Order Description

This portion is the First reflection I wrote ….Mini Ethnography

For my mini-ethnography I decided to observe soldiers on the Hunter Army Airfield Base in Savannah, Ga and off base; focusing on soldier’s interactions with civilians, higher ranking soldiers, and family members. The setting I chose for my observations is located on HAAFB at the medical center called Tuttle, where army wives, children, civilians, and soldiers go for medical support. In the morning around nine o’clock to ten o’clock there are a lot of soldiers going to see the doctors at the Tuttle for either a checkup or coming to assist a fellow soldier that is in need of help. The purpose of this observation is to see how soldiers interact in different settings because I am around a lot of soldiers during the weekend I can see how they become more open, relaxed, and social able after the work week.

Being that my husband is a soldier at HAAFB, I had the chance to actually see how the doctors that are higher ranked interact with an E4 soldier. The reason I was asked to attend this doctor visit is because the higher ranked doctors feel as if they can get over on soldiers and some lower rank soldiers don’t like to question them because it can be seen as disrespectful. When I come with my husband to Tuttle we always leave with all of his questions answered.

Symbolic interaction means taking in account of what is being seen and acting on what takes place; which is what I was looking for in this observation. On Wednesday, March 30,2016 at 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 2:00p.m., I watched many soldiers walk into Tuttle ranking from E4 to E9. Many of the soldiers were not interacting with other civilians or other soldiers. On many occasions I witnessed those in a leadership positions correct those who were of lower rank that were out of regulation. During my observation, I’ve seen lower enlisted soldiers exercise custom and courtesies by saluting and giving the greeting of the day to the Officers they encounter. When soldiers interact with their NCOs they are always at parade rest because that shows a sign of respect to the rank. The division between lower enlisted soldiers and NCOs are very apparent.

From my observation, soldiers seem to be more talkative and excited when seeing their family members come on base to visit them. Being that most soldiers are on base from six in the morning to almost six at night they don’t get to spend much time at home with their loved ones. When interacting with their families they are at relaxed state of my mind because they have a chance to be their selves and joke around. While watching families exit the building I observe how much enjoyment the soldiers have for seeing their family.

In conclusion, the socialization for soldiers differ between civilians, higher ranking soldiers, and family members. As my observations continue I will focus a little more on soldiers on a more relaxed setting, such as the mall. For lunch some soldiers go off base to grab something to eat and the food court in the mall is a common spot for soldiers to attend. I will be able to receive more data through this setting because it is more open and more civilians to observe with the soldiers
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This portion is what I need. My professor is strict on siting quotes and relating information from our TEXTBOOK –>Symbols, Selves, and Social Reality by Sandstrom, Kent L., Kathryn J. Lively, Daniel D. Martin and Gary Alan Fine. 2013.

It has to refer to symbolic interactionist approach

It must answer these questions
Guiding Questions for Ethnographic Research

• What is the setting of the action? When and how does action take place?

• What is going on? What is the overall activity being studied, the relatively long term behavior about which participants organize themselves? What specific acts compromise this activity?

• What is the distribution of actors over time and space in these locales?

• How are actors organized? What organizations affect, oversee, regulate, or promote this activity?

• How are members stratified? Who is ostensibly in charge? Does being in charge vary by activity? How is membership achieved and maintained?

• What do actors pay attention to? What is important, preoccupying, critical?

• What do they pointedly ignore that other people might pay attention to?

• What symbols do actors invoke to understand their worlds, the participants and processes within them, and the objects and events that they encounter? What names do they attach to objects, events, persons, roles, settings, equipment?

• What practices skills, stratagems, methods of operation do actors employ?

• Which theories, motives, excuses, justifications or other explanations do actors use in accounting for their participation? How do they explain to each other, not to outsiders, what they do and why they do it?

• What goals do actors seek? When, from their perspective, is an act well or poorly done? How do they judge action – by what standards, developed and applied by whom?

• What rewards do various actors gain from their participation?

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Final Reflection – As a final journal entry, you should discuss which elements of symbolic interactionism were most apparent in your observations. Although you will have completed another entry on your ethnographic experiences, this entry must not simply repeat ideas from the previous. Instead, work on more fully developing specific points or focusing on ideas from other chapters that you did not discuss in your midterm reflection. Although this is not a formal paper, you still should organize your ideas so they are easy to follow – include an introduction and conclusion, and focus each paragraph on making a particular point.
Guide for Field Notes: You should try to record as many details about the setting as you can during your observations as well as direct quotes, when possible. Understandably, you will not be able to note every single thing that goes on, and determining what to record is a learning process. However, you want to try to write a complete script of your observations as best as you can, and the following questions should help you keep track of important points.
Physical Description – What do you see, hear, or smell in this location? Describe the important or distinct objects or materials for this particular setting. How are these items
arranged? What are people wearing, and how are they positioned? What is the overall atmosphere created in this location through sensory details?
Social Description – What happens at this location? What routines are in place? Describe the ways people come to know and understand these routines. Who is in charge, and what other roles do people hold? Which people are interacting with each other, and what are they talking about? Describe the emotions present in this setting.
Group Dynamics – How do subgroups or smaller clusters of people within the social setting interact? How are outside groups received by insiders? What types of conflict are present, and how is conflict managed if it arises? Describe the role of larger cultural ideas in this setting or the distinctions between this group and larger culture. How does this group purposefully attempt to distinguish itself (or does it try not to)?

I wanted to observe army soldiers off base and on base . I wanted to see how they interact with family, other soldiers, and civilians