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VOL. 9, ISSUE 3 (2023)
Ethnographic witnessing of a firewalking ritual as an educational method
Authors
Ioli Andreadi
Abstract
There is a growing interest in the use of anthropological techniques in
educational research. However, the backgrounds of many researchers contain little
experience with this kind of research, also called qualitative,
phenomenological or ethnographic. What can the contemporary strand of
ethnographic witnessing, initiated by Dwight Conquergood, that prioritizes
dialogue with the ‘Other’ offer, as part of an educational context? In order to
answer this question, we remember the educational method of Socrates, Plato’s
teacher. Socratic method, used to promote critical thinking, employed dialogue
and offered more questions than answers, often allowing the student
himself/herself to become his/her own ‘teacher’. Where can a similar interest
in dialogue, questioning and a ‘democratic’ back-and-forth between the
researcher and the subject of his/her research be found in recent ethnography?
Dwight Conquergood’s dialogical performance, taking upon Turner’s ‘communitas’,
wishes to view all individuals as equals and to stop promoting the superiority
of the researcher – we would also add ‘the teacher’ – while embracing
diversity, difference and pluralism. In the ethnographic narrative that
follows, Conquergood’s method that puts genuine conversation at its center is
deployed, helping us articulate the principles of a contemporary educational
method, that uses ethnographic tools in order to promote observation, listening,
questioning and critical thinking in the classroom.
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Pages:66-72
How to cite this article:
Ioli Andreadi "Ethnographic witnessing of a firewalking ritual as an educational method". International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, Vol 9, Issue 3, 2023, Pages 66-72
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