Masterclass in Ethnography: Towards a Pedagogy of Care

Introduction

Masterclass, historically associated with the study and practice of music and other performing arts, as the quote above indicates, is now a popular, albeit intermittent, mode of instruction in academia, particularly with fields, centers, and colleges that specialize in inter-disciplinary or skill-based and industry-facing education. Benefits of masterclasses in performing arts are well established and include learning by observing, strategies of performing on stage, better focus, and serve to initiate one into the profession (Hanken, 2017). However, currently, the masterclass appears to be transcending the performing arts and becoming increasingly popular as a mode of instruction in different fields. For example, in my decade long association with an art and design college in India, I have seen an increasing popularity of masterclass on qualitative research methodology. Understanding this mode of teaching has been of interest to me as it has shaped my approach to teaching Sociology, with a focus on ethnography, as a masterclass. Some questions that I will discuss in this article are: How do ethnography and masterclass come together to inform design research? How is pedagogy of care understood for faculty, students, and the discipline of Sociology, at the intersection of ethnography and design? This paper emerges from a symposium where pedagogy of care was conceptualized as “…both an idea and a site to critically evaluate varied experiences with innovative pedagogy and to propose an alternate framework that extends forms of care to students, faculty, as well as the practice of the discipline of anthropology [and sociology].” ¹ I conceptualize pedagogy of care as enfolded with the ethics of research. This includes considerations of how to practice care while conducting research, teaching students how to conduct research, and practicing care for the discipline through one's research and teaching. I reflect on and draw from my experience to deliberate on these questions, to build on the idea of pedagogy of care with a focus on teaching ethnography as a masterclass.

First, a brief setting of the field and context. I teach in a specialized art and design college located in southern India. It was started under a trust in the late 1990s, and offers Bachelor of Design, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Design, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in fields such as visual communication, industrial arts and design, business services and system design, spatial design, contemporary arts, digital media arts, and film. ² The Ph.D. research degree is offered along regular track and practice based track, where the latter gives the researcher the option to produce an artifact as the research output. ³ Even though social sciences and humanities degrees, such as a specialization in Sociology or History, are not offered in the college, there are a few faculty who are trained in these disciplines. Trained as a sociologist, I am one of them. Furthermore, courses from social science and humanities are integrated into art and design curriculum, with the objective to provide a conceptual and theoretical grounding to art and design. For instance, at the undergraduate level, these courses are classified as “general studies,” ⁴ and a course from this category is mandatory in every semester so that by the end of their degree program, students are well-acquainted with concepts and theories from different social sciences and humanities disciplines. The college, in its stated philosophy, seeks “to empower creative practitioners to see education not just as an institutional framework, but as a dynamic, interconnected model that exists within schools, colleges, workplaces, and far beyond.” ⁵ In concurrence with this, faculty have the autonomy to design their courses and curricula, as long as the principles of design are applied to both curriculum building and pedagogy. I consider factors such as the level, class size, area of specialzsation, and the frequency and length of engagement, to propose, design, and teach courses. At times, I offer the same course at different levels by re-considering the essential readings, class activities, and assignments.

Industry-led short-term training in the form of research projects, capstone project, summer internship, and other on-ground, hands-on experience and exposure, constitute learning elements that are seen as important to address the gap between knowledge in industry and academia. With the aim to equip students and future design practitioners with practical and professional skills and research tools, masterclasses have become an important mode of instruction, comprising special short duration sessions that range from a few hours to a few days, targeted to familiarizing students with different research skill-sets. In this logic of design pedagogy, the masterclass format which aims to quickly familiarize students with different skills, including research methods of different disciplines, such as history, sociology etc., has become the mainstay. These are typically taught by the college's faculty members who specialize in different disciplines and research. A masterclass on ethnographic research, that I offer and will discuss in more detail in the rest of the paper, for example, familiarizes students with designing a researchable project, how to conduct such ethnographic research, and the ethics, benefits, and limitations of such engagement. There is a need to situate this category of masterclasses that draw from social science, and humanities, to inform art and design pedagogy.

