What do you make of Fine’s Chapter 1? In the preface (pp. ix-x), she provides some description of what it is about. What do you think the author is trying to accomplish with Chapter 1? Does it work?
I found this chapter to be such a very specific and personal look at the knowledge Fine used to fuel her body of research. She is a beautiful writer, so I enjoyed the connections between oppression and the body and how that should help build the body of our research. The descriptions of her mother were extremely vivid and she reflected specifically on the oppression she experienced as a working class woman in the 50s and 60s. She showed in this chapter all of the incidents that shaped her views as a "Jewish girl becoming white" and encourages the reader to make sure that we focus our research on those who may be victims of progress and slip through the cracks so to speak. I think that her purpose was to encourage us as novice researchers to go out into the world and focus our practice on the most important asset we have- people. She made this intro so very personal and showed how her knowledge base impacted her choices as a researcher and how her experiences shaped her views over all. She unapologetically expresses her feminism in a way that invites the reader to figure out what is important to us and to use that to drive our output. All of the small things we witness throughout our lives that may have been a perpetuation of injustice or a slight on another human’s rights needs to be what keeps our work focused. We have to keep a sharp critical watch on education and keep our continued efforts focused on picking apart any part that we feel needs reform. The impressive strength coexisting with the weaknesses in her mother allowed Fine to create an image of the embodiment of the strength and weaknesses in education. Tradition mixed with survival topped with new fangled ideas makes education something that is ever changing and our research should address this and keep moving that change in a positive direction. She made research almost seem like something we can wield. With great power...you know the rest!
Overall, it was a very personal and detailed chapter. Being completely honest, I struggled staying focused while I was reading because of how person it was. I couldn't see the connections at first. I found myself questioning what any of it had to do with research. However, after I sat with the text and re-read some parts I was able to piece together a bigger picture. I think what Fine is trying to say is that by being fully aware of how our history and experiences influence us, we are able to better focus our research. Even more important, we can make sure we are answering the questions we want to answer for the populations who need answers.
The author mentions autoethnography in the preface, which I wasn’t familiar with. I did a little bit of digging on the term before moving to Chapter 1, which I’m glad I did because I feel like I was able to understand why her writing is so deeply personal and reflective. In Chapter one, the author seems to be trying to be overly descriptive so that the reader feels like they are there - for instance at the very beginning of the chapter and walking down the four stairs - even the way that is physically typed is trying to bring the reader into the actual location. I enjoyed the way that she wrote and described things, but I thought that the way she brought in yiddish words was unnecessary and seemed forced in context with the overall goal. Overall I think she did accomplish the autoethnographic reflection, she had strong connections between her lived experiences and her family background and culture. - comment by Lauren Mortensen
I found this to be a very interesting, moving piece - it struck me as an academic mirror to Ginsberg's Kaddish, which is one of my favorite works of poetry, and strikes a similar chord about the way growing up poor and Jewish on the fringes of society shaped the author's path to writing - for Ginsberg, it was hectic beat poetry. For Fine, it is academia.
I think Fine's purpose comes down to the opening line of Chapter 1 - "we have an obligation to ask, from where do our questions originate."(p. 1). In laying out the narrative of her childhood, and some of the stories of her time as a researcher, Fine is answering that question for herself - her own questions come out of that lived experience as a young girl in a socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrant family.
As a researcher reading this chapter, I was reminded of two things - first, my own experience visiting Ellis island, and seeing the names of my great grandparents on the memorial there. Reading my great-grandfather's memoir, talking about the way he lost parts of himself as a Greek man to become American. My great grandfather always wanted to find a way to go back to keeping a flock of sheep (he had been a shepherd before immigrating). My grandfather kept a set of sheep figurines in a glass case in his honor, and my father does not. What do I do?
Second, I thought about the discussion in the field of behavior analysis around the inclusion of autistic voices in research designed to improve the lives of autistic people. It all comes down to "who is asking this question" and why are they asking it. Do we, as neurotypical researchers, ask questions that may unintentionally misrepresent that population? Does even the best-intended research do as Fine did in her prison study, and romanticize aspects of the people we are trying to help? Does it villainize them? I suppose my pondering of these questions is evidence that Fine's chapter was, at least for me, a success. I will look forward to the next one!
