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Daniel Machon
Micro-Ethnography
Professor Olivia Rines
20 March 2015
Micro-Ethnography of Educators in the College of Education
The College of Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is a
professional school that seeks to educate and prepare students for a future within the
Education realm. Within the College of Education there are groups of people, that
together they form a discourse community. According to linguist John Swales, a

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:29 AM

Comment [1]: I really like this introduction

discourse community is groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to
achieve these goals (Swales, 220). Research that I conducted involved the discourse
community of professors within the education department of UNC Charlotte. The
research consisted of interviews with professors and multiple observations within the
classroom of these professors. While conducting this research I had two main questions
in mind. What do outsiders, those who are not within this discourse community, need to
know about this specific community and what does it take to become and effective
educator? After embedding myself in this community and studying Swales article The
Concept of Discourse Community, I think I have answers that will help those who do not
associate themselves with this community.
Answering the first question, what do outsiders need to know about this specific
community, will come through breaking down the six main characteristics that make up a
discourse community as defined by Swales. Below will I will break down these six

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:31 AM

Comment [2]: I like how you start your paper
introducing and addressing these questions

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concepts and how the discourse community of education professors at UNC Charlotte fit
into these concepts.
The first characteristic that Swales describes to us is a discourse community has
a broadly agreed set of common public goals (Swales, 220). This means that within
each discourse community there are specific goals that each individual member knows
about and as a whole try to reach these goals in whatever capacity in which they do
things. For example, when it comes to education professors, the capacity in which they
work is by teaching their students how to teach. After talking with different professors in
the College of Education at UNC Charlotte I came across these goals in which this
community has. After talking with Dr. Beattie, a special education professor, and Dr.
Harden, a professor that focuses on first year, pre-education major students, I saw that the

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:35 AM

Comment [3]: Change up the beginning of the
sentences. Something other than after talking

goals of these individuals are also goals of the community itself. While professors teach
to the subject area in which they have studied themselves, and now teach, the overall goal
is to prepare these students for situations in which they will come across in the field in
which they study. For instance, students of Dr. Beattie will learn as much as they can
about exception children and then how to apply that within the classroom they find
themselves in and students of Dr. Harden will see how to teach in multiple ways within
the elementary level. However, though each individual professor has a goal for their
students, the overall goal of both of these professors, for the purpose of this analysis, is to

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:36 AM

Comment [4]: You have a lot of the same
sentence structure make sure to mix it just a
little!

prepare their students for the classroom settings that they will find themselves in the
future.

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:37 AM

The second characteristic that Swales gives us is a discourse community has

mechanism of intercommunication among its members (Swales 221). All discourse

Comment [5]: Great job supporting your

claims.

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communities have some way of communicating within it and through all of the members.
Communication throughout the College of Education changes with different people. For
example, when it comes to communication between a professor and a student that will
usually happen through email or even through face-to-face lectures. Intercommunication
changes though when it changes medium. Meaning that it changes when the
communication is from professor to student, or whether the communication is from
professor to professor. While emailing might be the same from professor to professor, as
it is student to professor, meetings that discuss changes that need to happen usually
happen between professors.
The third characteristic of a discourse community is a discourse community uses

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:41 AM

Comment [6]: This was a little hard to read.
Try explaining things one at a time rather than
just one sentence with many breaks.

it participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback (Swales,

221). As a student there has always been one thing that I have heard at least once, by
every professor/teacher that I have had. They have always said that they were in a
meeting. After observing and interviewing a couple of professors, I see how important

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:42 AM

Comment [7]: In what context?

meetings are within this specific discourse community. Meetings are a common
mechanism that is primarily used to provide information and feedback. Professors and
educators in the education department have meetings to further their own style of
teaching, but they also have meetings with students to provide the feedback when
preparing their students for the classroom setting that those students will one day be in.
Meetings are one mechanism that allows for people to speak and provide the information
and feedback that is needed, making education professors apart of their own discourse
community.

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:43 AM

Comment [8]: Maybe use a semicolon or just
break the sentence into two.

