I am currently devising a study using the tenets of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, that Discourse/Practice reveal values. In order to work with manageable components, I plan to break the study into two distinct parts. Broadly stated, the questions for the two studies are:
A Brief History
For the past ten years I've helped run a rustic wilderness summer camp for boys called Flying Moose Lodge (FML). Campers come for 26- or 52-day sessions each summer, living with no electricity and no phone in large tents at base camp Fridays through Mondays. On Tuesdays through Fridays they go on trips, canoeing, hiking, and biking throughout Maine. It is a place, the director says, "where boys can be boys", can get silly, and have fun without the distraction of city life and mass media.
Flying Moose Lodge was founded in 1921 by Mr. Domivich, a Quaker teacher from Germantown Friends school in Pennsylvania. In 1927, ten year old Harrie Price III, a student at Germantown, spent a summer there, then returned as a camper, then as a counselor. When Harrie III graduated from college and became a Quaker teacher, he bought the camp from his teacher, and ran it until 1985 when his son Harrie IV, a 5th grade teacher, took over. Harrie III died in 1992. Two years later, in 1994, Harrie IV died, and his younger brother Chris took over, and has been running it ever since.
Remarkably, amidst great change in other aspects of society, very little has changed since 1921, in terms of the camp's physical location and condition, and the philosophies that it is based on. In my study, I intend to demonstrate that this is due to the strong sense of identity campers gain from their experiences at Flying Moose Lodge, which in turn is based on a philosophical foundation that the camp has operated under since its founding.
Research Description
Drawing from Lave and Wenger's (1991) Communities of Practice, and Holland's (1998) cultural models, I will use Narrative Inquiry and Gee's (2001) critical discourse analysis to identify the development of a personal identity through a sense of community membership. Through their stories of Flying Moose Lodge, in the form of edited film, written life/camp history, and informal interview/observation, past and current the owners/directors express their identity relative to Flying Moose. This identity is constructed partly according to the philosophy the camp was founded on, and has been operated under, since. It also expresses some of the values of a Flying Mooser.
Data
This project will rely on triangulation of three legs of data to validate its accuracy (Stake 1995). Two of the three legs have already been completely generated, and the third has been continuously gathered on an ongoing basis. The data that has already been generated exists in the form of 1) Harrie III's 288 page book of stories of the camp, 2) about seven hours of the director's16mm silent film footage of the camp, filmed and edited (roughly 300 feet per summer from 1921-1973) to market their vision of the camp. Additionally, my own ten years of direct experience helping to run the camp as an assistant director, along with informal interviews, emails, and conversations of two of its directors, family, friends, and camp alumni add to the third leg of data.
Harrie III wrote A Bad Case of Moosepox (Price, 1988), a history of stories from his 65 year involvement with FML. Mr. Domivich and Harrie III made promotional films to show prospective campers. Chris and Shelly Price are the current directors/owners and ongoing sources of data.
Genres in this Study
My research is a case study in that it is bounded in the examination of the Discourse from multiple data sources of this one specific camp from its founding in 1921 up to the present (Stake 1995). Furthermore, the type of case study is instrumental, because I am seeking out insight into an issue -- that of the philosophy and values inherent in the camp (Stake 1995).
My research uses the genre of Narrative Inquiry in that through it I aim to find the voice of key participants in the particular time, place or setting (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Gomez indicates that "analysis of narratives are primarily conducted on the content of stories -- the actors and actions portrayed in them and the places and times in which actions located -- and/or on the discourses -- the words, voices, and forms -- people use when telling them" Specifically, Connelly & Clandinin (1988) tell us: "Narrative is the study of how humans make meaning of experience by endlessly telling and retelling stories about themselves that both refigure the past and create purpose in the future."
Fitting this standard, my primary data source is a comprehensive self-portrait of the man who perhaps most influenced (at least in amount of direct interaction time) Flying Moose. In 1985, Harrie III gave up his role as the camp director to his son Harrie IV, although he was still "around" quite involved in the day-to-day operation of the camp. Part of his knowledge of the camp came in the guise of stories he had heard and had told time and time again since his own introduction and involvement in the camp in 1921 (Connelly and Clandinin 1988). His friends and family convinced him to write the stories down, and he did so, in 288 pages. A Bad Case of Moosepox (Price, 1988) is a collection of stories of the camp’s history and that indicates the philosophy it was founded on, and the values behind the way it was run, and continues to be run by the current director.
My research also benefits from the genre of discourse analysis, using the idea that "little d" discourse of my data acts as a social language that communicates cultural models (Gee, 2001, Holland, 1998). In addition to A Bad Case of Moosepox (Price, 1988), I have silent film and interview/observation to provide triangulation. Just about every summer from 1921-1939, founder/owner Mr. Domivich made silent films of aspects of the camp and edited them into movies that he could take and show to boys and families who were interested in camp. In 1940, when Harrie III bought the camp, he also took over the film-making and marketing duties until 1974. The films total over seven hours, and were donated to the North East Historic Film Society in Bucksport, Maine. I found out about this resource last summer and had seven DVDs made of them. Far from Hollywood, these films are, for the most part roughly edited into favorite scenes. Some scenes are set up, and there are some that are totally fabricated. One example is of a group of campers sitting around a campfire smoking corncob pipes; when the camera approaches them, they become surly and confrontational. The story behind that scene is that it was a practical joke; the director gave the boys corncob pipes with flour in them and asked them to portray a seedy scene of camp so he has a resource to show mothers whose boys he doesn't want at camp.
