Uncomfortable Knowledge: Toward a Pedagogy of Reflexivity

B. Singleton, M. Gillette, Anders Burman, R. Blanes
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Abstract

Reflexivity is a hallmark of good ethnography and many consider it a defining characteristic of anthropology. It is thus surprising that anthropologists have not paid more attention to how we teach students to be reflexive. Many of us learn reflexivity by making mistakes in the field, yet discussions of anthropological faux pas and their potential contributions to reflexive learning are typically limited to informal settings and occluded or heavily curated within our research outputs. In this article we employ analytic tools from the theory of sociocultural viability, in particular the notions of clumsiness, elegance, and uncomfortable knowledge, to contribute to developing a more explicit pedagogy of reflexivity. Since reading ethnographies plays a major role in how we teach anthropology, we argue that anthropologists should do more in their publications to highlight how awkward moments can deepen reflexivity. To advance this agenda, we provide cases of uncomfortable knowledge drawn from our own field experiences, highlighting how the social, emotional and embodied awkwardness of each situation contributed to acquiring reflexive insights. This article is thus a call to initiate prospective researchers earlier into the messy backstage of anthropological research, including by clarifying how the embodied and affective aspects of our interactions offer potential for deepening reflexive knowledge. In the hopes of facilitating the development of our pedagogies of reflexivity, we conclude the text with four recommendations that we feel will encourage reflexive learning from awkward fieldwork encounters.
令人不安的知识:走向反身性教学法
反身性是优秀民族志的一个标志,许多人认为它是人类学的一个决定性特征。因此,令人惊讶的是,人类学家没有更多地关注我们如何教育学生进行反思。我们中的许多人通过在实地犯错来学习反身性,然而关于人类学失态及其对反身性学习的潜在贡献的讨论通常仅限于非正式场合,并且在我们的研究成果中被封锁或大量策划。在本文中,我们运用社会文化可行性理论的分析工具,特别是笨拙、优雅和不舒服知识的概念,为发展更明确的反身性教学法做出贡献。由于阅读民族志在我们如何教授人类学中起着重要作用,我们认为人类学家应该在他们的出版物中做更多的工作,以强调尴尬时刻如何加深反思。为了推进这一议程,我们提供了从我们自己的实地经验中得出的令人不安的知识案例,强调每种情况下的社会,情感和具体的尴尬如何有助于获得反射性见解。因此,本文呼吁未来的研究人员更早地进入人类学研究的混乱后台,包括澄清我们互动的具体化和情感方面如何为深化反身性知识提供潜力。为了促进我们反身性教学法的发展,我们总结了四条建议,我们认为这些建议将鼓励从尴尬的实地考察中进行反身性学习。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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