Undergraduate January Term

Course Description

Experience Studio engages students in an immersive learning experience that brings them outside the classroom and into the community. This project-based course provides students with an opportunity to learn about ethnographic fieldwork in practice, and in doing so, support the reflective development of an innovative nine-year non-state school (minban 民办学校) for migrant children in rural Guangdong province. 

Guinan School (guinanxuexiao 桂南学校) was founded in 2003 as a school for children of rural migrant workers (nongmingong zidi xuexiao 农民工子弟学校). At present, 99.75% of the 1,200 students are children of migrant workers (suiqian zinü 随迁子女), that is, children without local household registration. In 2022, 60% of graduates entered vocational high schools, 35% entered regular high schools, and 5% stopped receiving formal education. 

This course empirically revolves around the education practices of Guinan School, and theoretically revolves around a holistic research question: How can grassroots non-state schools provide a “good education” suitable for migrant children?

Students will:

(1) explore the theoretical and practical underpinnings of community-engaged multimodal ethnography through readings, field-based seminars, and reflective practice in consultation with local stake-holders;

(2) Through self-reflection and in-depth interaction with fellow students and community partners, acquire embodied, holistic knowledge of the processes, tensions, contradictions, and rewards that constitute ethnographic fieldwork;

(3) Drawing from their immersive ethnographic fieldwork and adopting a team ethnographic approach, co-design and co-produce a multimodal research project that examines different aspects of Guinan’s current education practices as a case study, with the aim to address the overall research question stated above;

(4) Co-produce an itinerant exhibition hosted on the two campuses of Guinan School and NYU Shanghai.