AMU3248 · Field methods in anthropology and international development

Overview

The unit involves a field trip within Malaysia that provides you with formal and applied training in qualitative and ethnographic field research methods. The unit consists of a two-week travel that includes a field site visit, in which you will work with the Australian-based unit coordinator, local staff members from the School of Arts and Social Sciences (Monash Malaysia) and the Southeast Asian Community Observatory (SEACO) to conduct small-scale research projects, gather data in the field, analyse, and present findings. You also spend time at Monash Malaysia Sunway campus at the start and end of the field trip, with briefings and introductory presentations by academic staff, and data analysis and debriefing workshops at the end. In this briefing, you also learn about the socioeconomic and development context of Malaysia and the districts in which you will conduct your research. You will engage with the ethical issues of field research in regional Malaysia. You also learn about the aims, objectives and research methods of the research platform in which your field project is situated.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. explain the historical, social, cultural, economic and public health dimensions of the Malaysian research context;
2. discuss the ethical dimensions of community-based research in Malaysia, including those issues particular to the research setting or platform of their field project (example: SEACO or other research program);
3. utilise qualitative and ethnographic research methods;
4. develop a research question, designing appropriate research field methods, gathering data, and analysing that data;
5. working with field interpreters, and working in complex cross-cultural settings;
6. communicate in a presentation and written report the significance, design and findings of a small-scale research project;
7. critically analyse some of the key sustainable development issues facing communities in peri-urban and regional Malaysia.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 288 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.