Ethnography of Education: How Location affects Options Introduction Education is a broad discourse community that offers much information

of those wanting to learn more about it. There are so many different specializations, subjects, grade levels, and positions that make up this field, which makes trying to form an ethnography interesting. One must decide what would pose an interesting question to research and why is it specific to that discourse community. The topic that I found fairly specific to education was that of the different forms of schooling that is offered; in broad terms, public versus private. Private schools are a broad grouping of schools that can have specific focuses. For example, I will be focusing my research mostly on a charter school in New York City, but that does not mean I am excluding private schools with a religious, artistic, or academic focus in any way. With this in mind, I will generalize within my analysis and extend it to broader terms in order to better explain my findings. After much deliberation on what I wanted to focus on within my ethnography, I came to the conclusion that schooling and the choices of schools you are given is directly affected by the location/area in which one lives in. In other words, I believe large cities and also the suburbs around it are offered many more choices on where they can send students to school. While on the other hand, down in rural, small town areas, options are very limited unless you are willing to drive a far distance. This then is a perfect candidate for Beauforts findings of Physical Conditions and how it affects discourse communities; Due to the physical proximity you are in turn limited in your choices (59). This then carries over into her other idea of

Community Overlap, because again communities that will overlap will depend on your location. If you are out in a rural community, outside field trips, federal government involvement, student to teacher, and even parent involvement may change within overlap. I carried these ideas along with me during my research process, which consisted of an email interview with a fellow teacher I worked with a year ago, Paula, and also my experiences in rural community schools versus suburbia schools. Paula was a perfect candidate for me to interview, because she is experiencing all of these differences first hand. Paula was an Ohio University education student, who did her first year of teaching here in a local rural school. The school was located in a very rural and poverty filled county, which fits my description of a small rural town. I also was in this school for a whole year, so can put my own perspective on things and fully understand where she is coming from when answering my questions. Paula, is now teaching in a charter school located in New York City and can see a huge difference in her experiences there versus Athens. I asked her questions along the lines of: How difficult it was to get into her school? Do you see a difference in your students? Do you see a difference with parent interaction? Do you know why parents chose Charter/Private over the Public schools? How have interactions with federal requirements, board members, other teachers, other students, etc. changed within your two experiences? All of which will help further my discoveries on private versus public schools. Methodology

I set up the study by first narrowing my ideas down to one specific focus. I knew that I wanted to focus on Private versus Public schooling, but that was too broad of a topic. I wanted to extend it even further and location seemed to be the most prominent difference between the two. I noticed this first by talking to some of my professors on where their children go and what options they were given down in Athens. The same answer kept coming up, which was there were no specific private schools and you pretty much went wherever was closest. This then made me think about Paula and how she recently emailed me with a list of new Charter schools that were opening up in New York. I thought it was interesting how so many options were given in one city versus the other. I then reached out to Paula through email, first by asking her if she had time and if it was okay to discuss her experiences. I definitely used Kahns idea of keeping your interviewees best interest in mind. I wanted her to understand that it was completely optional, but still very appreciated. This may have been a downfall to my approach, because it took quite some time to finally reach her, but in the end she was very helpful and we are still on great terms. Once I had my private school contact set up, I used my own experience and viewing of rural classrooms to help guide my questions for Paula. I already had experiences that I knew happened in rural communities, and wanted specific examples from her on what varies within a private school. I believe the fact that many of my experiences within this rural school coincided with Paula in the classroom as well is really beneficial to my analysis. It allows me to fully understand any specific example she gives me. I formed my questions to at first be relatively

broad, so I could pull things from what Paula said for an overview, but then I tailored them to focus on differences within her private school versus public school experiences. I did not tell her specifically what my take on this research was (location), because I wanted to see if her answers alluded to the idea of location without me even mentioning it; And to pleasant surprise, she actually answered everything so it fit my idea perfectly. Results First, with an overall broad question of, What are some main differences you notice within your two experiences? Paula answered with the main focus being on her experience with teachers, which actually surprised me. I was expecting emphasis on student differences, but instead she noticed that the Charter school offered a better learning environment, more positive teachers, and a never give up on kids mentality. This then lead me back to her hiring process at the charter school and how difficult it was. Paula was chosen out of a large pool of teachers who applied for a job and I believe this was due to her authority. Authority is key in Wardles ethnographic research and I think it applies well here as well. The charter school was using their resources and pulling authoritative and qualified teachers from rural locations and placing them within their schools. Paula holds an authoritative position, because she has her masters and maintained a 4.0 GPA in all her colligate years. So, I found that due to her authority and positive mentality as a teacher, the charters schools saw potential in her and removed her from a location that actually needs teachers like this, but often cannot maintain them.

