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RUNNING HEAD: Ethnography

Ethnography

Tayler Flanders

EDUC 536

Professor Haden
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Ethnography

This ethnography was performed in a small suburban school district and the surrounding

community. Data was collected using multiple interviews of community members, business

owners, students, teachers, and parents. Observations of community events were also done,

including a concert series in the local downtown, a school board meeting, and a fundraiser for the

high school golf team. In addition, research from city websites and statistics were used to

determine class sizes, residency, and communal resources. All of the information was compiled

and analyzed in order to create a better idea of the strengths and weaknesses this district has, and

potential additions that can be made in order to improve schools. This ethnography describes in

detail how the community interacts with itself and with the schools, providing an insight on what

the schools have to work with.

This ethnography affects me personally because this is the district and the community in

which I have grown up in, my mom has taught in, and that my family involves themselves in.

Researching and interacting with more of the events and people in my community provided me

the opportunity to look at my own education and opportunities I was given in primary and

secondary grades. The town in which I reside has less than 44 thousand residents but becomes

busy and triples in size during the day (City of “Community”, 2018). Schools remain of small to

average size, with graduating classes between 450 to 500 students. There are six elementary

schools, one junior high, and one high school, along with one continuation school (Ed Data,

2018). After listening to the community and talking to teachers, students, and parents, it is

obvious that there are many resources schools have made contact with throughout the

community, including the local restaurants for fundraising, businesses for internships and job

opportunities, and much more, but there is still room for growth.
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The World of the Student

Community Assets Analysis

The community surrounding this small suburban high school has just under 44 thousand

residents in its roughly twelve and a half square miles of space, but during the daytime has a

population of 120 thousand or more due to its plethora of businesses and job opportunities (City

of “Community”, 2018). The average household income is between 81 and 82 thousand dollars

per year, with condominiums costing an average of 335 thousand dollars and homes costing an

average of 1.1 million dollars to own, according to a 2017 article in a local newspaper (City of

“Community”, 2018; Bode, 2017). The community racial demographics are made up of 52.7%

Caucasian, 25% Hispanic, 18% Asian and Pacific Islander, 1.3% African American, and 3.1%

considered “other” (“Demographic Facts”, 2018).

This community lies in the hills of a regional canyon, with the amenities of a city,

providing community members with 19 parks, including but not limited to a dog park, hiking

trails, and a sports park. The community also has a golf course, aquatics center, oil museum and

trails, senior center, and community center available (“Community” Parks and Recreation,

2019). One of its major attracting points is the availability of businesses, shopping, and

restaurants, most of which are a part of their local Chamber of Commerce, hosting local

community fairs, career fairs, and business events. This includes a downtown area, movie

theatre, improv comedy center, local bars, a mall, and a few more shopping centers throughout

(City of “Community”, 2019). There are about ten local churches, with various religions such as

Christianity, Catholicism, and Mormonism, all hosting gatherings, fairs, and community events

at least once per month. Gas stations, grocery stores, and other convenience shopping are
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available on almost every corner, providing ample opportunity and access for all, even without a

car or other transportation (City of “Community”, 2019).

The downtown area hosts a local music afternoon twice per week, on Saturdays and

Sundays, where community members are encouraged to have lunch, meet for coffee, or work

while local musicians are featured each week (“Community” Chamber of Commerce, 2019).

There are also many sporting events for children and adults to participate in weekly, such as golf

tournaments, soccer, football, and baseball. This community also encourages access to its

council, school board, and other community members, not only advertising meetings on social

media and throughout the city but recording and broadcasting them online (“School Board”,

2019).

One local community member and business owner feels that the music events on

weekends help to bring a festive feel to the community, attracting all age groups and making the

space more welcoming (“Local Community Member and Business Owner”, 2019). Local

community members at the event agree, often found eating food, enjoying the sunshine, or

grabbing coffee with a friend while they support their local musicians and friends, some even

singing along (“Teenage Community Members”, 2019). School staff are often found in this

downtown area as well, utilizing its many assets as fundraising areas, which has allowed many

booster clubs and PTA’s to work within restaurants and establishments to bring in families and

raise money for events. School staff can even be found making pizzas, mixing smoothies, or

serving at local restaurants on fundraiser days (Campbell, 2012).

