Ethnography: Journey to Teaching

This paper is an ethnography, meaning the study of a group of people more closely related to the customs and culture of the group of people. This was done as part of the coursework to receive a Masters in Education and a Preliminary Multiple Subject teaching credential in California. I began by looking at how the varying experiences throughout my life have shaped me into wanting to become a teacher. This is a place in the ethnography where I evaluate my own schooling and look at who impacted my life academically. Through looking at these people, I was able to see the kind of learning style I flourish in, which lead me into how I plan on teaching. Once I wrote about how I plan on teaching I evaluated why I want to teach special education. The next phase of this writing is looking at three specific students in my classroom and is an analytical view of who the child is and why they are the way they are. We were told we needed to look at an English Learner, a student who had experienced a significant life experience, and a student on an IEP. This process was very helpful in being able to understand the child holistically because we needed to participate in a home visit. We also needed to look at the child’s personality, strengths, and weaknesses in and out of school. All of these steps helped me to better understand my students. As the research continued I looked at the community and my classroom. Looking at the history of the community through research and through a personal interview allowed me to see the community and be able to understand more. I was able to see how the community has evolved and how their passion for education has remained the same through it all. When looking at my classroom, I saw the growth my students had made over the course of the school year