Hitt CCR 635 13 February 2012

Feminist Methods & Methodologies

Sullivan & Scholarship.

Why has composition been unaffected by feminist inquiry & critique? Feminist composition scholarship is both reactive and proactive: Critique reacts to existing knowledge, reexamining scholarship from a feminist lens. Empirical research takes gender as the starting point of inquiry and data analysis (49). Three principles of feminist research from the social sciences: 1. Research is formed from womens experiences. 2. It is designed for women. 3. It requires the researcher to investigate and analyze her own assumptions about race, class, culture, and gender (51). Alternative empirical methodologies: qualitative and naturalistic methods (57).
W h a t is t h e G O A L o f fe m in is t r e s e a r c h ? [Feminist researchers] are consciously seeking to create the conditions and circumstances whereby voices, stories, and discourses too long silent in the academy can be heard (58).

Schell & Rhetorical Method(ologies).

Method: a technique for gathering evidence (3). Methodology: a theory and analysis of how research is, and should be, conducted (3). Feminist research asks us to rethink how we conduct research; where and how we analyze spaces, people, communities, and artifacts; and how we establish ethical (participatory) research practices (2). Feminist researchers are in motion between standpoints and positions, disciplinary locations within the academy, texts, contexts, spaces, communities, & institutions (6). From Gesa Kirsch, feminist scholars ask questions about womens experiences, collaborate with participants when possible, analyze factors that shape both research sites and participants experiences & goals, analyze the researchers own biases & goals, correct and interrogate norms, responsibility represent the others,* acknowledge limitations in research data (9).

How do stay tied to a home discipline while engaging in interdisciplinary work? What are good practices for becoming self-critical of our own methods? What are the key principles of feminist principle? How can feminist research come to terms with gender, social differences, and lived experience? What counts as evidence? What form does it take? Whose interests does feminist research serve?

Hitt CCR 635 13 February 2012

Moss & Ethnography.

Ethnography: a qualitative methodology that allows researchers to tell a story about a community with that community (154). Ethnographic researchers gain a comprehensive view of the social interactions, behaviors, and beliefs of a community or social group (155).

Ethnographies are concerned with culture. Ethnographies in composition are focused more specifically on communication and the relationship of language & culture (156). Steps for conducting ethnography: 1. Locate a community or social situation. 2. Develop, adapt, or apply a theoretical framework. 3. Identify a (or some) research question(s). 4. Define the community through thick description. 5. Negotiate access to, and ones role within, the community. 6. Fieldwork: Collect, collect, collect. 7. Analyze and code data for patterns and relationships. 8. Write!

How does the researchers membership in a community affect the study? How does the researchers role affect perceptionof and by the community? How does previous knowledge affect data collection? Would an outsider attach more significance to data? What issues might an insider experience?

Linda Brodkey: the single most important lesson to be learned from ethnographic fieldwork is that experience is notindeed, cannot bereproduced in speech or writing, and must instead be narrated (26 qtd. in 161). Many comp researchers have previous experience and/or members of the communities they study (162).

Remember
Most important, of course, ethnographers must be responsible to the community (169).

Works Cited
Moss, Beverly J. Ethnography and Composition: Studying Language at Home. Methods and Methodology in Composition Research. Eds. Gesa Kirsch and Patricia A. Sullivan. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1992. 153-71. Schell, Eileen E. Introduction: Researching Feminist Rhetorical Methods and Methodologies. Rhetorica in Motion: Feminist Rhetorical Methods & Methodologies. Eds. Eileen E. Schell and K. J. Rawson. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 2010. 1-20. Sullivan, Patricia A. Feminism and Methodology in Composition Studies. Methods and Methodology in Composition Research. Eds. Gesa Kirsch and Patricia A. Sullivan. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1992. 37-61.