Teaching the Zen of Ethnography: Cultivating Consciousness and Compassion through a Sociology of Awareness

In self-reflective ethnography, the fieldworker is recognized as “the research instrument” (Emerson, Fretz, Shaw, 1995) through which perceptions of the field — and of field relations — not only flow, but are made sense of and gathered. These perceptions are then written up as “data,” again assigned meaning and value, coded and sorted, ultimately becoming a final account, discovery, or tale of the field. Thus, as the research instrument, a fieldworker's presence, person, self, and body — not to mention, their interactional understandings and cultural competence, matter in fundamental ways. But so, too, does their self-awareness, their consciousness, their habitual patterns of thought, and their ability to exist in states of flux and disquiet — as these aspects can affect experiences, actions, and outcomes.

However, there is surprisingly little to no training or focus on the role of self-awareness in ethnography, even as many experience fieldwork as insightful, transformative, and emotionally impactful.

So what happens when we actively include Awareness (self, other, general), mindful attention, liminality, and embodied experiences, as a sociological practice, and a feature of learning ethnography?

In this presentation, I discuss my experiences teaching field research methods as “The Zen of Ethnography”, a two quarter intensive, that was part of UCLA’s Sociology Immersion Program. Using classic fieldwork texts, students also read Shunryu Suzuki, Pema Chodron, engaged in writing practice, and “doing nothing”. We used Suzuki’s concept of “Beginner’s Mind” to frame the class, inviting a sense of wonder, alongside a sense of “unknowing” and “undoing.” Students were encouraged to be curious about their assumptions — both sociological and the everyday — as they researched, analyzed, and wrote; and to explore "uncertainty" as fertile ground. All of which had implications for cultivating open minds and open hearts: states of being, helpful in ethnographic research and in everyday living.