Haley Furguson 3/23/15 10:44 AM

Comment [9]: I think you have a good example
of this mechanism

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The fourth characteristic of a discourse community is a discourse community
utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its
aims (Swales, 221). This simply means that there are a variety of genres that are used
when communication is used within this discourse community. When it comes to
professors in front of students, one of the main genres that are seen is the genre of lecture.
A specific lecture that a professor might give to a class of students is considered its own
genre. While not all communication is between professors and students, and that
communication is also between professors, the genre of email is used as a genre. Emails
are always being used when communicating with other professors, but it is also used with
students. Lectures and emails are two of the most commonly found genres used in the
communicative purposes of the discourse community of education professors.
The fifth characteristic, and perhaps the most unique part of a discourse, is in

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:32 AM

Comment [10]: I think that these are good
examples of genre.

addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis
(Swales, 222). Lexis and jargon are two things that will usually be unique to every
discourse community. People that are apart of different professions will usually not use
the same language as another profession. When conducting my interviews I had a
specific question that related to lexis and jargon. I asked the question if there was a

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:34 AM

Comment [11]: I like how you explained this to
the audience.

person that sat in on a meeting within the education department and did not belong to that
discourse community, what type language would be heard by that person and what would
be needed to be explained? Dr. Beattie responded with the answer I think the biggest
need for explanation would involve the acronyms that are used so readily in our field.
They can be seemingly non-ending and potentially confusing for an outsider. He also
goes on state that he remembers being in meeting with parents when language specific to

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:34 AM

Comment [12]: I like that you included the
interview. Is there anything that you observed?

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this discourse was used. He describes the look on their faces when some of the language
is being used. Dr. Harden also responded with a similar answer. She also goes on to
explain that there is a tremendous amount of jargon that has to do with the teacher
certification process. One prime example of this would be when she explains the process
of clinical observations. Within the education department the school is looked at as a
clinic, but that would not be what others think to be as a clinic. While that is just one
example, there is an abundance of jargon and lexis that is specific to the education realm.

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:35 AM

Comment [13]: Great example.

The sixth, and final, characteristic that Swales describes is a discourse

community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content
and discoursal expertise (Swales, 222). There are always members coming in and going
out of the education realm at UNC Charlotte. There are professors that have been in this
profession for decades and could be considered experts at what they do. And then there
have been professors that are new to the fact of teaching students at the college level.
Many of the professors that are now teaching college students have been in the situation
in which they are preparing their students for. Meaning that they have taught in the
elementary, middle, high, or special education level. These six characters are what

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:39 AM

Comment [14]: This sentence is a little
confusing and the transition to the next sentence
is a little rough.

Swales conceptualizes as what makes up a discourse community.

Throughout the breakdown of what characteristics make up a discourse
community, it should give insight as to what makes up the discourse community of
professors in the College of Education at UNC Charlotte. While doing my research I also
based my interview questions off the question, what does it take to be an effective
educator? While I wanted to analyze the discourse community of education professors
at UNC Charlotte and relate it to Swales article, but I also wanted to take one of the

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:40 AM

Comment [15]: I like how you broke up the
paper into two different questions

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public goals that professors within the College of Education have. That one goal is to
prepare students that are seeking a degree and a future in education and teach them how
to become an effective educator.
There is no one-way to become an effective educator. There is not a formula that
you follow to become effective within the classroom. However, through the interviews
and observations that I embedded myself in, I found one aspect in which professors

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:41 AM

Comment [16]: Great point.

follow through with to be effective in the classroom. The very first answer that I
received form both Dr. Harden and Dr. Beattie was that you have to want to teach and
you have to care for your students. While observing in Dr. Hardens class there were a
few things that I observed. One, before the class even started she walked around and
gave students a gesture, whether that be a hug or a fist bump. Secondly, when she did
start class she started by asking students what is going on in their lives, having nothing to
do with the content of the class. Dr. Harden is a prime example of what any professor or
teacher should do; establish a relationship with the students before teaching them the

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:42 AM

Comment [17]: This is great support to your
claim. It really shows the care teachers have
towards their students.

content knowledge. Breaking down what it takes to be an effective educator was a bonus
while observing professors in the College of Education.
After much time put into the observation and interview process, I feel as though
my analysis of the discourse community of professors within the College of Education at
UNC Charlotte is complete. While breaking down the characteristics that Swales defines
for us about a discourse community, one can now see how exactly this community is
described as its own discourse community. At the same time, I was also able to gain
some knowledge of what it truly meant to be an effective educator.

Haley Furguson 3/24/15 10:43 AM

Comment [18]: What is the purpose of the
paper? What is a better way to sum this paper up?

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Works Cited
Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in
Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print.
END NOTE
Daniel, I think that you have a lot of great information that was gathered it was
definitely easy to see that throughout your paper. I think that with just a few fixes your
paper will be perfect. I feel like you did not approach the stereotypes of teaching which is
something that a lot of students think, like students who think that teachers like to give a
lot of work. I think that you supported most or all of your claims very well. I can see that
you thought out your paper very well. Your introduction is very strong and clear but I
think your conclusion should wrap the paper up more and include an aspect of your thesis
statement in it. I really enjoyed your separation of the paper into two different questions
and you approached those questions really well. Overall I think you have a really great
understanding of this discourse community and it was very interesting to have such
insight on educators of the college of education at UNC Charlotte.