Michelle Carter In Chapter One, Fine does exactly what she describes in the preface. She describes her story as a mirror and a window to a body of work situated in a range cultural, social, historical, and political experiences. Conversely, her work is also part of the process of self-reflection. Contrary to the descriptions of research as removed from self and having a goal of complete objectivity, Fine describes her research as inextricably intertwined with her knowledge and understanding of self. After reading the description of her upbringing, the “biography” of her research questions felt almost inevitable. Does it work? One could say that this total transparency builds trust with the reader because it may lead us to believe that Fine has nothing to hide. Or it may make the reader skeptical, as if Fine is laying all her cards on the table to distract us from the ones still up her sleeve. I think Fine is trying to create a safe, yet uncomfortable space to discuss the relationship between self, research, and “public science.” It is uncomfortable to think about our research as vulnerable to the truth of our histories. It is uncomfortable to imagine that our research does more than generate new knowledge in our field, but that it exposes who we truly are and what we truly believe. Fine challenges the reader to place their work in this very uncomfortable place and then ask “to whom your research is accountable.”
It was exciting to read about Fine taking inspiration from Gloria Anzaldua and Zora Neal Hurston in the preface. I remember reading excepts and books from both of them when I was an undergraduate in my gender, sexuality, and women’s studies major. Autoethnographies in general were a big part of that program and I really enjoyed them then. As I read this week, I realized that I have missed reading and analyzing those types of works. I don’t do that type of reading much anymore but I think reading it back then ended up making me more critical of whose stories are told in the research that I want to do now.
Fine gets at some of that storytelling piece in the preface. She discusses her own identities and how she challenges others’ privileged identities in different fields (e.g. education and law). Really, though, she keeps coming back to the idea of narratives. Whose stories are getting told? How are we telling them? Whose stories are we challenging? How do language or metaphors we choose to use, shape stores?
In chapter 1, Fine is modeling ethnographical work with her own stories of her and her family. She leads with this, as it gives us a better insight into her lens as a researcher. Personally, I loved reading about her. There were parts of her story that I could strongly relate to and other ideas she discussed where we differ. I think that’s one of the nice things about this kind of transparency in research – if it’s a person’s story, you don’t always have to agree on what is “right.” You can still think about it critically and simultaneously appreciate it. That is why I found her point to be successful. While she only shares her own stories and perspectives in this chapter, it seems in other chapters she will highlight others’ stories.
In Fine’s first chapter, I believe she is trying to set the tone for the remaining chapters in her book by emphasizing the importance of our own narratives and how our experiences influence the work that we seek to produce as researchers. By sharing some of her personal stories, Fine contextualizes the beginnings of her life’s work in social justice for marginalized communities. I think she did a nice job in accomplishing this task, particularly the way that she framed her research based on her own experiences of assimilation and struggle while recognizing her own privileges attained through that assimilation. Fine uses a very eloquent and descriptive form of writing that allows the readers to immerse themselves into the world that she is describing. In doing so, Fine evokes an emotional response that allows her readers to connect to the stories she tells. Her phenomenological style allows the readers to put themselves into someone else’s shoes and ultimately consider her second question: to whom are we accountable? Her prose, thus is two-fold, in nature. Her stories not only provide context to understand why she decided to research the topics she chose but also to consider who may benefit from her work. The second question, in my opinion, is much more critical when going into the field of research. As a researcher, we need to keep in mind how our research can impact those around us and, in Fine’s case, help break the systems of oppression for marginalized communities.
