Wishing (after Rites)

This particular bit of inquiry is done (for the moment, this topic continues to fascinate me). Appraisal time.

A good strength of this project was the intense focus I had on the topic and good questions to define what information I needed. I was excited to research, and I was able to sift what information was beneficial and what was extraneous. Finding pictures was a great help, it helped to prove rites are active in the world. I felt the PowerPoint flowed naturally from one point to the next, and the transitions/font/backgrounds are not distracting.

Weakness of the project occur in me, the presenter. I have no background with this topic, nor was I able to observe any rites beforehand. There are no personal stories to add to the PowerPoint. Q&A would amount to me saying, “The research suggests this.” I had considered rites taking place outside the West to be outside the project’s scope, but having examples would have been useful.

I was surprised to find that work I had done in the posts in this blog could be incorporated into the project. For example, the chart I made categorizing existing rites was added into my PowerPoint. I had simply considered them exercises, ways to organize my thoughts. Early parts of the inquiry process can be used for the final project, even when a final conclusion was not formed at that moment.

What would I do differently or change next time? I would prefer to have photos of rites I myself had observed. I would like to have a partner there with me, someone who has either gone through a modern rite or been an adult mentor. A live example, with their own stories and observations would be amazing. Also, some actual examples of tests or events the boys go through. Plus, lessons that are taught during a rite. Again, that kind of information would require a direct interview, something I could not obtain at this time.

This project can be used for a curriculum connection to various age groups. Going down to grade school level would be problematic. They are still very much children, and likely not interested in undergoing a rite at that age. However, you could pull examples from classroom literature about characters who completed a rite. Perhaps writing a short story where the students craft another test or rite for that character. They would have to use the context and background of the story, and perhaps need a visit to the media center to gain ideas from the story’s time period.

Obviously, the project was designed for students at a middle school age group or early high school. A direct curriculum connection could be examining what adulthood meant in the past (history connection), and what adulthood means today (current events connection). Then, have the students brainstorm what kinds of tests could be modernized, and what mentors in their own community could be contacted. I think it would be hard, in a directly school setting, to tell the students they ‘need’ to have a rite. Interest, however, can be sparked and guided.

At the beginning of the blog I listed educational standards that would meet with a rites of passage lesson. That post, however, only reflected Indiana standards. I wanted to examine this topic on a more nationwide scale. The AASL Standards were very applicable to this theme. In fact, I tried to limit myself to just one standard from each AASL section:

1.1.5 Evaluate information found in selected 
sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context.

1.2.4 Maintain a critical stance by questioning 
the validity and accuracy of all information.

(these were both excellent matches)

2.3.1 Connect understanding to the real world.

3.2.2 Show social responsibility by participating actively with others in learning situations and by contributing questions and ideas during group discussions.

4.2.3 Maintain openness to new ideas 
by considering divergent opinions, changing opinions
or conclusions when evidence supports the change, and seeking information about new ideas encountered through academic or personal experiences.

As a quick reference guide, a list of the technology applications I used in this inquiry process:

I used electronic communication (email) with experts – Wiggling

I used a social bookmarking site to share valuable research sources – Weaving

I used a bubble map to organize my thoughts for potential projects – Wrapping

I used an electronic presentation tool (PowerPoint) in my final project – Waving

How has this entire inquiry process altered my research approach? We heard multiple times that the 8W’s can flow in a loop; a new piece of information can restart the process from several steps back. Which is a good thing! That loop can lead to a more insightful question and final answer than the original direction. Personally, I found difficulty in separating the W’s apart. During my research over the past several years, I have either finished a W in a matter of moments, or combined it with the following step. Positive or negative? High grades would suggest that combination process works.

I think when dealing with a complex topic, taking the time to use each W step to its fullest capability results in a richer, more relevant conclusion to share. To summarize: my future projects will flow much easier if I slow down in certain areas! Like younger children, when I reach an engaging part of the research, I fly right through it, only absorbing the more exciting parts. Energy rushes fade though, and I want to be sure the gathered information has been properly measured. My time in library school is almost over, and learning inquiry has been an incredibly valuable tool for my career!

Waving (before Rites)

Ok, separating these W’s are hard! I keep combining them together, or I seem to miss the point of the previous one. I already identified an audience and settled on a project format. The only thing I left for this W is the project itself.

Ok, yes, I want to share my ideas here with others in real life. Maybe I could make a link on Facebook. Make a post that reads, “Come visit this class blog if you want to see what librarian-level research can do,” or “Modern rites of passage, do we need them?” Any comments left would signify wider interest.

I decided to model my PowerPoint as a combination of persuasion and instruction. Persuasion that rites of passage are needed, and instruction on how to design one. I tried to remember that I was ‘presenting’ before a group of sixth or seventh graders. I found myself using words and terms that might be too advanced for their vocabulary. A unique problem of PowerPoint: you have to summarize an idea into a very short phrase. Big words often help.

