Learning to fly: on teaching the ethnographic craft
Résumé
In this chapter, the authors believe that the teaching and learning process of ethnographic methods is connected with many things: research, personal experience, an approach to organizational and managerial practice. Ethnography gains its scientific status and credibility thanks to presence, to being there. This is also how teaching of ethnography should be rooted: in being there, building relationships, passing on experience. The authors intend to introduce to readers useful guidance concerning such areas as learning and teaching ethnography, privacy, ethics, wisdom and support during ethnographical research. Intimacy is achieved by recalling our own emotions and initiating empathy towards the participant of the ethnographic process. The ability to discern, to adapt teaching methods to individual situation is what makes or breaks ethnographic education. The graduate students of public policy had, during an ethnography class, signed in for projects dedicated to exploring ethnographic methods and which were to be presented in class at a given date.