I believe fine is using the first chapter to try to weave the narrative about how her intersectionalities influence her research. She recognizes the privilege that she has and uses that to conduct her research. It hit home for me because I believe we need to use our privileged identities to help others. Our identities are core to who we are and some of those identities have more privilege than others. We must be aware of how those identities interact within ourselves and with others. Too often we focus on how our personal intersectionality lowers our social standing and overlook how it raises it. This takes a high level of self-awareness that is often uncomfortable due to the fact that we will realize that we benefit from systems that we are actively fighting against and occasionally seeks to harm us. Gerron
I enjoyed Fine's personal approach to the preface and first chapter of her text, and valued how much she grounded her approach to research in her own personal experience. It speaks to my love of constructivist education, which is often missing in academic discussions. Positionality and an understanding of how our experiences influence how we consume and perceive the world and its data is a relatively recent topic. Depending on the field, some will say that a focus on constructivist positionality is too "woo" for science, but this positionality is critical to the development of social sciences I also loved the allusions to Freire's philosophy in her discussions of privilege and power, which are topics that deserve to be part of the conversation in how we approach educational research. Ash TB
It was interesting to learn about a form of qualitative research, Autoethnography which is a transformative research method. In autoethnography qualitative research method, the author uses self-reflection writing to explore personal experience and connect the stories to more nuanced and wider understandings of social meanings, cultural, and political issues, and agendas. This process, foster creativity, honors subjectivity, innovation, eliminates boundaries and provide healing benefits.
Another takeaway from the readings is Critical Participatory Action Research approach to methods and analysis using surveys, interviews and focus groups. Using participatory method involves being situated in a community of practice, school, local communities, or prison and working towards commitment to decolonize knowledge, drawing on feminist, queer, Marxist, or critical race theory. This work tracks empirically the capillaries of racial, sexual, classes, and gendered injustices.
The first chapter is rooted in the so-called "ethnography" and reflects the author's unique childhood background. This is the story of an immigrant girl, full of desire and resistance for the future. The author described in detail the dreams and confusions in her childhood, which were deeply rooted in her heart and became the nightmare she tried to get rid of when she became an adult, and also inspired her to fight for it. Especially at the end of this chapter, she reminded us as researchers to think about the true meaning and value of research work. "As a girl, I know that any use of pain, loss or sorrow as a stain on the narrative of our family's prosperity and mobility will be rejected. I hope you think about the existence, theory, politics, and ethics of your work as a researcher. Weight." Yes, it really resonated with me, and it also evoked the courage that was hidden in my heart in the past. ——Hui Sun
I found this chapter to be such a very specific and personal look at the knowledge Fine used to fuel her body of research. She is a beautiful writer, so I enjoyed the connections between oppression and the body and how that should help build the body of our research. The descriptions of her mother were extremely vivid and she reflected specifically on the oppression she experienced as a working class woman in the 50s and 60s. She showed in this chapter all of the incidents that shaped her views as a "Jewish girl becoming white" and encourages the reader to make sure that we focus our research on those who may be victims of progress and slip through the cracks so to speak.
ReplyDeleteI think that her purpose was to encourage us as novice researchers to go out into the world and focus our practice on the most important asset we have- people. She made this intro so very personal and showed how her knowledge base impacted her choices as a researcher and how her experiences shaped her views over all. She unapologetically expresses her feminism in a way that invites the reader to figure out what is important to us and to use that to drive our output. All of the small things we witness throughout our lives that may have been a perpetuation of injustice or a slight on another human’s rights needs to be what keeps our work focused. We have to keep a sharp critical watch on education and keep our continued efforts focused on picking apart any part that we feel needs reform. The impressive strength coexisting with the weaknesses in her mother allowed Fine to create an image of the embodiment of the strength and weaknesses in education. Tradition mixed with survival topped with new fangled ideas makes education something that is ever changing and our research should address this and keep moving that change in a positive direction. She made research almost seem like something we can wield. With great power...you know the rest!
Overall, it was a very personal and detailed chapter. Being completely honest, I struggled staying focused while I was reading because of how person it was. I couldn't see the connections at first. I found myself questioning what any of it had to do with research. However, after I sat with the text and re-read some parts I was able to piece together a bigger picture. I think what Fine is trying to say is that by being fully aware of how our history and experiences influence us, we are able to better focus our research. Even more important, we can make sure we are answering the questions we want to answer for the populations who need answers.