Where could I present this? Perhaps at a Boys and Girls club, church youth group, or a Scout’s meeting. Though my brief research into the Scouts suggests they have the rites bases covered. Also, a meeting of community leaders so they would be motivated to be mentors for the boys.

Ok, and the project itself. This is actually my first time linking to work uploaded onto Oncourse, so we will see how accessible this is. Could be classmates only.

https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/robneuen/Neuenschwander%20-%20Rites.pptx

EDIT: Another approach to PowerPoint linking. The preview you get looks like a jumbled mess, but it should be fine when you download the file.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/66336388

Wrapping (around Rites)

Everything I have learned so far…how can I share this? First thing that comes to mind is a PowerPoint. A presentation directed at one level to students and at another level to their parents/guardians. Another idea would be finding a representative from an (hopefully nearby) organization that does rites work and interview them infront of the class. It would be difficult for me to write a convincing diary series or drama, as I have not personally experienced a rite.

That bubble map has been so popular, I found a way I can use it too! When thinking about how to advise constructing a rite, I needed a way to organize my thoughts. Thoughts around what a rite is supposed to actually DO. Once I know what it is I want to communicate, hopefully a format will follow.

Rites Bubble Map

This information is important to me because if more families start to use rites, the next generation of men will be more sure of themselves, more confident in their abilities, and able to actually LEAD among their friends and community.

My forthcoming presentation can be used to make simplified guidelines for crafting a rite for a modern audience. JUST enough information to make listeners curious, and/or form the skeleton for a rite creation of their own.

People I can think of who need to know this: parents (especially families where the dad is gone/absent/not in the picture), organizations already in the community that interact with youth, and young boys in general.

I think a PowerPoint would be best for my intentions. Something aimed at middle school students. I think the rite process should be completed come high school graduation, because in modern society the general assumption is 18 years equals adulthood. As a PowerPoint, it could be copied and shown in other places. Provided that the PowerPoint is constructed well, middle schoolers would pay attention and not be distracted.

This is an aspect of inquiry that I appreciate. I CHOOSE what the final project will be. I can remember so many times in high school where the subject matter was interesting, but I detested the project/presentation that involved it. This way, I can mold the information as I see it, and it lends inspiration and direction to my efforts.

Weaving (through Rites)

Once again, I find that in my past research projects I have combined two of the W’s. Weaving and the previous Wiggling have taken place almost simultaneously. I will try to make Weaving into a more identifiable entity for this post.

Part 1 – Organize

Big find recently. The very term I am working with was coined by Arnold van Gennep in his 1909 book The Rites of Passage. That threefold focus I knew at the start of the inquiry is found in Gennep’s work.

The three stages:

Separation – a focused detachment from a previous way of living, cutting away of ‘childish’ things.

Transition – longest/most intense period. Learning about life, responsibilities, working with mentors.

Ceremony/incorporation – a public declaration that tests have been completed and the new adult is ready to take on full responsibilities in the community.

So, the purpose all along has been to identify modern rites in the West. Time to classify what I have found and see if one list has more entries than others.

Religious focus	Baptism, confirmation, bar mitzvah, christenings, first communion (perhaps occurring as a child), vision quest
Group focus	Graduation (high school, college), completion of Boy Scouts
Personal focus – teen years	Quinceañera / Sweet Sixteen / major birthday, start/end of puberty, débutante balls,
Personal focus – 20+ years	Moving out of home, first major job, marriage
Negative rite	Gang initiation, hazing
New/modern rite	Deliberate mentorship of young teens by older adults

Part 2 – Analyze

What does this suggest? What does the initial analysis of this information say? Can I test it with my other findings? Yes. In the West, we only focus on the last part of the rite. The ceremony itself, proclaiming to the community that this individual is an adult. Nearly all of the words in the above chart are a singular event.

This information, by itself, is merely a report. I need to avoid reports. I have hung onto this quote from Gordon (1999), from a reading in the first week of class. It serves as a constant reminder: “The research assignment acts as a reporting exercise when student involvement is limited to information gathering, which is usually demonstrated by reading, taking notes, and writing a summary. Reporting has masqueraded as researching for so long that the terms are used interchangeably.”

This is the part of ‘what if?’ What if full rites existed in the West? Men could be confident that they were prepared for the real world. They would not be afraid of it. They would not waste adult hours on immature pursuits. They could actually mentor and TEACH others how to have a full life. Crime would go down, the number of desirable mates for women would increase. Lessons from the past would not be lost, and culture would be remembered and modified to keep up with the times.