I continued to ask her broad questions about the differences in her experiences such as environment, curricula, and purpose of the school and all seem to have the same idea; that her charter school held students to a higher set of expectations in all aspects. She said hallways were, zero noise, while classrooms were encouraged to be loud and active and standards were set specifically to prepare all students for college. All of these answers helped me shape the two schools clearly in my mind and begin to form differences that were set up due to location of the schools. The answer that truly was the most eye opening to me was when I asked Paula, Are there different expectations of your students in the Charter school compared to the Public? She answered with a bold, YES! She began to compare her students to those of the public school students that actually share the same building as them. She said the public school students are loud and she has even seen some fight. At first, I thought that this would throw off my idea of location, because she began comparing a public school within her area. However, I realized then that this only strengthened my argument. People within that area, are probably aware of the conditions and actions of students within the public school, which is exactly why they choose to opt for a private school instead and because of their location, they were able to have that option. This then brought me to the question of parent involvement and how it differed. She said, We have a ton of parent involvement, but we demand it from them. She even said that they do not have parent teacher conferences, because it is simply expected that they be already in constant contact with them. I found this very interesting, because this relates back to Beauforts idea of Community

Overlap. Due to the fact that Paula was in a private school, her interaction between parents vastly changed from her rural experience. Her rural experience (and mine as well) was that parent involvement was pretty much limited to parent teacher conferences and maybe an after school meeting here or there. It was not demanded of her by the school to be in such close contact with parents. The fact that many of these parents in the charter school choose that school over the public shows that they are putting their childrens education first, which makes involvement with them plausible. Now, this does not mean that parents in rural communities do not care about their childrens education, to me it means that because they are not given this choice due to location; They must take whatever option is given, which is parent teacher conferences. The final question I asked Paula, which I thought was the most interesting had to do with the accessibility or admissions into the charter school. First, I asked her, How difficult is it for students to get into the Charter school? Paula said it was really tough and also random because their names are entered into a lottery. She said around only one-seventh of the students that applies get in. I then followed that question with, Do you have any insight as to why parents choose the Charter school over the public ones offered? and the answer she gave me answered exactly what I hoped to find. Overall, her main point was that the public schools around her were horrific and a lot of it was due to the location of the schools. She then said, Parents seem to want choices and options for their children. The parents I've spoken with like charters because they give them better school options when they can't afford private schools. Choices is the first word that jumps out to me, because

my whole argument was due to choices offered within a specific location discourse communities will change. She even takes it a step further than I did and compares charter schools to private schools, but that is a whole new discovery for someone else to research. In the end, Paulas answers aided my discovery of private versus public schools within certain locations in many different ways. First, she is a qualified and authoritative educator, which made her a perfect candidate to be moved to a different location and placed in a private school. Second she is in a large city that offers alternative options for parents who do not want to send their children to public schools. Third, because of this entire location change she sees a complete difference in students, teachers, parents, and education as a whole. Conclusion Paulas answers show that because of location, her discourse community changed 100% and essentially would not have been plausible unless she changed locations. This leads me to believe that a change needs to be made in rural communities. I am not necessarily saying that private/charter schools need to be offered in these communities, but possibly the attitudes and expectations should. Authoritative and wonderful teachers like Paula should not be pulled out of rural communities and change locations in order to be in an environment that promotes and encourages learning. I think that my findings are important to teachers and we all should take a look at Paulas answers and see specifically why her charter school is chosen over public schools. As educators, we can set a president for all schools to uphold these standards and expectations. We should not make our parents feel as if they have to choose a school that is better than ours, but feel comfortable with what

they are provided with. In regards to discourse community as a whole, I believe that this idea relates to them all. Due to location, you are going to be limited with your choices and may have to change your physical proximity in order to receive what you want. For example, if you want to have access to fresh seafood, you probably want to live somewhere close to the ocean. I know that this is a relatively basic example, but it lays out my point perfectly; that in discourse communities, location is key.