ReplyDeleteSierria Ware
DeleteThe author mentions autoethnography in the preface, which I wasn’t familiar with. I did a little bit of digging on the term before moving to Chapter 1, which I’m glad I did because I feel like I was able to understand why her writing is so deeply personal and reflective. In Chapter one, the author seems to be trying to be overly descriptive so that the reader feels like they are there - for instance at the very beginning of the chapter and walking down the four stairs - even the way that is physically typed is trying to bring the reader into the actual location. I enjoyed the way that she wrote and described things, but I thought that the way she brought in yiddish words was unnecessary and seemed forced in context with the overall goal. Overall I think she did accomplish the autoethnographic reflection, she had strong connections between her lived experiences and her family background and culture. - comment by Lauren Mortensen
ReplyDeleteI found this to be a very interesting, moving piece - it struck me as an academic mirror to Ginsberg's Kaddish, which is one of my favorite works of poetry, and strikes a similar chord about the way growing up poor and Jewish on the fringes of society shaped the author's path to writing - for Ginsberg, it was hectic beat poetry. For Fine, it is academia.
ReplyDeleteI think Fine's purpose comes down to the opening line of Chapter 1 - "we have an obligation to ask, from where do our questions originate."(p. 1). In laying out the narrative of her childhood, and some of the stories of her time as a researcher, Fine is answering that question for herself - her own questions come out of that lived experience as a young girl in a socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrant family.
As a researcher reading this chapter, I was reminded of two things - first, my own experience visiting Ellis island, and seeing the names of my great grandparents on the memorial there. Reading my great-grandfather's memoir, talking about the way he lost parts of himself as a Greek man to become American. My great grandfather always wanted to find a way to go back to keeping a flock of sheep (he had been a shepherd before immigrating). My grandfather kept a set of sheep figurines in a glass case in his honor, and my father does not. What do I do?
Second, I thought about the discussion in the field of behavior analysis around the inclusion of autistic voices in research designed to improve the lives of autistic people. It all comes down to "who is asking this question" and why are they asking it. Do we, as neurotypical researchers, ask questions that may unintentionally misrepresent that population? Does even the best-intended research do as Fine did in her prison study, and romanticize aspects of the people we are trying to help? Does it villainize them? I suppose my pondering of these questions is evidence that Fine's chapter was, at least for me, a success. I will look forward to the next one!
Michelle Carter
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter One, Fine does exactly what she describes in the preface. She describes her story as a mirror and a window to a body of work situated in a range cultural, social, historical, and political experiences. Conversely, her work is also part of the process of self-reflection. Contrary to the descriptions of research as removed from self and having a goal of complete objectivity, Fine describes her research as inextricably intertwined with her knowledge and understanding of self. After reading the description of her upbringing, the “biography” of her research questions felt almost inevitable. Does it work? One could say that this total transparency builds trust with the reader because it may lead us to believe that Fine has nothing to hide. Or it may make the reader skeptical, as if Fine is laying all her cards on the table to distract us from the ones still up her sleeve. I think Fine is trying to create a safe, yet uncomfortable space to discuss the relationship between self, research, and “public science.” It is uncomfortable to think about our research as vulnerable to the truth of our histories. It is uncomfortable to imagine that our research does more than generate new knowledge in our field, but that it exposes who we truly are and what we truly believe. Fine challenges the reader to place their work in this very uncomfortable place and then ask “to whom your research is accountable.”
Post by Mia Liadis
ReplyDeleteIt was exciting to read about Fine taking inspiration from Gloria Anzaldua and Zora Neal Hurston in the preface. I remember reading excepts and books from both of them when I was an undergraduate in my gender, sexuality, and women’s studies major. Autoethnographies in general were a big part of that program and I really enjoyed them then. As I read this week, I realized that I have missed reading and analyzing those types of works. I don’t do that type of reading much anymore but I think reading it back then ended up making me more critical of whose stories are told in the research that I want to do now.
Fine gets at some of that storytelling piece in the preface. She discusses her own identities and how she challenges others’ privileged identities in different fields (e.g. education and law). Really, though, she keeps coming back to the idea of narratives. Whose stories are getting told? How are we telling them? Whose stories are we challenging? How do language or metaphors we choose to use, shape stores?