Part 3 – Synthesize

To avoid reporting my information, I feel drawn to make the second part of my inquiry question the focus of my presentation: what would a modern FULL (all three parts) rite look like in the West? Design a rite from scratch…do I have enough research and insight to attempt that? Well, I could borrow ideas from organizations that are currently active. In this annotated bookmark list, I have found ten websites that describe current and active organizations that truly seek to turn boys into men, and fun/interesting articles that really directed my research.

http://www.delicious.com/arjayen/Rites

Note: my annotations are located below each link on this list.

I do not feel that I need to revise my original question. I can simply state that the normal, mainstream Western rites are incomplete. That gives me room to address the second part of my inquiry. Further research will be focused on that aspect.

What kind of project can I make from this? I find myself suddenly forgetting this needs to be applicable to STUDENTS. I started a PowerPoint rough draft, and realized I was directing it more towards PARENTS. I will keep two ages in mind for this product. Either middle school students interested in designing/joining a rite, or older teens on the cusp of graduation, to serve as a ‘checklist’ that they are truly ready for the real world.

Gordon, C. (1999). Students as authentic researchers, accessed online on Sept 18, 2011 at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/slmrcontents/volume21999/vol2gordon.cfm

Wiggling (over Rites)

This phase I am more familiar with. Whenever I find a piece of usable information, I will classify it right away and place it in a like-minded subject area in my paper or my notes. I have to immediately assign the information a home, otherwise I can forget why I selected it and where I wanted to place it.

I decided to review my normal checklist on the accuracy of sources, and see if an inquiry-based approach changed anything:

-Credentials of the author. If they are listed, they can be checked. (Not something I normally do, but knowing that option is there helps authenticate the information)

-Where did I find it? Online database article is better than just a website.

-How much of the total work did I read? Obviously, I do not have the time to read an entire book if only one chapter is relevant. But I need to read the whole chapter to understand the context of the information I DID use.

-How current is the information? I tend to use sources written or updated within the last three years when possible.

*New from inquiry*

-[Efficiency] How easy was it to find? If the information is buried in a website, any teacher checking that part could have trouble locating it.

-Cross-checking. Evaluating Internet Resources on Teacher Tap, written by Johnson and Lamb (2011) was something critical for me. I never had a real system for cross-checking. I would either throw the information out, or trim the questionable data down to just a one-sentence point. Now, I know I should have three independent sources to verify the information. Questionable information can be placed in a chart or graphic organizer, and marked each time another source has confirmed the findings.

The hardest part for me, in Wiggling, is cutting information out. Some of the sources I found, typically an online article, did not list any links or show it was actually the result of research. It could be a glorified blog post for all I know. Even though the information was interesting, I had to take it out because it was not reliable or proven. The article here by Hepburn http://www.manolith.com/2009/07/14/rites-of-passage/ listed several rites I was unaware of. While I could search the rites the article listed in other sources, I would not use this article itself. This article http://listverse.com/2009/12/28/10-bizarre-rites-of-passage/

also had new rites, but the author was a username, and the website was essentially for popular interests. Other times, I decided I would list the author and site and make it clear this was an OPINION I found.

Around this time I was receiving response to emails I had sent out. Predominately, I asked for help from the IUPUI professors in the Sociology department. I gathered their names from the Sociology Directory, which as of September 17, 2011 is found at http://liberalarts.iupui.edu/sociology/index.php/faculty_staff/. The professors had their ‘academic interests’ listed, and I wrote to those who potentially had knowledge about rites of passage. I hoped they would have enough expertise in directing me to quality resources. They…did help, but not in the way I expected. My initial email explained who I was, and what I wanted their expert input on (rites of passage, and if any modern ones exist in the West). To my distress…none of them really understood what I was asking! This was a bad sign, if the experts were not following my line of research and questioning.

However, several new avenues resulted from the emails. Carol Gardner, Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Women's Studies and American Studies, said that what I wanted to know was more of an anthropology question. So that could be why my searching in online databases was so problematic: I was looking in the wrong discipline! Patricia Wittberg, another Professor of Sociology at IUPUI, said in her reply if I was meaning religious rites of passage. That has been a reoccurring event. People who I discuss my topic with think I am pursing spiritual rites, such as the Jewish bar mitzvah. This is another aspect to pursue, because it could mean:

A) – There is a spiritual component to rites of passage that cannot be overlooked, and/or

B) – The only rites that still exist in the modern world are the ones with religious undertones.

It is finally happened for me, at this point in inquiry: I realize how much I do not know about my topic!

Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2011). Evaluating internet resources. Teacher Tap, accessed online on Sept 17, 2011 at http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm

Webbing (with Rites)

Frustration…not setting in YET. I am finding print sources for my research, but online/digital are harder to come by.

As Lamb (2011) said in the class section of Webbing, my primary question has a web of information surrounding it. The kind of information I need is recent in nature, because I want current opinions and discussions on modern rites. I have been searching for this information in a variety of formats.