Interview with Paula

1) What are some major differences you have noticed in your experiences in two such different schools? (Does this mean between Trimble and the school I'm at now?) Well, the first difference is the student population. My students at Trimble were mostly white and many came from families in poverty. In NYC I have mostly African American students and many also come from families in poverty. The teacher/leader attitudes and mentality are different at my school now. Everyone believes we can achieve and that the kids can achieve. The mentality is that you never give up on kids even though there are many challenges outside of our control. We set high goals and figure out how to teach at a high level so that our kids get there. It's also all about collaboration between teachers/leaders. At Trimble there were teachers who had given up on students, teachers who accepted failure, and teachers with negative attitudes. 2) Do you have specific standards set for you new school? Or is there a specific purpose of the school (since it is a Charter)? My charter has its own curriculum that the CEO, Literacy Director, etc. collaborated on to create. It aligns closely with the State of New York teaching standards. The school's main focus is to prepare all students for college. My kindergarteners have reading workshop, Success For All (phonics), interactive read aloud, writing workshop, math workshop, math number stories, two snacks a day, lunch

and recess, blocks, chess, art, science, and dance. It's pretty cool how much they get to do. They also get to go on a lot of field studies. We went to Columbia University today, but we have also been to the circus, pumpkin picking, the American Museum of Natural History, a bagel store, and a cooking class at a bakery. 3) What do you notice about the school environment? The kids wear uniforms (adorable), which I actually really like. I think it helps give the school a professional feel. It's usually calm and quiet. The hallways are "zero noise" because we believe the learning/noise should take place inside the classrooms. There are high behavioral expectations so that the most time can be spent on learning. Generally, our kids are happy and enjoy school and learning. 4) Are there different expectations of your students in the Charter school compared to the Public? YES! We share our building with a regular public school and it's hard to believe the difference. Kids are loud, rude, and run in the halls. I have seen kids get in fights and even shove teachers. The classrooms are dingy and poorly lit. Behaviorally, we hold our kids to way higher standards. We also expect more of them academically. We "push the ceiling" in terms of learning and our kids generally meet our expectations. 5) Is there a big difference is demographics of your students? Nope! 21/24 Black; 2 Latino; 1 Indian

6) Do you notice a difference in parent involvement? We have a ton of parent involvement, but we demand it from them. We call and meet with parents regularly. We don't have "parent teacher conferences" because the expectation is that you are meeting and communicating with your parents regularly. We have math night, science night, and chess night. We have had "read-ins" and picnics after school. We also require our parents to complete monthly reading logs in which they read to their child 1 read aloud per night. 7) Is there more or less emphasis on testing in your Charter school? Definitely. We assess very regularly and use the data to form small groups and reteach when necessary. Our assessments are mostly individual assessments where a kid works with a teacher for a few minutes. For example, we use Fountas & Pinnel (spelling?) for our reading assessments. We also assess in counting, reading/writing letter sounds, and math workshop. 8) Do you feel constrained in regards to letting the students experiment more in the Charter school? (like is there federal requirements you must me that require certain activities/lessons be done) I am given all of my units. This definitely gets to me at times. I like to be creative and at first I didn't feel like I could be creative at all. I had to learn the curriculum and teach to a script. As I have figured out the expectations and what not I've been able to really make it my own and get creative with my lessons. I don't use the script, but just use the teaching point and create my own lesson for my specific scholars. I've gotten more and more creative as the year

has gone on. 9) How difficult is it for students to get into the Charter school? Do you have any insight as to why parents choose the Charter school over the public ones offered? It's really tough. They apply to a lottery and I think it's only like 1/7 kids get in or something. The public schools in the neighborhood I teach in (Bedford Stuyvesant aka Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn) are horrific. The neighborhood is not very safe... we had a lock down a few months ago for shootings in the apartments across the street. Anyway, the schools are pretty bad. Parents seem to want choices and options for their children. The parents I've spoken with like charters because they give them better school options when they can't afford private schools.

Work Cited

Beaufort, A. (1999). The institution site of composing: Converging and overlapping discourse communities. In Writing in the Real WorldNew York City: Teachers College Press. Kahn, S. (2011). Putting ethnographic writing in context. In C. Lowe & P. Zemliansky (Eds.), Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing (Vol. 2, pp. 175-192). Retrieved from http://Writingspaces.org/essays Wardle, Elizabeth. Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces, Enculturation 5.2 (2004): http://enculturation.gmu.edu/5_2/wardle.html Email Interview with Paula