These DVDs provide a resource of multimodal discourse for me to examine (Kress & Leeuwen 2001). I believe that in their filming and editing choices, the two directors tried to capture their vision of the camp, which will indicate their own values, and in turn point to the overall values embedded in Flying Moose.
After Harrie IV's unexpected early death at age 49 in 1994, his younger brother Chris (and Chris's wife Shelly) hesitantly took over the business of running the camp. Chris says he was born at camp, and has spent every summer of his life there. He's 53 years old. I've been working with Chris and Shelly as an assistant director of the camp since 1993, and have gained their trust and friendship. They have agreed to help me fill in questions I may have about camp and the values behind the camp, specifically Chris's own, as well as his father's and brother's. I have an hour long video interview as well as phone and email access, and in the summers direct access to director Chris Price about his father (Harrie III) and his own vision of FML.I see Chris and Shelly as a sort of "review" or "check" of my analysis of the other two forms of discourse. Their review of my analysis will aid my understanding of the cultural models that have influenced, and continue to influence the camp.
Framing of Questions
In order to provide cohesiveness throughout the larger study, I need to consider a question for this first part that will directly apply to, and set the stage for, the second part of the study. Given the theoretical framework of Cultural Historical Activity Theory, and specifically drawing from Lave and Wenger's (1991) Communities of Practice, I am focusing on the social and historically-situated values embedded in identity. Accordingly, the question for the first part of the study will focus on social and historical Flying Moose identities, as revealed in the book, film, and interviews/observations of the owners/ directors, who both constructed Flying Moose identities and values themselves, and then attempted to pass them on through their philosophical vision in directing camp.
My primary research question will also need to conform to the methodologies of narrative and discourse analysis I use in my instrumental case study. Appropriately, then it will be a question that seeks understanding instead of proof, and center on 1) the nature of the case, 2) its historical background, 3) physical setting, 4) and key informants (Stake 1995). The question What values/cultural models are revealed in the discourse/practice of those who have directed Flying Moose Lodge? will provide a chorus of voices and perspectives through which a verdant reading of the cultural models in directors' discourse/practice will reveal core philosophies and values.
Possible Methods of Analysis
I anticipate cycles of recursion as I analyze the three sets of data. I will start my analysis based on a phrase that the current director, in a conversation with me, used to sum up Flying Moose Lodge: "it's a place where a boy can be a boy." This suggests to me the concept of cultural models, which James Gee (1999) explains as "images or storylines or descriptions of simplified worlds in which prototypical events unfold. They are our first thoughts or taken-for-granted assumptions about what is 'typical' or 'normal'" (p. 59). I will analyze A Bad Case of Moosepox (Price, 1988), coding examples and themes that reveal the cultural models of boyhood that Harrie III may have used to understand the world. When I have identified enough themes of significance, and coded specific examples of them in A Bad Case of Moosepox (Price, 1988), I will begin scrutinizing DVDs. Here I will seek out examples of similar cultural models, as well as note other cultural models that may more readily emerge in film than written discourse. As a third check, I will look seek these cultural models in interactions with Chris Price.
Representation
Because of the richness of representation afforded by technologies of recent years, I am excited to throw what little academic weight I have into exploring and promoting new multimodal formats of representation, such as video, hypertext, and animation. However, I realize that change often happens glacially, and to be successful, those promoting the transition must also jump hurdles designed for traditional formats. My current best solution is to base a traditional representation in a non-linear hypertext, and heavily support it with video and audio clips of data from the films and interviews.
Sources
Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Clandinin, D.J., & Connelly, M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Fransico: Jossey Bass.
Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry.
Connelly, F.M. & Clandinin, D. J. (1988). Teachers as Curriculum Planners: Narratives of Experience. Toronto, Canada: OISE Press.
Gee , J.P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. New York: Routledge.
Gee, J.P. (1985). The narrativization of experience in the oral style. Journal of Education, 167 (1), 9-35.
Gomez, M.L. (1997). Definition of narrative inquiry, In Grant, C. A. and G. Ladson-Billings (Eds.), Dictionary of multicultural education. Phoenix, Ariz., Oryx Press.
Kress, G. R. and T. Van Leeuwen (2001). Multimodal discourse : the modes and media of contemporary communication. London, New York, Arnold : Oxford University Press.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Leont'ev, A. N. (1978). Activity, consciousness, and personality . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Price, H. B. III. (1988). A Bad Case of Moosepox. self-published.
Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning meaning, and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