Simply browsing through the Allen County Public Library’s OPAC displayed a good number of books, when searching with the term “rites of passage.” I have also found a few online communities/websites/special interest groups that have discussed my topic. The Art of Manliness website had at least one awesome article < http://artofmanliness.com/2010/02/21/male-rites-of-passage-from-around-the-world/>. Podcasts have been a double-edged sword. They can be rich in content, but you have to listen to the entire broadcast to see if there is usable information. The New Man Podcast has given a few gems, such as the Threshold Passages organization < http://www.thenewmanpodcast.com/2008/03/tnm-015-have-you-lost-your-teenage-fire/>. Inquiry is time consuming. I can see now why planning ahead on where to find information is such a critical part.

General searching through online databases like EBSCO and WilsonWeb has not proven as fruitful as I expected. Which database collection of journals to select and then search through is difficult to determine. Either this topic has not been the subject of many magazine articles, or I am not looking in the right places.

I also sent a few emails to sociology profs at IUPUI and at my undergrad college. Still waiting on responses. I hope they can shed light on new avenues to pursue.

I found I may have to extend my focus. While I want to talk about modern rites in the West, I ALSO need to cover present rites in other parts of the world, to compare and contrast.

Key Ideas:

Words: separation, maturing, group, growing up, life lessons

People: boy, teacher, elder, squire, knight, journeyman

Places: outdoors, school, training area, campgrounds,

Chronology: adolescence, early adulthood, formative years

Ideas: feminism conflict, loss of father figures, extended adolescence, passed down knowledge

What WOULD be an excellent source is to find someone who designed or went through a formalized rite. That would be an excellent primary source.

Sources…I realize I may have been mixing up primary and secondary sources on this project. Several reference books I have used, such as Life Events and Rites of Passage, by Jeff Hill and Peggy Daniels, would be considered a textbook or encyclopedia. Ok, I need to think about what a good primary source would be. An interview or speech. A diary. Official records of an event. I have to remember that a secondary source interprets or reviews previous findings.

So, primary sources I have found so far would be the podcasts, and a few of the books. The articles I have found…I would have to place as secondary. I need to remember what information sources have the most valid information. As I think about this…in my previous inquiry journeys throughout the years, I would simply group all of the sources together. Never truly ranked them on which held more ‘authority’ and which did not.

Lamb, A. (2011). Webbing. 8W’s, accessed online on Sept 15, 2011 at http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/webbing.htm

Wondering (about Rites)

Yeah, ok. That is what I thought would happen. It would appear a good portion of my Wondering happened at the same time as my Watching. I believe since I already had so many stimulating potential topics (as related in my first post, maybe that should be retitled), it made my Watching phase last about 30 seconds. So, let me see if there are any aspects of Wondering left that I can include in this post.

Ok, here is one. What do I already know about rites of passage? I know they typically boil down into three stages. First, there is a separation of some kind. Boy is taken from his mom and family and gathered with the older males. Second, there is the training. Lessons passed down from the elders and experienced community members. Third, some kind of ceremony or test or recognition that symbolizes the training is complete. Now, is this the formula across time and place, or simply the most well-known version?

What are the potential rites that already exist in America? Receiving your driver’s license is a big step towards independence, but that is not THE event. High school graduation…ehh…that is so much of a cultural expectation that the specialness is lacking. Now, COLLEGE graduation (or finishing graduate school) would be significant. But, I am sure we all know someone who spent their studies drunk half the time or not truly applying themselves. The degree means you can do the work…not if you can do the work in an emotionally/socially balanced way.

Ok, let us look beyond or concurrent to college. Except that is pushing the rite into your twenties, and that is too old. Moving out of your parent’s home is a huge transition. Learning how to keep house, pay all these new bills, would certainly add adult responsibility. Similarly, having a professional full-time job could be a rite, provided you prove successful at it.

Perhaps the ability to attract a mate? Having enough intelligence, social skills, and charm to attract and marry a girlfriend/wife would be good evidence for a mature guy. Except your pet dog can find a mate and surely your mind is more complex than that.

What is the ultimate focus for this inquiry? The master question. I find myself leaning towards a two-part inquiry: Is there a current rite of passage alive today in Western culture? If not, then what would such a process look like?

On the Graphic Inquiry website, there was a list mentioned by Koechlin and Zwann to evaluate research questions.

Focus - Does your question help to focus your research?

Yes. I am not concerned with assigning blame or breaking down why the rites went out of style.

Interest - Are you excited about your question?

Very much!

Knowledge - Will your question help you learn?

Yes. A new definition for adulthood and maturity could result from this.

Processing - Will your question help you understand your topic better?

Yes. It will help me see what themes and lessons are enduring across various different cultures.

Eduscapes. “Graphics and the Inquiry Process.” Graphic inquiry. Accessed on Sept 11, 2011 at http://eduscapes.com/sessions/graphic/graphicinquiry.htm