My post today comes from two thoughts/experiences that have recently merged together in my mind:

Experience/Thought #1:
I just finished a journal article about ethical methodologies when studying writing in faith communities and religious practices, so forgive me if my post today draws a little too much from that work—I feel like I’ve been sleeping, eating, and breathing it for the last few weeks.

For part of my research in writing this article, I interviewed scholars who have published research reporting on a study they conducted on writing in religious/faith contexts. This part of my research was fascinating, invigorating, and, ultimately, thought-provoking for me in relation to my personal life. Two of the researchers I interviewed had conducted ethnographic studies, one of the reading and writing in an Amish family and community, and another of the literacy practices in African-American churches. In ethnographic research, a researcher both participates in and observes a culture, attempting to understand the culture and the literacy practices and language use of that culture from their point-of-view, usually by gathering data from a variety of sources. The two researchers I interviewed explain the ultimate goal of ethnographic research a little better and in the context of their own experiences. Here are their comments:

Researcher #1: “The first time I ever presented my research at a conference, . . . I was the keynote speaker for the conference and I did an Amish bit and then I did a breakout session and anybody who had heard the plenary and wanted to have further conversation about it was welcome to come. So we’re sitting in a circle and I’ll never forget it, . . . I was totally new at this academic game, and some guy accused me of being an apologist for the Amish and an apologist for child abuse. . . . I was shocked! . . . He went on that these people were preventing their children from getting an education that would allow them to make their way in the world, to ensure that they will stay in the community by crippling them, by educationally crippling them, because they can’t function in the outside world, and I was making that seem okay. I was presenting it in such a way that he perceived me as being an apologist for them and for legitimizing or attempting to validate child abuse. . . . Back then I worked very hard to present what they were doing in terms of their understanding. In fact, I tried really hard not to judge it. . . . The central question that I was taught to ask was not what I think they’re doing but what do they think they’re doing. Because everyone does what they do for a reason. . . . This is not crazy, unreasonable behavior. It’s rationale behavior. You just have to understand the rationale.”

Researcher #2:
“I want to emphasize that when you’re doing research in any kind of community, but especially a faith-based community, you have to respect that community, even if the faith is different from your own. [It’s about] respecting what is sacred to people. You really have to figure out how to take a step back and say, what do I see. And ask them, what’s the connection between a, b, and c and what’s the significance of that. And that’s very different from trying to do evaluative work. My job is not to evaluate. That’s a very different kind of research. I don’t do that kind of research.”

Thought/Experience #2:
Other than ALS ice bucket challenges, my Facebook feed has been full of book lists the last couple of days, as people list 10 books that have impacted their lives. I haven’t made my own list, but I’m sure To Kill a Mockingbird would be on it. When I was a teenager, the character of Atticus Finch had a profound impact on my outlook towards others, particularly this piece of advice he gave Scout when she had a rough day at school: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Merging These Thoughts/Experiences:
I think one of the reasons I love ethnographic research so much is that it gives me the opportunity and the tools to do what Atticus Finch said: to consider things from another’s point of view, to try to walk around in another’s skin for a bit. The ethnographic research projects I’ve done have been some of the most rewarding parts of my professional life.

Yet in my personal life, particularly with my family, I struggle with considering things from my children’s and spouse’s perspectives. I don’t live my life thinking about what is sacred to them, as Researcher #2 said, or what it is that they think they’re doing, as Researcher #1 said. I think Researcher #1 hit the nail on the head by referring to refraining from judgment as hard work. I also think if I applied more ethnographic techniques to my daily interactions and relationships, it might help. These techniques include things like