One high school health teacher feels that this is a great community to raise a family, who

explained that she also grew up here, and is now making it a place she has chosen to stay raise

her family. She feels that the community has fantastic amenities, great leaders, and a variety of
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activities and extracurricular events that make the small suburban town feel safe and inviting

(“High School Health Teacher”, 2019). She is not the only one that feels this way, in fact a large

portion of the teachers in the district grew up here and have decided to call it home. She feels

that in the next ten years, this community will continue to grow, flourish, and expand its

opportunities. This involves the school because with the businesses and community assets that

have grown in the last few years, there have been additional experiences for students to get

involved and explore career options, including the addition of a magnet school, technology

school, and clubs (“High School Health Teacher”, 2019).

On another note, a local school board member and involved parent that grew up in this

community feels that the most important thing to do to strengthen school programs and

opportunities is to work on passing a bond for the school district (“Local School Board

Member”, 2019). This district has had a few failed attempts at getting the funds through a bond

in the past, but is hoping to improve the chances soon, with the help of the community members.

There have been a lot of community members, businesses, and parents that have stepped up and

are working with teachers, staff, administration, and the board to make this happen for the

students. They are hoping that in the next ten years, schools will see improvements in programs,

clubs, facilities, and connections within the community, which could positively impact the

students in the district (“Local School Board Member”, 2019).

Overall, this community has ample opportunity to connect students, teachers, businesses,

and extracurricular events. While small, there is exponential growth, with businesses and new

activities being introduced frequently and many more to come. After attending the school board

meeting and concert series, I feel that this community is very connected, but with the magnet

school and technology academy being introduced, businesses have more leadership and
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involvement than ever before, which has helped students grow to. This can only benefit more

and more as the schools grow, the community grows, and businesses show their support.

School & Classroom Context

This small, suburban high school is located in the hillside of the small city, hidden from

sight and tucked behind local business buildings. The district houses six elementary schools, one

junior high school, one continuation school, and one high school, with a total enrollment of just

under 6000 students in the 2017-18 school year (Ed Data, 2018). There is a total enrollment of

about 1800 students in the small high school, with just over 400 students per grade (SARC,

2019). Out of these students, 21.1% of students are Asian, 35.4% are Hispanic or Latino, 35.9%

are white, 1.9% are African American, 0.2% are American Indian or Alaska Native, 3% are

Filipino, and 0.3% are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (SARC, 2019). This small suburban

high school has 30.1% socioeconomically disadvantaged students, 10.1% of students with

disabilities, 3.3% English learners, and 0.1% foster youth (SARC, 2019). This high school also

provides free or reduced-price meals to just under 30% of the students (Ed Data, 2018).

The district in which this small suburban high school is located has had six schools

designated as California Distinguished Schools, two Blue Ribbon Schools, and has participated

and won honors at the county, state, and national level for CIF championships, pentathlons, and

decathlons (“School District”, 2019). Students have won over four million dollars in scholarships

and over 90% of graduating seniors are on the path to college. Parents for the high school level

are involved in a recently developed PTO (in place of the PTA), as well as individual booster

clubs divided by sport or activity (“School District”, 2019). Parents are encouraged to attend

back to school nights and are included in their student’s education through email, call, text,
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YouTube, and online portal communication which includes grades, academic calendars, and

important dates (“School District”, 2019).

The classroom I have been observing at this school is a health education classroom and

skills for success classroom, both led by the same teachers throughout the day. The students are

ninth graders, so parents are still involved and in contact with teachers when necessary. Parents

are also required to sign syllabi and permission slips for certain activities. There are six periods

in a day, lasting about 55 minutes at a time, with up to 40 students in each. Students are grouped

strategically in a way to keep classroom tasks, lectures, and projects productive and calm, with

two center groups of six students each, and six groups of four students each around the rest of the

room. All students face the projector and white board and are provided with individual chrome

books during most class periods.

This school promotes a lot of community building, offering programs like LINK, to

welcome new students, ASB, various clubs, sports, and extracurricular activities. Students are

encouraged to get involved in at least one activity, with incentives like community service hours,

networking, and food for meetings. Teachers also get involved in activities for rallies, sports, and

dress up days, encouraging student participation. For juniors and seniors, the school offers a year

of college information sessions with various colleges from the United States that put on short

presentations and ends the year with a college fair.

