Teaching and Learning through Team Ethnography in a Multicultural Class

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  • 多文化クラスにおけるチーム・エスノグラフィーの教育実践
  • タブンカ クラス ニ オケル チーム ・ エスノグラフィー ノ キョウイク ジッセン

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Abstract

<p>This paper considers the possibilities and challenges of implementing “multicultural team ethnography” as a teaching method, through reflecting on our collaborative teaching practice in a multicultural classroom setting at University A in 2015 and 2016. Two classes, which were taught by Tokunaga and Imoto—one at the International Student Center and the other at the Faculty of Letters, respectively—came together, affording a rare chance for Japanese and international exchange students to interact through collaborative fieldwork and team ethnography. The chosen common fieldsite was Shin-Okubo in Shinjuku Ward, a town that is a contested symbol of multiculturalism and multicultural co-existence in Japan.</p><p>As one practice of active learning, multicultural team ethnography facilitated novel interaction and communication among students, and led to heightened awareness of multiple identities of both self and other. The students who participated in the study came from diverse backgrounds in terms of nationality, place of birth, language, academic interest, and education. Conducting a collaborative ethnography with such diverse perspectives can give way to a relativization and questioning of concepts such as “multiculturalism”, as well as of the essentialized concept of culture itself. While ethnography as teaching practice has received little attention thus far in the context of intercultural education, we propose further self-reflection, more awareness to bodily sensation and emotional experience, and a more mindful, reflexive approach to interacting with others and the field environment—through application of anthropological fieldwork approaches.</p>

Journal

  • Intercultural Education

    Intercultural Education 46 (0), 47-62, 2017-08-31

    Intercultural Education Society of Japan

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