Ethnography from Home: Adapting Fieldwork Methods Instruction During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

How do you teach fieldwork methods when your students are suddenly prevented from entering the field? This was a pressing question faced by faculty at Guttman Community College who were teaching Ethnographies of Work, a required first-year course centered on the observation and analysis of real-world workplace dynamics. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the in-person workplace observations that the course was designed around became largely impossible, because previously accessible professional environments were suddenly closed to the public. This article examines the variety of ways in which Ethnographies of Work faculty responded to the sudden constraints on the course, shifting instruction to include digital ethnographic fieldwork techniques and changing modality to either online synchronous or online asynchronous. Drawing on faculty syllabi, team meeting conversations, and professional development workshops, we found that faculty created a variety of responses to the in-person ethnographic constraints of COVID-19. Faculty used movies, work-related video clips, library databases, and podcasts as substitutes for in-person observation, allowing students to simulate traditional fieldwork without leaving their homes. These digital techniques have since been formalized and further incorporated into course syllabi by several instructors, providing a range of methods for examining work that happens online. As the shift away from office-based work continues, these digital methods have proven to be increasingly important for capturing the complexities of contemporary professional life, much of which takes place predominantly in virtual spaces.