Overall, this small suburban school has a diverse student population with many learning

opportunities for families and for students. Both students and parents are encouraged to be

involved in education and the school has created many forms of communication for parents to

keep them in the loop. The specific health and skills classroom I have been observing provides

an efficient, productive environment for students, mixing students into diverse groups.
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Students & Families

Within the small suburban school, there is a family that speaks Chinese as their first

language, with a child that is learning English as his second language and struggling with Autism

and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This student receives assistance through

special education but is mainstreamed for math lessons about 80% of the time and is currently in

the process of being mainstreamed for all but 20 minutes of the day. This student excels in math,

answering problems with little to no difficulty, getting “A’s” on his tests and overall grades in

the subject. During the other times of the day, this student was originally working with a one-on-

one aide in another classroom, trying to improve on some academic areas and social skills. Right

now, the student receives assistance from his aide once a day for 20 minutes to ease his transition

to the general education classroom. In the classroom, he is typically always active, having a hard

time focusing, and facing challenges with subjects like reading, writing, and language arts since

he is still working on his English fluency at the intermediate level. He receives above average

grades, with mostly “B”s and two “A”s in math and science.

His first week of the transition to being mostly mainstreamed was challenging, resulting

in a few outbursts, crying when asked to focus for too long, and the need for some time to rest

between subject areas. Transitions between projects and subjects are the most difficult, as he

likes to focus on one thing at a time until the task is complete. Both of his parents and his

teachers are on board with this change though and think that academically it will not be an issue,

but his social skills and focus may struggle for a while until things have settled down.

Projects that have been assessed include those like art, reading, writing, math, science,

and social studies. He tends to not have the patience to take time on his reading or writing, often

turning in work that appears to be messy or being unable to stay focused long enough to read a
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book. As a result, teachers often offer him read aloud books or a Chromebook to read chapters to

him as he follows along. He has a strong vocabulary, testing at a reading level between a 2.5 to

4.2 for his Accelerated Reader. As for art, he can focus occasionally and when working with his

aide, he can finish them properly, but he struggles with details. His last art and science project

included drawing the animal and describing it and its habitat. While he was able to complete the

writing with a little help, he quickly got overwhelmed by the detail and doubted himself and his

ability to master the project. Math is his strong subject, showing the complete understanding of a

lesson in 20 minutes, with at least 90% accuracy. Overall, academics can be challenging when he

becomes overwhelmed or when it involves too much focus at once, so he is often given

alternatives.

His parents are very supportive and involved in his education. As the middle child in his

family of five, he has one older and one younger sibling, both of which struggle similarly in

school. His parents continue to make meetings with the teachers, but they feel very respected and

like the teachers really listen to their wants and needs for their children. The most recent meeting

they had resulted in him being mostly mainstreamed, which was heavily pushed for by his

parents and supported fully by both the RSP and general education teachers. They have also

pushed for other supports like iPads, behavior charts, and rewards that they want for him in the

classroom and then try their best to enforce at home. They include both Chinese and English at

home as best as possible, using read aloud books, videos, and other online resources. Chinese is

the primary language spoken in the household, but his parents do encourage him and his siblings

to speak English to one another.

His parents feel like this school and district are respectful of their beliefs and cultures,

with a high Asian population that has helped them build a community and get involved in their
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child’s school. His parents are often attending parent nights, school trips, and meetings with his

education team. The school community has been able to provide a nice network with parents that

have similar backgrounds or beliefs, so it has helped his mom to make connections in the school.

His mom likes to bring home cooked Chinese treats to class for classroom parties, sharing their

culture with his classmates and sharing their background. This has really helped them feel

comfortable and make a community as well.

Overall, his parents just want to help him accelerate in school, feel comfortable, and to

help him learn English as well. Success right now just looks like a daily task, making sure he is

behaving in school, getting through his behavior chart, and reacting appropriately, with as little

of an outburst or frustration as possible. At home, this student’s parents help him work on

schoolwork, provide him opportunities to join an extracurricular activity, and keep schedules to

maintain balance for him. The school is very close to their home, so they are able to make friends

with families nearby and get help when needed.

When talking to the student, he explained to me that his parents grew up in China and

that they all speak Chinese at home, but him and his siblings are learning more English. His

parents support his learning and have tried to help him with English, learning a little themselves.