In chapter 1, Fine is modeling ethnographical work with her own stories of her and her family. She leads with this, as it gives us a better insight into her lens as a researcher. Personally, I loved reading about her. There were parts of her story that I could strongly relate to and other ideas she discussed where we differ. I think that’s one of the nice things about this kind of transparency in research – if it’s a person’s story, you don’t always have to agree on what is “right.” You can still think about it critically and simultaneously appreciate it. That is why I found her point to be successful. While she only shares her own stories and perspectives in this chapter, it seems in other chapters she will highlight others’ stories.
In Fine’s first chapter, I believe she is trying to set the tone for the remaining chapters in her book by emphasizing the importance of our own narratives and how our experiences influence the work that we seek to produce as researchers. By sharing some of her personal stories, Fine contextualizes the beginnings of her life’s work in social justice for marginalized communities. I think she did a nice job in accomplishing this task, particularly the way that she framed her research based on her own experiences of assimilation and struggle while recognizing her own privileges attained through that assimilation. Fine uses a very eloquent and descriptive form of writing that allows the readers to immerse themselves into the world that she is describing. In doing so, Fine evokes an emotional response that allows her readers to connect to the stories she tells. Her phenomenological style allows the readers to put themselves into someone else’s shoes and ultimately consider her second question: to whom are we accountable? Her prose, thus is two-fold, in nature. Her stories not only provide context to understand why she decided to research the topics she chose but also to consider who may benefit from her work. The second question, in my opinion, is much more critical when going into the field of research. As a researcher, we need to keep in mind how our research can impact those around us and, in Fine’s case, help break the systems of oppression for marginalized communities.
ReplyDeleteI believe fine is using the first chapter to try to weave the narrative about how her intersectionalities influence her research. She recognizes the privilege that she has and uses that to conduct her research. It hit home for me because I believe we need to use our privileged identities to help others. Our identities are core to who we are and some of those identities have more privilege than others. We must be aware of how those identities interact within ourselves and with others. Too often we focus on how our personal intersectionality lowers our social standing and overlook how it raises it. This takes a high level of self-awareness that is often uncomfortable due to the fact that we will realize that we benefit from systems that we are actively fighting against and occasionally seeks to harm us.
ReplyDeleteGerron
I enjoyed Fine's personal approach to the preface and first chapter of her text, and valued how much she grounded her approach to research in her own personal experience. It speaks to my love of constructivist education, which is often missing in academic discussions. Positionality and an understanding of how our experiences influence how we consume and perceive the world and its data is a relatively recent topic. Depending on the field, some will say that a focus on constructivist positionality is too "woo" for science, but this positionality is critical to the development of social sciences I also loved the allusions to Freire's philosophy in her discussions of privilege and power, which are topics that deserve to be part of the conversation in how we approach educational research.
ReplyDeleteAsh TB
It was interesting to learn about a form of qualitative research, Autoethnography which is a transformative research method. In autoethnography qualitative research method, the author uses self-reflection writing to explore personal experience and connect the stories to more nuanced and wider understandings of social meanings, cultural, and political issues, and agendas. This process, foster creativity, honors subjectivity, innovation, eliminates boundaries and provide healing benefits.
ReplyDeleteAnother takeaway from the readings is Critical Participatory Action Research approach to methods and analysis using surveys, interviews and focus groups. Using participatory method involves being situated in a community of practice, school, local communities, or prison and working towards commitment to decolonize knowledge, drawing on feminist, queer, Marxist, or critical race theory. This work tracks empirically the capillaries of racial, sexual, classes, and gendered injustices.
The first chapter is rooted in the so-called "ethnography" and reflects the author's unique childhood background. This is the story of an immigrant girl, full of desire and resistance for the future. The author described in detail the dreams and confusions in her childhood, which were deeply rooted in her heart and became the nightmare she tried to get rid of when she became an adult, and also inspired her to fight for it. Especially at the end of this chapter, she reminded us as researchers to think about the true meaning and value of research work. "As a girl, I know that any use of pain, loss or sorrow as a stain on the narrative of our family's prosperity and mobility will be rejected. I hope you think about the existence, theory, politics, and ethics of your work as a researcher. Weight." Yes, it really resonated with me, and it also evoked the courage that was hidden in my heart in the past.
ReplyDelete——Hui Sun