Design Research, and Masterclass in Ethnography

Ethnography lends itself well to design research because of its focus on social life, interactions among people, and the symbolic meanings that people attach to artifacts, and the social world around them, an inquiry with which the design process also begins (Murphy and Marcus, 2013; Latour, 2008). “Design always has points of reference in specific living environments, about which designers in many cases initially know very little” (Muller, 2021, p. 220), and “an ideal design research question would thus be one that uncovers and emphasizes the complex interdisciplinarity of the specific anthropological experience that is at stake in a design question” (Findeli, 2010, p. 297). There are commonalities and differences in the application of ethnography in social science and design. The points of convergence include being people-centric and reflexive (Muller, 2021, p. 224), making a case for the application of ethnography in design. This idea can be extended to creative fields and practices, where the concepts and methods of social science can be useful in research, and constitute design interventions that fulfill a specific requirement. It is in this vein that Becker speaks of the role of social theory in photographic practice stating that “The object of all this is not to turn photographers into sociologists or enslave them in mad sociological rituals, but rather to suggest how sociological tricks might solve problems of photographic explorations” (Becker, 1974, p. 16). This becomes important to think through when situating design research in higher education, and the discipline of sociology, that can inform design research, even if peripherally. I state the relevance of social science knowledge in every course, masterclasses included. I teach by centering social science in art and design pedagogy, stating that every design or artifact emerges in a social context, the understanding of which can contribute constructively to the process (design research), and the product (design). Furthermore, questions of ethics are increasingly being debated and considered at different stages of ethnography, be that through the Institutional Review Boards, seeking informed consent from participants, anonymizing, and self-reflexivity. The masterclass therefore, provides an opportunity to discuss these in detail.

Yet, I have to keep in mind that teaching ethnography as a masterclass sits differently within design pedagogy. Primary difference emerges from the orientation of design and sociology. Sociology seeks to understand society and the social as is. On the other hand, “…to design is always to redesign. There is always something that exists first as a given, as an issue, as a problem” (Latour, 2008). There is an inherent assumption in design that there is something that is not at its optimum and needs a redesign, to improve the lives of those who interact with the said space or artifact. This does not necessarily require long and complete immersion into a culture. Drawing on Findeli's idea of “Recherche für Design” (“research for design”) Muller writes, design research is that “which has no memory. It begins anew with every new project, and is barely accepted in the sciences. What's more, it is based on certain research practices whose methodologies are rarely reflected upon” (Muller, 2021, p. 220). What design students engage in, is something that is classified as “dirty” ethnography, a term I draw from Muller's (2021) conceptualization of design ethnography as a “dirty” practice. The use of the word dirty is meant to allude to the nature of ethnography that the designers engage in, where reality does not exist like it would for a cultural anthropologist, rather, it is an intervention because it is designed or created, and so “…Design ethnography is thus a ‘dirty’ practice in which passive observation and active intervention, recognition and design are interlinked” (Muller, 2021, p. 226). Aside from different disciplinary orientation, the other differences that stand out are either semantic in nature or can be observed in practice.

I am often asked to teach ethnography as a masterclass, a one-off session, at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and Ph.D. levels. I have taught these masterclasses as both, a scheduled part of a semester and occasionally, when colleagues make a special request before an upcoming visit where students will conduct research for a project and are expected to engage with members of a community. Over time and multiple masterclasses later, a structure has formed around these special sessions. I begin with an overview of social anthropology and sociology, and some key theorists in the discipline, moving on to the ethnographic method where key terminologies and concepts, such as field, respondent, participant-observation, fieldnotes, and thick description are discussed. The remainder of the session is more conversational and discussion based, where I enquire into their experience of conducting qualitative research. I conclude the session with an exercise where students step out and take detailed notes of their observations, and attempt an analysis. I have experimented with sharing reading(s) in advance, but that approach has not seen much success where I share the text in advance, but there is also the need to summarize it in class for any discussion based on it to follow.

