy

Ø       Media – camera, blog, video –

·         our communication – the importance of blogs, pictures, SL, things we considered –

·         how relates to social media – what does a blog do, what’s the benefit that enhances this form

Ø        

Ø      OUR PLATFORMS

Ø       We have chosen to utilize multiple platforms including photography, video, paper logs and electronic blogs. Photography will be included in the first part of the teaching as a way to assist the students with the transition from participant to researcher. Daily logs and blogs will help the students to clarify their efforts, as well as put their data in a specific location. As ethnographers, data is paramount, so we want to empower the young people with as many resources as possible. Observations are a key component.

 

Ø       Multimedia – blog, comaera and video

Ø       Revelancy –

Ø       Their blog – cross interaction

 

l       SHOW MOVIE

 

Emogene

Slide 7: The Steps

l       Ethnography Exercises

l       Dominican Republic

l       The Return

 

Ø       Use proposal content

 

Billy

Slide 8: Projected Analysis

l       Qualitative

l       Quantitative

 

Ø       analysis – pre and post

Ø            —exercise for them to look at things and how to absorb things in the environment around them, then we sent them off and they’re being ethnographers

Ø       – when they come back from DR have a way to analyze information

Ø        – design a questionnaire for them to talk about specifics

Ø        – We’re going to take all the information collectively with their photos and craft stories based on how they talk to us about it.

Ø       Learning perspective – how analyzing the findings – storytelling perspective – what they’ve seen is this

Ø       teaching analysis

Ø       findings analysis

Ø       through the questionnaires figure that our

Ø       what did they see/learn – we’ll teach them how to figure out a story

 

Ø       quantitative approach

Ø       qualitative approach

 

Ø       twofold approach

 

Ø       -analyze what we were able to teach them quantitatively through questionnaires

Ø       -analysis

 

 

Sarah

Slide 9: Our project leverages and creates a richer learning experience that encourages positive behavioral change in our specific target population, through…

• Changing perspective

•         Providing tools

•         Students as teachers

 

Ø       How does your project leverage and create a richer learning experience that encourages positive behavioral change for your specific target population?

 

Ø       content

 

Ø       -changing perspective – visual and mental perspective – means – they went form being participants to observers

 

-          we created a richer learning experience – taught them how to be ethnographers, taught them how to be researchers – we provide the tools, knowledge, and then nurtured/gave them the ability

Ø       Able to take these skills with them to DR – - extra insight- teaching it

 

 

Emogene

Slide 10: Conclusion/What we learned…

Ø       Conclusion

Ø       we’re not finished with the kids –

Ø       unfortunately don’t have analysis information yet

Ø       fortunately, we’ve been able to work with the kids through its entirety, and working to secure a date to meet with them upon the return

Ø       what we got out of the experience

Ø       learned how to pool strengths together – resources to come up with others, we were collective, we didn’t do anything by ourselves

 

Slide 11: –Keshia quote

 

END

Meeting notes – 7/23 – RE: Presentation

Presentation structure:

-          We want to answer each of the three questions broadly, and then focus specifically on one of the questions.

 

-          Whether we select question 2 or 3, we need to define who is the target population (investors/general public? The kids?). Alternatively, we could address the question for both perspectives.

 

-          Slides to feature minimal talking points

 

-          Slides with information to be separated by slides with quote/images

 

-          Slides should have simple naming conventions

 

-          Group shot to go at end of slide

 

Speaking Structure:

-          One person talks through the introduction

-          One person talks about the blog

-          One person talks about the work with the kids

-          Each of the questions get addressed, on person per question

-          One person talks through the Conclusion

-          For the Q&A part, we want to assign each person a “role of expertise” so that if we are asked one type of question, we know who is best suited to answer it.

 

Action Items:

-          Sarah to pull seven quotes from the kids’ blog, and to find images and put both on PowerPoint

o        Quotes should have one or two sentences and relate to the topic its introducing. Quotes to be centered in the slide, in big lettering with attribution.

-          Sarah to have PowerPoint draft for review on Friday

 

-          Emogene to send Sarah additional photos for PowerPoint.

 

 

Follow-Up Discussion Times (proposed):

 

-          Thursday at 11 pm EST – We will solidify slide text

 

-          Friday at 11 pm EST – We will review and revise slides

 

-          Saturday at 10 am EST – We will review changes, finalize content and presentation process

 

-          Sunday at 5 pm EST is our presentation on SL

Pre-Dominican Republic Globalhood Photos

Photos located here

Photo sampling:

Guerilla Marketing Reading Response – Billy Paretti

I decided to read The New York Times article, “Guerilla campaigns are going to extremes, but will they stick?”, because it is something I find both personally and professionally interesting. As a marketer by trade (I know I should be ashamed) I am constantly trying to figure out ways to reach the consumer in a clever, strategic and often “in your face” kind of way.  Hence why I can relate to the comment by Helen MacDonald that opens the article, “I look at this as an Art form”. Though I would say that Guerilla marketing is more of a science.

