THE RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
"Your Research Portfolio [will be] a critical part of your fieldwork project--your research assistant in a way" (FW, 464).
What is it?
A "behind-the-scenes" account of the field research process that led to your Final Ethnographic Essay.
At first, the Research Portfolio will be little more than the place where you collect items that represent the data relevant to your ethnographic project (fieldwriting)--fieldnotes (taken in double-entry fashion or some other way), expanded fieldnotes, transcripts, artifacts, exploratory writing and other informal writing events, and anything else you collect (and later select, analyze, and reflect upon) in order to develop your Final Ethnographic Project.
Later in the term, however, it will be a much more organized "story" of your research process that you can share with others--"others" that will eventually include the entire campus and community when you share it at the Celebration of Student Writing on Monday, May 8, 2007, or Tuesday, May 9, 2007 (4-5) in the Hall of Languages.
Thus, the Research Portfolio will "house both the process and the product of your fieldwork" (FW, 57).
How should researchers begin the process of developing a Research Portfolio (the process of your fieldwork)?
"At first," as Sustein and Chiseri-Strater explain, "you may find it strange to collect wrinkled scraps of paper, lists on napkins, or snippets of conversation you've overheard, but by gathering them in your portfolio, you'll see how they might fit into your larger project. . . . [O]ver time, you will see that it is a focused, not random, collection of artifacts and writing that lend shape to your fieldwork. Unlike a scrapbook, where pieces are fastened down, in his portfolio you can move, remove, and replace your data to see potential patterns and structures." (57).
Because this flexibility is so important in the early stages of your research/writing process, you may find it useful to begin with an accordion-style folder in which you collect these items. Soon enough, however, it will become necessary to begin organizing them in a three-ring binder--a process that will again require great flexibility and quite a bit of reflection and analysis. As Sustein and Chiseri-Strater explain, "[a]t critical points during your fieldwork process, you will need to take time to reflect on the data in your portfolio--to look at your fieldnotes and informant interviews and begin to analyze and synthesize the data that are most important to your work. Every item that you include in the portfolio will require reflective writing on your part, from short fieldnote entries to longer memos to yourself. When you review your data alongside your thinking, you'll find options for further focus and analysis. Reflection is a kind of critique; it helps you analyze as you proceed. When you look over what you've read, thought, said, written, and collected, you will begin to find meanings and patterns across your data that may surprise you and instruct you about where your work is headed. This reflective critique will enable you to project--to see your progress and form your goals: where you've been, where you are, and where you'll want to head next.
Keeping a research portfolio makes little sense if it's relegated to the status of an end-of-course activity. The major evaluation or assessment ought to be your own. We suggest that you choose a portfolio partner or a small group at the outset of your research and set aside regular times to meet and share your portfolios. At these meetings, you may ask your partner(s) to respond to your descriptions, offer ways of filling gaps in your data, or help verify your hunches. The process of talking about your data, your hunches, and your research plans and hearing those of others as you look through their portfolios in process will generate new ideas and strategies for your own fieldwork." (FW, 58)
We strongly encourage you to consider holding these portfolio review sessions in the Writing Center. Perhaps you can even work with a tutor as you develop and share these ideas and materials with one another.
What should researchers include in the Research Portfolio submitted at the end of the term (the product of your fieldwork)?
For the Research Portfolio you display at the end-of-term Celebration of Student Writing and submit to your instructor, you should select "artifacts from the thinking process that led to this project. You'll want to represent selections from the reading, writing, and other materials you've relied on along the way: writing exercises, fieldnotes, interview questions, charts, methods of analysis, and whatever helped you think your way through your final written product" (FieldWorking, 56-57).
The Research Portfolio for display at the Celebration of Student Writing should include the following items (in an order much like this):
An annotated table of contents. The annotated table of contents is a list of the artifacts and other times included in the portfolio (in the order in which they are included). "It also includes short sentences or phrases . . . that explain each item. Organizing and reorganizing your portfolio, you've probably begun to see how the items cluster into units. You might organize chronologically at first or according to type of data. But as you begin to analyze your data, you'll most likely decide that you want to reorganize your portfolio according to the themes that will eventually be the subheadings of your written study (for more on subheadings, see pages 467-68). (FW, 464).
The Final Ethnographic Project. Your 10-15 page write up of your study, deeply revised and ready for eyes beyond those of your classmates' and instructor.
WA1-WA3 (final drafts)
The items listed in your annotated table of contents, in the order in which you list them. These items should include fieldnotes, expanded fieldnotes, exploratory writing, informal/reflective writing, interview scripts (if relevant), survey instruments (if relevant), key artifacts collected (menus, drawings, artwork, etc), and anything else you think a visitor might need to make sense of the project as you experienced it (probably your Research Proposal and most certainly all signed permission forms).
Your instructor may also require you to develop a poster presentation of your research process, which might include select artifacts and other visual representations of your experience and your findings. Many instructors will require you to develop a handout that describes (in one page or less) your project and your findings. Some may require all of the above. As always, check with your instructor to see what she/he is expecting from you.
Relevant Terms--
Artifact: "a material object that belongs to and represents a culture" (FW, 499). "Artifacts" collected in your Research Portfolio might include photographs, brochures, pamphlets, letters written from one member of the community to another; menus, time sheets, employee reports, church bulletins, newsletters, sketches, songs, advertisements, etc; the only requirement for an item to be considered a relevant artifact is that it's generated by one or more members of the community/person(s) that is the subject of your study.
Collecting: "The act of gathering data; in fieldwork, the continuous process of gathering and organizing data in your portfolio" (FW, 499).
Data: "All the information--as represented in both written and material artifacts--that a researcher uses as evidence" (500).
Double-entry notes: "Fieldnotes that are divided into at least two columns: one column lists the fieldworker's observations on the fieldsite, and at least one other column lists the fieldworker's personal reflections about the site and informants. Making such distinctions allows the fieldworker to become aware of the differences between verifiable, tangible facts about the chosen fieldsite and his or her thoughts and feelings about those facts." (500)
Expanded fieldnotes: "Comments and reflections made by the researcher after he or she has left the research site." (500)
Experiential writing strategies: The forms of exploratory writing--journal writing, freewriting, notetaking--that reflect the researcher's own feelings and observations in the field. (500)
Fieldnotes: "The observations written by a researcher at a research site, during an interview, and throughout the data collection process" (501). "
Fieldwork: "The process of living and studying among people in their own context, with their permission and cooperation. Fieldworking involves gathering, interpreting, and validating data via note taking, interviewing, and collecting material artifacts, and other methods." (501)
Fieldwriting: "A study based on data gathered during field research; also the process of drafting such a study."
Portfolio: "A collection of material artifacts that demonstrates a learning process and includes a reflective analysis. A portfolio can be used to evaluate progress in a fieldstudy and can be cited as source material." (503)
Transcript: The written, word-for-word text of an interview or other spoken event. (503)