The family gets to celebrate American and Chinese holidays, along with some travel to China to

see their family when there is time off. Education is very important in his family and he said that

his parents really want him to do good in school. At school, he enjoys his friends, math class, and

working with his rewards chart, focusing on positive parts of his day. He really does not enjoy

reading right now, but he explained that listening to the book does help him because it remind

him of the movies. The best parts of his day are break or recess, which have helped him to

release energy throughout the day, keep more focused when in class, and interact with his peers.
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He really enjoys getting to go to the park in his free time with his family and play outside or

enjoy some rewarded time on his iPad. Right now, he really enjoys playing Fortnite on his Xbox

as well, which influenced his goal to make videogames when he gets older. Activity and

extracurriculars have been really important for him to remain balance, so he currently does

karate once a week and soccer once a week at the nearby park.

Scheduling is extremely important to keep him and his goals on track, often correlating

with days he performs well, as opposed to days when he is off schedule and can have melt

downs. In the morning, he wakes up, has his breakfast, gets ready for school, and drives to

school with his parents and siblings. After school he gets picked up by his mom, who takes him

home, lets him have a snack as he does homework, and then lets him have a short break on either

a videogame or iPad. Afterwards, he has time outside or going to one of his extracurricular

activities before family dinner and then getting ready for bed. His schedule stays pretty

consistent and his parents make sure he has opportunities to add in extra programs at school,

including any tutoring, counseling, therapy, or group activities. Overall, his parents and teachers

have been a major support system for him, encouraging new challenges, creating fun ways to

learn, and of course trying to keep him on track.

Conclusion

Political & Economic Climate

In this district, as mentioned, the current political and economic climate is debating a

bond. While the bond was voted on the ballot, the board members released their health benefits

in order to get the public to help them rally for a passing bond this coming March. This caused a

lot of distress for teachers and students, arguments between community members, and unrest

while everyone anxiously awaited a decision. This community is fairly conservative, with a large
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portion of the community that is not willing to vote for the bond, leaving the last passing bond

around 1980. This leaves the district with little income to use towards upgrades, technology, and

other advances.

These economic and political factors lead to very slow advances for student learning and

programs. The magnet school and technology academy are hope for the district in attracting new

students and keeping their enrollments up. This district is disadvantaged in this way because as a

very small district, in a very small area, they have little other resources to lean on for monetary

donations or income to update their schools. With this being said, there are some current updates

that have been made, such as Chromebooks for some of the classrooms, but without additional

monetary support, there cannot be many more additions. The classrooms in the junior high

school have not been updated since the 1980’s and some schools still need to have insulation

updated. These are some things that are on the list of updates ready if the bond can pass in the

coming months. Currently the district is working on efforts to support the bond, but they will be

looking to the community to campaign in the new year.

School Communication

Communication within the district includes a variety of emails, phone calls, and texts.

Within the classroom, teachers are utilizing platforms such as Remind and Google Classroom to

communicate with students and parents, sharing information, assignments, and grades quickly

and easily. In this district, what I noticed is that as the students get older, teachers still want to

communicate, but want to also offer more responsibility to the students to take care of their own

education. Something that is lacking as students get into high school is the involvement of

parents at the school. While there is still access to the students, the grades, and the information

about their learning, parents start to let their students choose their classes and work on homework
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independently. Parents often start to let their students have more independence and therefore are

not attending as many of the high school events either. I noticed that less parents are willing to

go to a high school back to school night or reach out to the teachers, feeling less involved and

thinking they have less of a say at this point.

The communication obviously can change and evolve as the students become older, but

parents should still feel incorporated and in touch with their student. Possibly including an

incentive for parents to show up to a school night or including the opportunity for teachers and

parents to interact as they get older could help. Sports and extracurricular activities still attract

community members and parents, so a suggestion could be to incorporate parent-teacher meet

and greets or back to school nights before an event, encouraging more participation and “hitting

two birds with one stone”.

Instruction & Pedagogy

I feel that as I watched many teachers and grades of students, I saw a mix of

constructivism and behaviorism. While some teachers believe that a behaviorist approach will

help their students adapt to behaviors in the classroom, others adopted a constructivist approach,

giving opportunity to apply knowledge and learn from one another. I personally like the

constructivist approach more because it allows students to take hands on approaches, learning by

doing. I want to foster a classroom where students believe they can always grow, moving

towards their own goals. In the magnet school and technology school, teachers foster creativity

and encourage students to create and build their own ideas. For example, the technology school

has students build Legos in preparation for robots, this way by fourth grade they are able to

create and build their own robot, in whatever design and with a function of their choice.
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After observing in many classrooms within the district, while the family I interviewed felt

respected and as if they could share their culture with others, there is little acknowledgement of

other traditions within the classroom. For example, during the holidays, students are expected to

color ornaments, snowmen, and turkeys, with no acknowledgement of other holiday traditions. I

personally believe that we should teach our children about all cultures if we are going to

acknowledge any, giving them a perspective to look at all different people and cultures. This I

felt was not as culturally relevant because some students do not celebrate the same as American

traditions. This is something to consider in my own classroom to create culturally relevant

assignments for students.