For those who didn’t read the article, it focuses on the issue of Guerilla Marketing being illegal and also focuses on those who are working against Guerilla initiatives. According to the article, “ The concern is a section of the NYC administrative code that states, ‘it shall be unlawful for any person to deface anjy street by painting, printing or writing or attaching thereto, in any manner, any advertisement or other printed matter.”. I tried looking up an official definition for the term, Guerilla Marketing with no success… I did, however, find some interesting descriptors. One site described the conept as  “The Power of Honest Word of Mouth.”  Honest is not a word I would use to describe it at all.

In my professional experience, I have always found it interesting that there were “legal” companies, conducting “illegal” business. For example there is a company in NYC solely dedicated to “wildpostings”. Wildpostings are the mini posters seen plastered all over construction sights and random walls in an obscure and not so obscure areas of the city.  As an extension to this, it is illegal for companies to even advertise their own brand names on their OWN construction sights. Another interesting trend can be observed by taking a stroll down 5^th Avenue. One will see every construction wall covered with giant sized ads of the soon to be retail store. Companies pay the city a fine and then can leave it up… In a not so direct way, they are paying the city for the ad space. 

While the article touches on saturation levels in Out of Home advertising, it doesn’t really explain why Guerilla marketing is effective. It works because people are caught off guard and typically not expecting something. When the mind is conditioned to see something, it has a broader capability to overlook it. Guerilla marketing ensures visibility in even the most saturated environments like NY.

‘Culture As Cure’ Reading Response

In the reading, “Culture As Cure,” author Vilma Santiago-Irizarry discusses the effect on patients when cultural elements are incorporated into a mental facility. In order to study the effects of “cultural sensitivity,” invoked on the mentally ill, Santiago-Irizarry studied a Hispanic bilingual and bicultural program and its patients.

She ran into many questions surrounding the idea of culture, and the identifying characteristics of culture. In ethnography, these are valid questions. Santiago-Irizarry calls labeling as something that involves specification and homogenization. These ideas can diminish the very value that cultural sensitivity attempts to establish. For example, grouping “Hispanic culture” into one label ignores the many intricacies that are involved that go beyond a sweeping category. For example, someone with Mexican heritage will have some different cultural ideas than does a person from Puerto Rico. Yet, they are both lumped into the same Hispanic culture category.

That being said, Santiago-Irizarry found that integrating elements of each person’s cultural identity, as well as the common elements to their culture, into the developed care facility culture can produce positive results. An example includes someone who had a fear of medicine because of a cultural belief in spirits. Once that core belief was validated, and included in the treatment process along with traditional medicine, there were signs of positive reactions (i.e., the person no longer refused to take the medicine).

Santiago-Irizarry found that “translation in each other’s terms” could have positive affects on those involved in the study. The value to ethnography is that Santiago-Irizarry took information she gathered and developed it into a working theory for a possible way to provide assistance to those with mental illness.

This reading was quite interesting to read, as it introduced many ideas that I had not thought of previously, including how culture does affect those around us.

Meeting Notes: 7/20

Draft Outline of Our Final Project:

Media to include:

-         Video

-         Photographs/ Q&A’s taken from first meeting with kids

-         PowerPoint

-         Excerpts from the kids’ blogs

-         Questionnaire from Global Potential

 

Content Notes:

·        We want to do a PowerPoint presentation, which Sarah will spearhead and Billy will massage accordingly. We want to incorporate multimedia

 

·        Since the young adults are not returning until after class is finished, we agree to continue the project post-course. We will not have findings for our project in time for the final presentation. However, we have enough information to present what we’ve gathered so far.

 

·        Presentation is to be “top line” and “concise.” Ten-minute allotment.

 

·        We’d like to start the presentation with a quote from the young adults’ blogs.

 

·        We might include excerpts from our individual projects, pending final project requirements.

 

·        We can take information from the young adults’ blogs that might assist us in making preliminary assessments. We can, in short, survey their blogs to analyze, possibly hedge conclusions.

 

·        Presentation to include: Final Next Steps … To include, a follow-up meeting with the young adults upon their return, data collection and analysis.

 

Action Items:

Sarah

• Upload the new Global Potential image (from their blog) onto our Blog; will also look for additional assets for the Web site, etc.

 

Emogene

• Collect photos on Monday 7/21. She will post the photos of Flickr by Wednesday, 7/23.
• E-mail Global Potential Questionnaire on Monday, 7/21.
• E-mail Frank by Friday, 7/25.

 

Billy and Emogene

• Video record the Brooklyn tour on Thursday, 7/24. (Do the walking tour of the neighborhood to recreate the tour that the young adults took them on when they met)

All:

• We will have our next meeting on Sunday, 7/27, at 9 p.m. EST. Agenda to include: Return-trip agenda, Follow-up questions and lesson plan.