Review on The Ellis - Case Study Example

Study Review on ‘The Ellis Study’ Study Review on ‘The Ellis Study’ A. Study Goals, Research Questions, Methodsand Findings The Ellis Study focused on the academic approach in learning social sciences that do not adhere to the traditional way. It may sound to be controversial that takes the attention of various scholars as they analyzed it in various perspectives. For the case of the review, the summary on the points and insights of Ellis about her work would be presented first before the individual commentary by the reviewer. Afterwards, the post-positivist, constructivist, interpretivist, and critical inquiry perspectives given by various scholars would be compared with the personal analysis of Carolyn Ellis with regards to her article. The story was about the death of the sibling of Ellis from a plane crash. Using ethnographic, literature writing, autobiographical and sociological, the author wanted the audience to experience what the author experienced through the reading. The story started with the family background of the author wherein she told about the humble beginnings of their family as her parents were manual laborers until they started a construction business that became popular in Virginia. She then shared some details about her siblings Art, Judy and Rex (Ellis, 2005, p. 250). Afterwards she focused on narrating her closeness with her brother Rex regarding how they quarreled and cared for each other (Ellis, 2005, p. 251). Tragedy then came in 1982 when Rex was killed in a plane crash as he planned to visit his sister in Florida. He died at the age of 29. Before the accident, they talked about going to Washington as the author fixed the gifts for their parents. Rex even joked around as he bragged about his sister being a professor to his friends (Ellis, 2005, p. 252). Ellis was then shocked when her elder brother Art called and asked about the plane crash headlined on the news. At first, they thought it was another airplane, but it was really the flight where Rex was included (Ellis, 2005, p. 253). The siblings then asked the airline about the plane accident and they also watched the news to know about the rescued survivors. Ellis was then supported by her partner Gene with his daughter Beth (Ellis, 2005, p. 254). They waited for the confirmation as they still expect Rex to be one of the survivors (Ellis, 2005, p. 255).at three in the morning, a confirmatory phone call occurred as Rex was declared to be dead. The siblings then went to the house of their parents where they conducted the funeral of Rex (Ellis, 2005, p. 256). When the coffin and body of Rex was brought to the house, the mother of the author collapsed and stayed in the hospital as Art and the author stayed in the funeral to cater the needs of hundreds of visitors (Ellis, 2005, p. 257). The friends of Rex then arranged a party to commemorate him. Despite of the efforts to put a happy atmosphere, still seriousness overwhelmed the people in the party for the lost of Rex. Afterwards the family went to the room of Rex and got some of his mementos and even saw a dildo that they jokingly said to be the ones used by Rex to tickle his girlfriends. Art then planned to sell the stuffs of Rex in an auction. Then the author visited their mother at the hospital who did not want to go home as she felt safe in the hospital. With that, the author reenacted in her mind how Rex met his death (Ellis, 2005, p. 258). The author then met Rex in her dream and told him that he is already dead. After that dream, she did not dream of Rex again. The use of fiction or story in analyzing social science is a good way to project how experimental ethnography can effectively tackle a particular topic filled with emotions for a powerful understanding (Ellis, 2005, p. 259). Traditionally, social sciences had tackled various topics objectively wherein the scientists are just observers and they are not part of the picture. The article written by the author went against the traditional form as she made use of her own experience to share the feelings and experience to the readers for understanding. Her topic which is about death and plane crash were both hard to study in an objective view as it would not be possible to have a community since passengers of planes came from various regions. The radical empiricism is the practice of using oneself as test subject and own experience as the source of primary data. In that method, emotional recall is used to quickly retrieve the experience used as data (Ellis, 2005, p. 260). It is revealed that people can easily remember their experiences or retrieve memories when emotions and feelings are attached to those. As an ethnographer, the author advised more people to go deep into autobiographical writing in whole or part as to understand other people by knowing their own selves. She said that narrative is a good way to open doors to understanding among people. That exercise allows reflection for understanding and communication. The significance and purpose are both awaken through that method. With the article written in the perspective of the author, Ellis tried to put the readers in her place to experience and understand the feeling of losing a relative and the pain and burden of having a loved one left the Earth forever (Ellis, 2005, p. 261). Firsthand experience was used to illustrate and study humanity and social science as Ellis pointed out. B. Independent Commentary Ellis tried to connect literature and social science as she had seen social science to be rigid. That seems