Ethnography One-Pager

This investigation was sparked by my interest in alternative schools. I was interested to find out what the needs of these particular students were and how alternative schools set out to meet these needs. The only exposure I have had to alternative schools is through my brother who attended Jeffco Open School for three years. More specifically, I set out to find out what English teachers at alternative schools were having their students read and why. I was interested to see the difference in books chosen in traditional high schools as opposed to alternative schools.
I began by researching alternative schools and their purposes in the education system. I found that alternative schools were designed to help marginal students stay in school and to ultimately decrease the drop out rate in high school students. All of these secondary sources described the curriculum in alternative schools as more open and with more one-on-one attention and guidance from teachers. The open atmosphere allows more room for students to do individual projects and have more choice in what they study for school. This helps empower students and allows them to take more control over their education. Parent involvement is also said to be greater with students who attend alternative schools.
For the next part of my investigation, I conducted a number of interviews. I interviewed two alternative English teachers from two different schools. I then interviewed my brother to gain more insight into alternative schools from a student’s perspective. I also interviewed a parent of two children: one who attended a traditional school and one who attended an alternative school. From these interviews I gathered that books students read for alternative schools deal with more controversial issues than ones that would be acceptable in traditional schools. Much of the subject matter brought up in these books deal with sex, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, and/or teen pregnancy. The teachers I interviewed however acknowledged that they try to teach some classics in their classes, but teach them in an engaging and interesting way.
In my interview with a parent I was interested to find out that this particular parent felt that controversial issues bought up in literature are good for healthy discussions in classrooms. This mom felt that the teacher’s choice in books should be respected and trusted by students and parents. The results from this interview correlated with one of my teacher interviews dealing with parent approval in teaching racier texts to alternative students.
After I had all of the information from my interviews, I sat down and highlighted reoccurring themes through all the interviews. I then pieced together how they fit in relevance to each other and the secondary sources I had researched. I was surprised at how the puzzle fit from there and was able to come to a few conclusions about literature taught in alternative schools.
I found that teachers taught more controversial books to their alternative students because they addressed issues that many of their students faced on a daily basis. Books also needed to be accessible for students, many of them being struggling readers. Oftentimes, students are allowed to choose their own books for individual projects, research, or for free reading. This gives students an opportunity to learn how to be readers and to navigate through texts on an individual level. The goal of allowing students to choose their own books is to spark their interest in reading and to help students find the value in texts.