Monday, January 24, 2011

Learning Journal 7: Finding a Book

I have been looking for several books to read about the Tongan culture for my book review.  I have noticed that there aren't nearly as many books about Tonga as there are about a lot of other cultures, which makes it difficult to find  a good book to read for the review.  However, I have been able to find a couple that talk about adolescents and social problems, which will hopefully be helpful and applicable to my project.  As I continue to search for articles to use for my proposal I am noticing that there are a ton on adolescents and aggression, and children and social problems, but not many on children in Tongan, especially on aggression.

As I continue to think about my project, I am wondering if I might run into problems with the topic that I am studying now. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if the topic might be sensitive among the Tongan people.  I am concerned that people might not want to talk about their parenting styles, especially to someone like me, who is likely to perceive them as harsh.  I need to look more into this and see if this is a possibility.

One last thought I have had is about my paradigm that I am looking through.  We have been talking about this in class, and I think it's important to make sure that when I am in the field, I am trying not to view the culture through my American-LDS paradigm.  It's important to look at the culture with open eyes, but that's easier said than done.  I think that will be something that will take work throughout the whole time I'm there.

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