A recent ethnography masterclass I conducted was when a colleague planned to take her class, MA students majoring in the spatial design program, to a historical (also architecturally well-known) site in the city. She felt that ethnography would benefit as the students were to engage with visitors, and local community members, to come up with a design solution from a public utility perspective. I was asked to familiarize them with participant observation, ethics of conducting qualitative research, and offer some cues into analysis of data. At the start of the masterclass, I asked students to share their experience of conducting qualitative research for the projects they have undertaken as students. One shared that for a project on public transport, they would “shadow” a person for a few hours, to get a better understanding of last mile connectivity in a particular locality in the city. Elaborating on the method, she explained how she would select one person at the metro station and board the same rail, deboard at the same station as the selected participant, and exit to see how they made their way to the final destination. The person being shadowed had no idea that they were being followed, as she tried to go unnoticed. This exercise was repeated with different people over three days. Her project based on this research was appreciated by those who evaluated her work. Another student shared details from a trip when the class visited a market place to observe, and possibly speak with visitors and shopkeepers, to understand the built and functional space better. It was early and the market was yet to begin bustling with daily visitors and shoppers. They split into smaller groups when this student along with a classmate, were trying to get a sense of the layout of the marketplace. As they walked around, unaware, a person close to them picked up a stick and attacked her. She was rushed for medical attention, and required three stitches on her shoulder that bore the impact of the attack. This left her scarred to the extent that she was avoiding any exposure to unfamiliar spaces and people, thus inhibiting her ability to do research. It was later found that the attacker suffers from psychiatric disabilities and has such periodic outbursts. The regulars in the market were aware of his presence, and had figured a way to avoid direct contact with him. These two experiences during research, highlight important aspects over ethics, and care. I pointed that ethics include both responsibility towards the other, and the self. In the unfamiliar, part of the ethical responsibility is towards the self where one needs to be cautious—you owe a safe research environment to yourself while conducting research. A little more understanding of, and engagement with, the method could have perhaps changed the way design students went about ethnographic research. Further discussion centered around dilemmas such as: What would happen if the person realized they were being followed and confronted the researcher? Would the manner in which a person went about using this mode of public transport drastically change, so as to give unreliable data, if they were informed and consent sought to observe them as they went about their commute? Informing the person would perhaps provide an opportunity to supplement the data gathered by just observing, as it could open up the possibility to speak to the commuter to find out other details such as how often do they use this mode of transport or the circumstances under which they prefer not to, and so on. Would better preparedness before entering the field have averted a violent encounter? After a lively discussion on ethics of ethnographic research that sociologists and anthropologists often grapple with, I asked students to include some of these ways when they conduct qualitative research next time, and I hoped that some of the suggestions are reinforced in practice.

With masterclass, as used for the performing arts, there is an implication of familiarity in a given area, rather a level of competence, among students of the cohort which needs reinforcing or improvement through masterclass that provides advanced knowledge and skills (Hanken, 2017; Spencer, 2011). The familiarity of design students is mostly in the use of terms such as field, observation, and interview, that have a commonsensical meaning, and their use in articulating research is often a subconscious choice. However, there is a difference in this articulation in design, and in the specific discipline. For one trained in the discipline, the term is part of broader research methodology which follows a specific, scientific, way of doing research, the time spent at the site, and familiarity with existing literature to contextualize their research and analysis of data. Conducting ethnographic research has become popular in my college, even though it tends to be limited to observation; on occasions, if time spent in the field is a few hours, it is communicated as ethnographic research. Take another example of “oral history interview,” where any interview conducted may be referred to as one. When the three words—oral, history, and interview—are separated, then an interview conducted in the oral form with some historical questions or anecdotes can be extended to imply an oral history interview. But when strung together, it implies a specific methodology that oral historians follow, which is a life-story interview, recorded in and archived for posterity, the analysis of which completes the process for a researcher (Frisch, 1990; Ritchie, 2014; Yow, 1994). A masterclass serves as a means to provide knowledge around, and dispel some of these held notions on the discipline or methodology. However, in some instances it is not enough, as the short duration of a masterclass could end up reinforcing established ideas, and conversations on ethics, subjectivity, and positionality/self-reflexivity tend to get overlooked in the masterclass format.

There is value in linearity and continuity of classroom learning, followed by practical engagement. The Ph.D. cohort compulsorily undertakes a research methodology course over a semester, with the option in qualitative, quantitative or practice-based research. It is part of curriculum and they attend classes, read, participate in discussion, submit assignments, and are assessed. For design students in the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, qualitative research methodology tends to have similar content, where it is a one-off session that has not been integrated into the curriculum. The nature of learning methodology requires a repeated back and forth, while through a masterclass, the students engage in the topic for the first, and often the last time. Moreover, the project for which they conduct research is facilitated by a design faculty, and not the social science faculty who impart knowledge about qualitative research. Training to be designers, it is likely that their experiences of field research (short duration with a focus on designing intervention) will remain the same, as it lies outside of their main domain. Furthermore, design projects are often time bound and need to be addressed over a shorter period, directly reducing the time spent in conducting research. What room do these seeming contradictions in the orientation of design and sociology leave for the other in pedagogy? Design interventions, such as masterclass in qualitative research methodology, are a shift towards pedagogy of care, where the missing links are intended to be addressed through such masterclasses.

