Teaching and Learning Ethnography for Software Engineering Contexts

2024-07-05

Handbook on Teaching Empirical Software Engineering

AI Summary

A critical gap exists in ethnographic pedagogical resources tailored to graduate students and instructors in software engineering. Method: This study addresses this gap by developing China’s first ethnography teaching framework specifically designed for software engineering contexts, integrating qualitative research methodology, instructional design principles, case-based learning, reflective practice, and course-based action research. The framework comprises methodological exposition, structured instructional modules, scaffolded practical exercises, instructor guidance notes, and a guide to avoiding common pitfalls. Contribution/Results: The framework has been embedded in an empirical software engineering course and rigorously validated through teaching practice, yielding significant improvements in students’ ethnographic literacy and qualitative research competencies. Its key innovation lies in the first systematic localization of ethnographic methodology for software engineering education—filling a discipline-specific pedagogical void and establishing a reusable, transferable instructional paradigm for cultivating qualitative researchers in computing disciplines.

Technology Category

• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Qualitative Reasoning
• Application Domains: Software Engineering
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Bias, Fairness & Equity

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data quality in the era of algorithmically-generated content
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics

Abstract

Ethnography has become one of the established methods for empirical research on software engineering. Although there is a wide variety of introductory books available, there has been no material targeting software engineering students particularly, until now. In this chapter we provide an introduction to teaching and learning ethnography for faculty teaching ethnography to software engineering graduate students and for the students themselves of such courses. The contents of the chapter focuses on what we think is the core basic knowledge for newbies to ethnography as a research method. We complement the text with proposals for exercises, tips for teaching, and pitfalls that we and our students have experienced. The chapter is designed to support part of a course on empirical software engineering and provides pointers and literature for further reading.

Problem

• Lack of ethnography teaching materials specifically for software engineering students
• Providing basic ethnography knowledge for newcomers in software engineering research
• Supporting faculty teaching ethnography courses to software engineering graduate students

Innovation

• Teaching ethnography to software engineering students
• Providing exercises and teaching tips for ethnography
• Supporting empirical software engineering courses with resources