Impact of Knowing Students

After learning about the students in which I interact with, it was easier to develop

appropriate lesson plans and group them accordingly. I felt that the students were more capable

and excited to interact in the classroom once they could really relate to the material. For instance,

my student that I got to interview and work with was more flexible in his transitions in the

classroom when I was able to get him excited for the next item on the agenda. Students want to

learn things that they enjoy, so making games out of lessons, letting students explore, and letting

them have a say in their education makes it better for the teachers and the students.

In my personal experience, my brother was adopted by my parents after he met my mom,

who was his fifth-grade teacher. He never enjoyed school and got in trouble a lot, until my mom

got him involved in an after-school program where he absolutely excelled and was able to

receive the help that he needed. This made all the difference for him, eventually allowing him to

continue on, graduate high school, and take up a trade that he enjoyed. I have talked to him about

it in the past, and he truly believes that if it wasn’t for my mom and the other after
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schoolteachers, he would have dropped out of school and would be “dead or in prison”. Knowing

your students makes all the difference and can change their lives forever.

Purpose of Education & Professional Growth

After this experience, this has helped encourage me to involve myself in the community I

will someday work in. I want to make sure to utilize all of the resources that I can possibly get

my hands on, showing students all different pathways for life, getting students excited for

education, and making them feel at home in the classroom. I see this helping me grow by

pointing me in the right direction for resources to keep in my classroom, ideas to work with, and

people to go to. This has been a valuable experience that helped me relate my own educational

experiences to possible community factors that might have had an influence. I feel more

prepared to do the research and learn about my kids and families to better myself and our

classroom. I want to encourage all different cultures and traditions, even inviting parents to come

and introduce them to us in between lessons. This is the most valuable thing I could do for my

classroom, parents, kids, and school to give them the best educational experience possible.
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References

Bode, D. (2017, September 1). "Community" average house price is $1.1 million. Retrieved from

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/01/breas-average-house-price-is-1-1-million/.

Campbell, C. (2012). Eat Well, Help Support the "High School" Choir Booster Club Fundraiser.

Retrieved from http://breaoldandnew.com/eat-well-help-support-the-brea-olinda-choir-

booster-club-fundraiser/.

“City of "Community". (2018). Demographics. Retrieved from

http://www.ci.brea.ca.us/492/Demographics.

“City of "Community". (2018). City of "Community" Demographic Facts. Retrieved from

http://www.ci.brea.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/7891/Brea-2018-Fact-Sheet?bidId=.

“City of "Community". (2019). Business in "Community". Retrieved from

https://www.ci.brea.ca.us/173/Business-in-Brea.

"Community" Chamber of Commerce. (2019). "Community" Chamber of Commerce - Serving

the Greater Business Community. Retrieved from https://www.breachamber.com/.

"Community" Parks and Recreation. (2019). Parks. Retrieved from

https://www.ci.brea.ca.us/439/Parks.

"Community" Parks and Recreation. (2019). Recreation. Retrieved from

https://www.ci.brea.ca.us/431/Recreation.

Ed Data. (2018). “School Name”. Retrieved from https://www.ed-data.org/school/Orange/Brea--

Olinda-Unified/Brea--Olinda-High.

“High School Health Teacher”. 5 November 2019. Personal Communication.

“Local Community Member and Business Owner”. 9 November 2019. Personal Communication.

“Local School Board Member”. 7 November 2019. Personal Communication.

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“Teenage Community Members”. 9 November 2019. Personal Communication.

“Parent of Student” (2019). Interviewed by Tayler Flanders.

SARC. (2019). “School Name” SARC. Retrieved from http://sarconline.org/.

“Student” (2019). Interviewed by Tayler Flanders

“School District”. (2019). “School Name”. Retrieved from https://bohs.bousd.us/#.

“School District”. (2019). District Profile. Retrieved from

https://www.bousd.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?

uREC_ID=1177878&type=d&pREC_ID=1425549

"School District". (2019). Boards and Committees. Retrieved from

https://www.bousd.us/apps/departments/index.jsp?show=ESD.