Towards Care in Teaching, Learning, and Research

Extending the idea of pedagogy of care as ethics, teaching ethnography as a masterclass has implications for students, faculty, and the discipline. Students’ interest varies in a one-off masterclass that is conducted by a faculty who they may not be taught by again, and which has no evaluation/assessment component. It is often seen as an afterthought insertion in the curriculum. Students tend to see little value in it, at times stating explicitly that they attend such masterclasses every semester, and are familiar with the content. They do not perceive it as essential to their expected learning or skills as research methods, concepts, and theories from social sciences do not directly seem significant to their domain, and work as artists and designers. This is reinforced by the separation of design courses from courses that are offered from the lens of social science or humanities, and most prominently this separation is visible in the continuity of teaching. The general studies units, for instance, are taught once a week with a two−three weeks’ workshop and mid-semester break. It is starting all over again for the faculty, and one imagines it must be similar for the students. Knowledge about a method begins with familiarity with existing literature, research question(s), knowing if the field is accessible, be that for its geographic location or familiarity with the language, to understand meanings that are not literal, customs, rituals, and the explicit and implicit ways of doing things. When students are made to understand ethnography in a short lecture mode, it can translate into sleuthing around, such as in the example that is detailed earlier. It goes a long way if the researcher is sensitive to the needs of the people in the field. This can be shown in ways such as seeking informed consent before including the person in research, or asking them for a suitable time to have a conversation rather than accosting them when they are at work. A researcher goes out and is equally “vulnerable” ⁶ to the gaze of the people of the community they have gone to observe. They are strangers in a site, and gaining trust of the potential respondents could take time. There is no certainty in the field, but it can be mitigated to a certain extent by being alert to one's surroundings. The example that I mentioned above, sometimes highlights that masterclasses open up the space for a vibrant and important conversation on care, ethics, and responsibility in research.

Care for the faculty, usually a discipline expert, is directly associated with the care the students imbibe or uphold during research. Requests for masterclasses often come from colleagues who are acquainted with your work. This additional teaching, even though a one-off, requires time to prepare to suit a cohort and their immediate specific project needs, and does not get accounted for as a taught course or for credits, and contradictory to their mainstay status, are included retrospectively. It is a request and delivered as a favor, without it being accounted for in the larger scheme, which is important in a system where the credits taught are added up at the end of the semester to see whether the minimum requirement is met. The masterclass faculty takes on something that they believe in, or to not refuse a colleague's request. There are occasions where I feel the fatigue of offering yet another masterclass, and I refuse particularly when it is being planned too close to the end of the semester for students to apply their learning to any project. There is no way to assess the learning or follow-up to the masterclass, making it impossible to understand what students gained from it or how it was applied to design research, as it is the design faculty who oversees the larger project. The short duration does not provide the teacher or the students an opportunity to follow up on the discussion that took place during the one off class, making it impossible to understand whether the students were able to integrate the learning in their design research, or what was useful in the project and the final outcome. Though methodology masterclasses are organized to impart essential research skills to the students, they are yet be integrated into the curriculum.

I have included the discipline to the list of pedagogy of care, because teaching and learning that takes place in a masterclass mode will influence how the method is applied. This will directly reflect on the discipline the method is associated with, and for ethnography, it is Anthropology and Sociology. Some popular research methods that draw from the social sciences and humanities include interviews, field and site visits, recording of observations (in multi-media), archival research or reaching out to re/sources as respondents. As someone who spent almost a year doing fieldwork, there were moments of learning that included making mistakes, and coming to a practical realization of the way things could be better approached. This way of understanding requires a certain slowness, the time for which the designers do not have, either because there is the looming project timeline they are working with or the finances needed to sustain research are not available. Research is “warm, involving and risky” (Latour, 1998) and ethnographic research demands stepping out into uncharted waters and exploring, talking to people, and then making sense of it. Nothing prepares you to be in the field as much as being in the field does. It is only when you settle down in a place and understand the field better that rituals and processes begin to make sense—why do people do things a particular way? Why are they telling you quite the opposite of what they are doing? Why is there a contradiction between what is said by way of explanation and what is done? Our social reality(ies) are layered and complex, the understanding of which unfolds slowly. Art and design researchers will do well to inculcate sociological imagination, “a quality of the mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world and what may be happening within themselves” (Mills, 1959, p. 5). Ethnography can be engaging and exciting, and while it can lead to unpleasant encounters, it can also lead to an altered world view. There are moments of uncertainty when a qualitative research is approached as a masterclass, but alongside this glimmers of care emerge in the classroom, and in the field. Ethnographic method espouses care at different stages, for the self and others, and in this article, I have extended it to the discipline.

