How Journalists Find the Beat: A cognitive ethnography of journalistic pedagogy

David Shaffer

What kinds of activities and programs can help young people develop the technical, social, and intellectual skills and habits they need to become active citizens in a complex and changing world? This critical question has been explored for over a century. However, new technologies provide an opportunity to revisit these issues in a new light. My current work is on developing a theory of pedagogical praxis, which suggests that new technologies can help students participate more directly in the world of adult activities and thus to learn about the world by engaging in meaningful work – and that professional practices are useful models for developing such environments. This is not a new idea; rather, it explains one way that new technologies support Dewey’s vision of bringing the “life of the child” into the process of learning. Pedagogical praxis argues that professional practices reflect distinctive epistemologies – ways of knowing and ways of deciding what is worth knowing. These epistemologies of practice intersect with and overlap traditional academic disciplines, suggesting that professional practices may provide an alternate model for creating compelling learning environments. How Journalists Find the Beat is the first study of a larger research project using the theory of pedagogical practice to develop a learning environment in which high school students develop the skills and attitudes they need to become active participants in their communities by working as community journalists. The first step in developing such an environment is to conduct an ethnographic study of the practices through which journalists are trained. Previous studies have explored particular aspects of journalism training in some detail. Here, the focus is on how elements of journalism practice are constituted as a coherent system of activity in the process of training journalists. In this study I observe undergraduate courses in journalism and newsrooms where young reporters develop their craft, interview professors of journalism and practicing journalists, and review textbooks and other literature on journalism training. Based on these observations, I use case-focused analysis to understand the practices through which journalists are trained. I look at beliefs about journalism and journalism training, the practices of journalism, and the training of journalists, with the aim of describing the functional relationships between practices and the epistemology that underlies them -- and thus provide a framework for adapting these practices for K-12 students. This major study of journalism represents an important step in developing a comparative epistemology of professional practices. Looking at the similarities and differences between the epistemologies and pedagogies of journalism and other professions I have studied (including medicine, design, and mediation) will be an integral part of understanding how the ways of knowing embodied in professional practices can become a powerful tool for student learning in a technology-rich, knowledge-based society.

About David Shaffer

David Williamson Shaffer is a former teacher, curriculum developer, teacher-trainer, and school technology specialist. He has taught grades 4-12 in the United States and abroad, including two years working with the Asian Development Bank and US Peace Corps in Nepal. Dr. Shaffer’s M.S. and Ph.D. are from the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his work focused on the development and evaluation of technology-supported learning environments. After completing his doctoral studies, Dr. Shaffer taught and conducted research at the Technology and Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science Applied to Education in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his research interests are in how computational media change the way people think and learn. Dr. Shaffer's current projects focus on professions as models for technology-enhanced education in traditional disciplines.