Teaching (with) Postcards: Approaches in the classroom, the field, and the community

Abstract

This article showcases the pedagogical possibilities of working with postcards for teaching anthropology and related disciplinary fields by introducing a set of multifaceted tools and examples. It provides a framework for tangible reflexive teaching practices and a research methodology that supports, both intellectually and emotionally, a vibrant and mobile community of scholars. We commence with the emergence of the postcard, and its (widely undervalued) role as a research subject in the social sciences. Examples from the arts, literature, teaching and research offer inspiration for engaged and creative teaching formats. These cases support our claim that as seemingly ‘anachronistic’ object of communication, postcards are useful for teaching in the classroom, for teaching ethnography, and for community-based work and teaching. In fact, as a traveling communication device, the repurposed postcard lends itself to connect the oft-physically and conceptually divided spaces of the classroom and the ethnographic ‘field.’ Concurrently, the opening of postcards allows for a critique of the medium’s historical use in exoticization the ‘other.’ In other writing [anonymized], we explore in more detail the multimodal qualities of working ethnographically on, within, or through postcards. We here extend the pedagogical potentials to use postcards for innovative approaches in ethnographic research, public anthropology, and applied community work.

Experimenting with Ethnography

“…Postcards as a mechanism for comparing data have also been explored through the data visualization proj ect "Dear Data" (Posavec and Lupi 2016). For recent invitations to write postcards as a form of ethnographic method, see Gugganig (2017); Gugganig and Schor (2020).…”

Multimodal Ethnography in/of/as Postcards

“…There have been a few experimental engagements with postcards as research method (Adjin‐Tettey et al. 2008; Allen and Rumbold 2004), 2 and in another publication (Gugganig and Schor 2020) we detail the pedagogical possibilities of teaching with postcards. In the following, we provide a theoretical and methodological elaboration on the visual and tactile media of postcards by connecting the idiom of ethnographic work in/of/as open systems (Fortun 2003) with multimodal anthropological approaches (Collins, Durington, and Gill 2017; Dattatreyan and Marrero‐Guillamón 2019; Powis 2017).…”

“…This interplay between printed words and images, handwritten messages, stamps, and the overall context of postcard use as personal communiqués, items shared among collectors, or virtual artifacts (Gillen 2013;Gillen and Hall 2011;Hall and Gillen 2007;Östman 2004) encompasses the rich multifaceted and multimodal dimensions of postcards that this essay expands upon. There have been a few experimental engagements with postcards as research method (Adjin-Tettey et al 2008;Allen and Rumbold 2004), 2 and in another publication (Gugganig and Schor 2020) we detail the pedagogical possibilities of teaching with postcards. In the following, we provide a theoretical and methodological elaboration on the visual and tactile media of postcards by connecting the idiom of ethnographic work in/of/as open systems (Fortun 2003) with multimodal anthropological approaches Dattatreyan and Marrero-Guillamón 2019;Powis 2017).…”

Teacher Actions in Improving Early Childhood Literacy to Stimulate Critical Reasoning through Picture Cards

“…Bermain menawarkan anak-anak kesempatan untuk mengekspresikan kreativitas mereka untuk menemukan pengalaman belajar baru. Kartu bergambar adalah cara untuk membantu anak untuk berkembang (Gugganig & Schor, 2020). Kata adalah gabungan huruf yang memiliki arti.…”