The Classroom as an Example of Everyday Life - Essay Example

? The room as an Example of Everyday Life al Affiliation The room as an Example of Everyday Life Part I: Phenomenological Description The sociological characteristics of a classroom from one’s personal perspectives include the multi-dimensional environmental and cultural factors that could be observed and lived in a traditional classroom setting. Providing a phenomenological description of a classroom setting requires a deeper understanding of the term ‘pehnomenological’; which was emphasized by van Manen (1990) as the “description of the lived-through quality of lived experience and the description of meaning of the expressions of lived experience" (p. 25). Likewise, van Manen (1990) also affirmed that “a good phenomenological description is collected by lived experience and recollects lived experience? is validated by lived experience and it validates lived experience" (p. 27). Using these narrative qualifications, a phenomenological description of a classroom could start with one’s personal experience of envisioning that the goals of all participants, members, or students, including those of the educators are clearly defined. Based on regular classroom attendance and as expected from the educators, the learning objectives are crucial to enhance students’ knowledge and skills within the course modules where all participants get to be actively immersed in. As emphasized in an article published online by the University of Maryland, “in phenomenology, personal experience is the starting point. The source of personal experience is a description or account of the lived experience” (University of Maryland, n.d., par. 6). Through one’s academic experiences, it is acknowleged that educators would start a traditional course module or program with identifying the expectations of the students and relaying what their expectations are. The exchange of learning expectations create an effective environment that is based on trust, transparency, clarity of learning objectives, identification of rubrics, and defined academic requirements with stipulated time frames. Any questions, clarifications, concerns are likewise expected to be symbiotically exchanged. In addition, one strongly believes that features of the classroom that makes it distinct from a group of people in a business meeting, for instance, is that the elements or components contained therein are expected to be constant within a specified time frame. For example, one could assert that students enrolling in a course in Sociology of the Everyday would be expected to learn from the assigned professor for the whole semester, in clearly specified schedule (for instance, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:30 to 3:30 pm). Likewise, if the number of students who enrolled in the course for this semester is 30, then, the professor and the students alike would expect that the same number of students would stay for the whole duration of the course in this particular semester. This student-professor relationship would thereby provide them with the opportunities to establish professional bonds, interpersonal relationships, communication patterns, and compliance to identified goals. Additional classroom characteristics, in addition to learning objectives as presented in traditional course curriculum as well as the presence of identified number of students and assigning a distinct professor, are the cultural diversity presumed to normally exist (students from different ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds), the use of appropriate instructional materials (reference books, overhead projector, visual aids, white board, digital applications, to name a few. Although some of these features also exist in a business or work setting, the differentiating characteristic is the identification of learning objectives through course curriculum designed specifically to enhance skills, theoretical frameworks and competencies that would prepare students for future professions. Part II: Breaching Experiment Using the phenomenological description of a classroom, one could think of the following examples as opportunities to breach background expectancies: (1) presenting a course curriculum but changing the topics to be taken regularly without previous advice; and (2) disregarding diversity in student population to openly disregard language barriers or conformity to established academic norms (for instance, the professor would require students to prepare an essay based solely from experiences in the United States when it is obvious that half of the class comes are international students). As emphasized by Garfinkel (1967), “a breaching experiment is the deliberate going against an assumed social norm in order to gain insight into that norm” (Benschop, n.d., p. 1). In both examples, the subjects of the breaching experiment are students since they would be most affected by changing of the course curriculum without appropriate advice from the professor and openly disregarding cultural diversity. To repair the situation, the students who are affected must confront the professor in a formal and professional manner that the background expectancies had been violated. A change in course curriculum where specifically identified modules are to be discussed, with clearly stipulated references and schedules, would definitely cause chaos and confusion. Clarifications for the changes or revisions should be communicated so that the professor could either confirm if indeed the revisions are needed and to provide the students with revised copies before effecting instructions on affected portions. On the other hand, for the culturally diverse students, they also should communicate breaching expectancies through confronting the professor formally and through a professional way. They could determine the rationale for imposing compliance to an academic requirement that could not be met by students who came from different racial and cultural backgrounds. As such, the professor could repair the situation by revising the academic requirement to include and integrate diversity in culture. Likewise, being more aware of the backgrounds of students would assist the professor in determining the pace of instructions and by soliciting frequent feedback, especially from the diverse group, regarding their extent of understanding of the subject matters being discussed. Any need for further explanations or clarifications on the subject should be accommodated, either in the classroom setting or outside the classroom to signify commitment for academic support. It is pertinent to address or repair these situations in order to return to the everydayness of the traditional classroom setting. If these breaches continue to exist and if the affected members do not communicate their concerns on these situation, the academic performance would suffer. Likewise, the learning objectives which have been explicitly in the first place would be adversely violated. References Benschop, R. (n.d.). Harold Garfinkel. Retrieved from artfulencounters.nl: http://www.artfulencounters.nl/past-events/program/day-one/%E2%80%9Cdiscussing-a-classic%E2%80%9D/garfinkel/ Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities. Social Problems, Vol. 11, No. 3, 225-250. University of Maryland. (n.d.). Phenomenology as an Educational Research Method--van Manen. Retrieved from otal.umd.edu: http://otal.umd.edu/~probinso/Dissertation/methodology/phenomenology.html van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Albany: New York: State University of New York Press. Read More