October Isn't September

During one of our classes last week we were talking about Ethnographic Research. A few characteristics of this research method are that it stems from the anthropological discipline. It is a study of culture, and in some contexts looking at your own culture. Most of the research is simply observation. The researcher comes up with a picture and then records it, instead of writing a hypothesis beforehand. It is to be bias-free and contextual.

However, as we were examining the positives and negatives of this method I came across an idea that I found to be of interest.

The one advantage in particular that caught my attention was that you must look at the complete picture of the environment, the complete cycle of it. The example given was that in a classroom September is very different from October so you cannot observe one month and make assumptions about the other.

We are taught that September is the most important month of the school year. This is when the teacher establishes the tone. Rules and routines are set and practiced in order to create a sense of the environment that says manageable yet comfortable. Isn't it interesting that students going into their first professional semester are taught how crucial this is to their career as well as to their practicum coming up. In order to be successful you must create a positive environment. We read all about it but never get to see it in the making. Students are put into their placements late in the year and never get to properly observe how a teacher establishes such an environment. We learn very quickly that observation and experience are far more superior to our learning to be educators than the studies beforehand.

Wouldn't it make sense to send students out to observe the first part of the year at least just to observe before sending them out to experiment on their own on what doesn't work and what might work?