to make the study of social sciences to be boring and cold as others may find it. The reviewer too agrees with that concept of social science as the tradition and convention had set it forth. Ellis is a social scientist, but she wanted to make a change and apply a more humane treatment towards social sciences. It seems that social sciences usually work in theories where everything is controlled and the situations are just too perfect. In reality, several factors affect the environment that may cancel out one another in various degrees. Perhaps, Ellis had understood it that a renewal in social science and broadening its horizon would be the future of the discipline. Her style invokes the connections and relationships among individuals as they interact and affect one another in reality. She simply shows how it works in the bigger picture. The whole scenario is not controlled and many flaws as the tradition calls them that may affect the people involve. Emotions are then included and part of the learning as Ellis suggested. As she had pointed out that emotions also play a big role in learning, people will be able to grasp and understand the deeper meaning and connections of certain concepts that are part of an experience. With that, humans are able to make sound judgments and logical reasoning and sympathy. They will be able to associate objects with emotions that will greatly enhance their recall as feelings are already connected to those things. Probably Ellis had that good point to expand social science, but it must not replace the traditional way of studying social science. It should just be an addition to the methods in research and understanding about the human society. The conventional methods make the social science a quantitative approach while the method of Ellis which is more of a literary presentation is the qualitative approach. Quantitative approach is necessary as to easier interpretation and analysis of data while qualitative approach provides the details that numbers cannot give. The narrative way then provides the excitement for the readers and students to learn the practicality of social science. The dilemma is just that it may be confused or indistinguishable from literature like novels and poems. Perhaps the lay readers would be convinced with the explanations and goals of Ellis, but it may experience many criticisms from the social scientists as they may use various theories and approaches to prove that kind of article to be non-scholastic as it does not follow the rules lay down by convention. C. Analytic and Integrative Commentary D. C. Philips read the Ellis study just a few days after the World Trade Center bombing. He could feel the pain of the families who lost their loved ones in the plane crash on September 11, 2001. He was able to reflect on it as Ellis shared the plane crash accident where her brother died. Philips said that the work of Ellis was not a disciplined research, but a journal or autobiography. He pointed out that knowledge is not always seen on formal research as even journalism can share knowledge too (2005, p. 264). The author of the text being studies is a pioneer of the so-called autoethnographic interpretive inquiry which is the practice of moving the perspective from being objective to subjective as the third person point-of-view is converted to first person point-of-view. Lincoln then said that the method of Ellis makes use of the feelings instead of the conventional way of speaking outside of the object being studied (Goodall, 2000; Spickard, Landres, and McGuire, 2002 as cited in Ellis, 2005, p. 267). It focuses on learning the self through firsthand data like the experience. Some may approve of the following comparison, but many would reject it as scientific inquiry differs from interpretive inquiry in the way quantitative differs from qualitative method. Qualitative may provide details but it may become bias or subjective while the quantitative form gives rigid and formal way of viewing things. The truth about life that security is not 100 percent as life can be taken away anytime in unexpected fashion. The truth of the situation allowed Ellis to write, share and transform by the process. She was able to cope up with her situation. Bochner found out the hope of having a future that may revolutionize the social science inquiry (2005, p.270). Social science does not go into the perspective of the first person to share the emotions and intimate realm regarding human experience. The work of Ellis goes beyond the tradition as it questions the academic jargon and rigid methodologies in sharing the understanding to people. Bochner then advised Ellis to remove that chapter in her book and publish it in Sociological Quarterly since the story of the lost of her brother may take the attention of readers away from the other parts of the book (Ellis, 2005, p. 269). Lastly, critical perspective then focused on the structure and goes into the detail on the reason and processes that take place for a result to happen. Ellis being an interpretivist provided the stimulation and questions for opening possibilities and detailed examination on the whole event. It was reflected upon the actions of asking and verifying the plane crash to the airline company and depicting the responsibility of the government and how those actions. References Ellis, C. (2005). “There are survivors: Telling a story of sudden death. In J. Paul (Ed), Introduction to the philosophies of research and criticism in education and the social sciences (pp. 250-274). USA: Prentice Hall. Read More