My Ethnographic Study

by, Colleen O’Mara

Communication Education

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

• Anxiety in a situation or environment due to level of uncertainty

• Uncertainty must be reduced in order to feel at ease and more comfortable in that new environment or situation

Elementary School

• told me their life stories

• wanted to know all about me

• extremely talkative

• opened up quickly

Middle School

• quite and shy

• did not acknowledge me

• talkative to each other, but not with teachers

• slowly opened up

I wa s t h e f or e ig ne r !

By teaching a lesson, I was able to:

• Self-disclose!

• Talk to and get to know the students!

• The students were able to self-disclose and open up to me!

Emphatic Listeningputting your own judgements and prejudices aside to listen to others’ ideas, thoughts, and opinions

Identities & Nexting• Middle schoolers want to find themselves

and identify with others like them.

• This age group thinks a lot about what committing a certain action or behavior will mean for their relationships with their peers.

CliquesCliques

Self-EsteemSelf-Esteem

Spiral of Silence Theory

• Not voicing thoughts and opinions for fear of being judged or not accepted

• Feel at bottom of “hierarchy”

• Follow the crowd even if you do not agree

Negatives of Letting Students Choose Their Own Groups

Students will always be working with the same students

• New ideas & strategies will never be shared

• Students who are not chosen as part of a group will feel left out constantly

A s I b e c a me mor e c omf or t a b le in t h e

mid d le s c h ool, t h e mid d le s c h oole r s

b e c a me mor e c omf or t a b le a r ound me !