Journal Entry- Humility

I read an article for my field study prep class called Eating Christmas in the Kalahari by Richard Borshay Lee. This article was amazing. I really enjoyed reading about how Lee was treated as what he thought to be an outsider, and how he really struggled to understand the

Online Journal- Ophelia Syndrome

"How do I feel?" "What do I think?"

These questions are raised by an article I read called "Diagnosing and Treating the Ophelia Syndrome" by Thomas G. Plummer.

Ophelia Syndrome is when a person is "chronically ignorant, chronically dependent, and chronically submissive." They are not able to think independently and just allow all of their thoughts and actions be dictated by what others tell them to think and do. The author lists several treatments for this:

Treatment 1: Seek Out and Learn From Great Teachers, Regardless of What They Teach

Treatment 2: Dare To Know and Trust Yourself

Treatment 3: Learn to Live With Uncertainty

Treatment 4: Practice Thinking from Different Points of View

Treatment 5: Foster Idle Thinking

Treatment 6: Plan to Step Out of Bounds

Project Proposal- Rough Draft

Tibetan Parenting: An Ethnographic Study

A Field Study Proposal

I. Purpose

     My intention on my field study is to investigate parenting styles in Tibetan families located in McLeod Ganj, India. I specifically intend to learn what Tibetans in this area consider to be good parenting, and how their current exiled situation plays into this. I am also interested in how their religion has an effect on their parenting. Personally, my intentions are to have a deeper understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, and to become closer to understanding the beliefs and rituals that have such a dramatic affect on Tibetan’s lives and family interactions. If I can understand that, then I can better remove myself from my preconceived notions and have a more successful attempt of seeing the world through these peoples’ eyes. It would be a great way for me to completely immerse myself and be able to observe individuals and families in their natural settings. This way, I can get the cross-cultural research that can be beneficial for me as I pursue my education through graduate school and eventually become a counselor. I want to understand different cultures and be able to tie them to my work, because I will be working in the greatest melting pot here in the United States, as well as possibly proceeding in other international studies. Academically, my field study is non-scientific, in that it will be an ethnographic observational study. The question I would like to answer with this study is “what do Tibetan parents in McLeod Ganj, India consider do be good parenting?” This study will be a good experience and help me further my education in Human Development.

Journal Entry- Kundun

Yesterday, I watched a movie called Kundun, which was about the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The movie was well done, and from what I understand, relatively accurate (considering it's still a movie and therefore has limited time). It was enjoyable to watch it and learn about H.H. the Dalai Lama, and to be able to see a little more of the culture and religion that is so strongly present in Tibetan families and communities.

Something that was interesting was the character that represented the oracle in the story, which was brought in on two or three occasions. I did not know that this was a part of Tibetan Buddhism, and I wasn't sure how to react to those scenes because I am not used to seeing a ceremony like that. I know that there will be significant cultural differences, and there will be things I see, taste, hear, and feel that I never imagined I would, but I wonder how I will react. I wonder if I will feel awkward or if I can remove myself from the situation a little and look at it through different eyes. I wonder if these cultural differences will affect my project.

Course Contracts

I recently had a conversation with a woman who handles all of the internships for my department. I will be meeting with her this week to discuss details of how my project can count towards my capstone, and what other classes I can use that align with my project. This has got me thinking about whether or not I may need to change my focus a little bit in order to incorporate more class-friendly attributes in my project. There are a limited amount of classes that are offered that kind of relate to what I want to be studying (parenting styles in Tibetan families), but there are things that I could perhaps incorporate into my life abroad that will be applicable to a class. For example, there is a class called "Teaching English to Children" that I could perhaps fulfill by volunteering in an English teaching center in the community. I will not know much about volunteering opportunities such as this until as late as arriving in the community, so I don't want to take the chance that I won't be able to fulfill the requirements for this class.

However, there is another class called "Religion in the Home" that I can tie into my project pretty well. I would love to incorporate observations about how Tibetan Buddhism affects parenting styles, because it is very much part of the home and culture of Tibetans. I'm wondering if Tibetans consider good parenting to include a thorough teaching and involvement of children in the religion.

It will be interesting to see how my project changes as I come across unexpected "bumps in the road," or how it will change as what I DID expect isn't present or available in the community. How am I going to handle dramatic changes such as these? I need to be able to have a project who's puzzle pieces can shift and change as needed.

IRB Tutorial

Congratulations!

You successfully completed the IRB Tutorial presented by the Brigham Young University Office!

This certificate of completion is presented to:

juliam4 (Julia Merrill)

julia.merrill01@gmail.com
2/14/2011 3:20:17 PM

who is a member of the

FHSS department

Methods Practice Assignment 2

For my second methods practice assignment, I decided to do 45 minutes of observation in a kindergarten classroom, focusing primarily on teacher-student interaction. The reason I chose this is because my observations in the field will be focusing on parenting, and I wanted to get a little experience observing adult and child interactions. It was very enjoyable, and because they have an observation booth set up, the kids and adults are in their natural school environment and act naturally.

After beginning my observations, I decided that I could learn more about the children if I observed their interactions with one another because they were doing that much more frequently than interacting with a teacher. My observations are as follows:
*Note: children and teachers are either referred to as "kid" "child" "teacher" etc, or have names that have been changed.