As someone who offers ethnography masterclasses, I often wonder if research is satisfactorily applied to a design project, am I projecting myself as gatekeeper of the ethnographic method in the world of artists and designers that I inhabit? Some apprehension can be attributed to nomenclature. The use of the term “masterclass” is perhaps more appropriate when a master (master-artist, master-performer) conducts it (Hanken, 2017; Spencer, 2011), something that does not directly translate in the disciplines of Sociology and Anthropology. It is not only a matter of naming it as such, but a multitude of factors, that I have discussed above, that come together to make a masterclass in ethnography popular, and its inclusion in art and design pedagogy can be made meaningful for all stakeholders. Whether a masterclass is offered by an industry expert or by a faculty member, they are conducted by someone whom the students do not meet on a regular basis. There are benefits of interaction and an opportunity to learn from a person other than the regular instructor, “Because the relationship between the principal study teacher and the student tends to be long-term in nature, it could be beneficial to students to be confronted with alternative perspectives during their studies, as this would stimulate their curiosity and enable them to become reflective practitioners, making independent, deliberate and well- informed choices” (Hanken, 2017, p. 79). This works to disrupt the routine, and it is significant as there is newness to the one-off interaction as students may be “confronted with ideas that might challenge, complement or confirm what is learned through regular one- to- one tuition” (Hanken, 2017, p. 79). The duration of research or situating current research vis-à-vis past literature can be overcome by accommodating other ways of knowing and recording. There have been debates and reflections in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology, where the ethnographic method derives from, of how an understanding of changing reality can be integrated through the method. This is reflected as newer ways of doing fieldwork and taking field notes have emerged, and prominent among these are visual ethnography, digital ethnography, and multi-species ethnography, to name a few forms that account for changing social environment mediated through other materialities and species. While Goffman (1989, p. 130) may point to the vitality of note taking, particularly on the first day because some social phenomenon may never be repeated, or to overcome a researcher’s block through the golden rule of “reading, writing and reflexivity” (Savyasaachi, 2024), the demand of written note taking can cause disinterest in the design researchers, who are inclined to other ways of documentation. Other forms of “writing the field” are emerging. When I ask students to write down their observations during a class exercise or a one-off field activity, sketches, drawings or doodles often replace the written word. Pink (2006) proposes these other modes as providing an alternative to the written text when it comes to taking ethnographic notes. The visual notes, however, cannot be left as such, and will need to be verbalized or textualized at some point in order to be understood by a varied audience. We must learn to see cross-connections between visual and textual data, which is best understood in relation to one another (Pink, 2006). Social sciences have historically been text heavy, and these alternate media can be thought of as different ways of knowing. Language provides a reflective process, and so it may serve well to change from image to words, words to sketches, integrating different ways in the process.

Conclusion

In this article, I have reflected on the masterclass mode of teaching ethnography to art and design students. Research forms the basis of design practice which is inherently situated in specific socio-cultural contexts, as the designed artifact has the human user in mind. Design is an intervention that looks to better a given situation, and is differently oriented from disciplines in the social science that seek epistemological knowledge. Design students engage with research methods, which establishes design pedagogy as being rigoros and scientific. The qualitative research methods are tools that better prepare design students to interact in the field, and analyze the data that informs design research and design. Themes of pedagogy of care that emerge are threefold: care for the design researcher; care for the social scientist who facilitates the learning; and care for the discipline. The student may not entirely grasp the method in a short duration masterclass, while the faculty has no way to follow up on the learnings. The idea of quick and “dirty” ethnography, as that where reality is created by the introduction of products/artifacts, among design students is here to stay. Disciplines of the social sciences could either ask for inclusion of courses on methodology in the curriculum for a longer engagement or adapt to the masterclasses mode of teaching that adds value for the students, and at the same time does not compromise the faculty's disciplinary training. This can most certainly be done when social science is integrated in art and design pedagogy at the institutional level, so that it does not appear as an afterthought, rather it is central to design pedagogy.

There are some takeaways that make the inclusion of masterclasses worth it. There will be a few students who follow up to ask more about the process, for further references they can look up or read to understand the method better, or some students bring back references to show how their work progressed, after being introduced to a particular lens or concept. There are colleagues who are design faculty and are open to new approaches of understanding and doing, and often suggest ways in which social science can be integrated in design pedagogy, such as the extended engagement over a number of days for an ethnography masterclass(es). The disciplines of anthropology and sociology too are opening up to include a dialogue and changes that are seen as inevitable with the changing social realities, technological innovation and an education system where the expectations of the management, and the need for skill based training informs pedagogy. The changing demand and expectations of a discipline perhaps augurs the need for a pedagogy design that is effective for all three: faculty; student; and the discipline. I want to conclude by stating that making ethnography masterclasses a pre-decided and integral element that is structured, will help mitigate the challenges of last minute preparation by faculty or feeling like it does not count towards their work, or the concern of students not valuing it. This will generate new directions in which ethnography can be used outside of disciplinary confines of sociology and anthropology, to open up other ways of thinking about methodology, and add to the disciplinary corpus.