Ethnography By: Gurwinder Sandhu At the Charlotte Sikh church during these past few weeks, I got the

chance to observe a Sunday class in the morning. In this class, there was more than one teacher, each teaching their specialty. Teacher 1 would start off the morning and would teach the history/holy text part of the class. He would discuss his subject for about an hour to an hour and a half every Sunday and then hand the class over to teacher 2, who went over the grammar and translation part of the class. While observing this class, I focused on what the students normally do in that class and how the teachers would interact between the students. I also focused on how the students would interact and communicate with each other so I could understand the nature of that class and how it would feel if I was in their shoes. I also got the chance to be able to interview both of the teachers. The interview helped clear things up on what their goal was for having this Sunday school and what they are trying to do to achieve their goal. In this ethnography, I will only use the first two letters of the names I used in my observation. All the kids meet in the main hall of the church. This was a huge hall, as big as the student union with two TV's on each side and the holy text at the front of the main hall. They would begin the day by quizzing the students on the names of people that have influenced their culture and tradition. After that, one of the teachers would go up to the holy text and pick a random page in the book and read it out loud. They would then translate it for the younger students who cant fully understand the language yet so they could understand the message. Observing this lets me know that this class isnt just restricted to people that share the same tradition and culture but open to everyone since they start from the basics of the language, tradition and culture. After the translation, the students get up and go downstairs to their

classrooms. I was only able to observe one classroom which had four Sikh boys and four Sikh girls. The age range of the kids was from ten to fourteen; they were fairly young. The classroom was a square room with a lot of distractions that most classrooms didnt have. There were sofas, a bicycle, TV's, and a dresser. I assumed that they used this room temporarily since they dont have many resources and that this room might be used for another purpose. The things that did give this room a more classroom like appearance was the marker board and the desks in the middle of the room all facing the marker board. Teacher 1 starts off the day by telling them that their paper is due on the 24th and then goes on to talk about what they are going to do today. At this point, I started to think this class actually felt more like a primary school type class. I first assumed that since this class is only once a week, the students wouldn't learn much and all they would do is busy-work. The class honestly felt more like a college lecture hall since all the teacher did was talk and explain events in time while the students took notes or paid attention. The room wasnt as big as a lecture hall so the students couldnt really talk to each other in between the lecture without getting noticed by one of the teachers. This was the main reason why the classroom stayed so quiet throughout this part of the class. The only time I noticed the students actually have a conversation was before and after class times. In my observation, I definitely noticed the difference between the students who paid attention and wrote down notes versus the students who were getting by and didnt really seem to care much. HA was one of the girls that sat near the front of the class who took the most notes everyday while you have PR who sat in the back of the class just staring out into space and reaching for his phone all the time. Being aware of where they sat, I noticed how the rest of the class did depending on where they were seated. It seemed like the students who actually cared

and had an interest in the lesson mostly sat near the front of the classroom while the ones who were there because their parents made them or are just trying to get by, sat from the farthest middle to the back. I also noticed how the gender played a role in the classroom. The girls would sit around each other in the front of the class while the boys would sit mostly behind them. Teacher 2s way of teaching was much different from the first. The students had less restrictions so they were able to get away with side conversations easier. They also interacted more with the class instead of just taking notes the whole time. This class was more of a group learning type strategy. They were all given a piece of writing and one student was to read one line and the rest would have to try to figure out what the translation of that line was. This part of the class seemed more fun and enjoyable for the students than the first class. In this class, everyone participated and worked on finding out the translation to the lines. I also noticed that there were more questions asked in this class. The first class was very one sided in the communication aspect but this one went both ways. I also noticed that this class wasnt much of a note-taking type of class. It was more about practicing your language skills and learning how to communicate with each other in the Punjabi language. In my observation, I noticed that some of the students would work together to solve the problem. Seeing this made me see how the communication between the students worked out and how they worked together as a team. During my interview I asked teacher 1 how the class interacts with each other. Teacher 1 told me, "they would get in groups to solve problems and help each other out to help understand the lesson that they are going over." I found this to be a strong strategy to help the students because not only do they get to work with the people they want to work with, they are also learning at the same time. Even PR who doesnt really care much for the class would actually participate within the group just because he wanted to do whatever his friends were doing. Since

they are at a younger age, the groups they formed made it more fun for them to actually enjoy the work and not be as boring for them. Winning treats like candy helped keep them motivated to do better and get as much candy as they could. The groups were an effective way to get everyone involved and get the students to really engage in the work they were given. On the second day of my observation notes, they were doing the same regular routine meeting in the same main hall of the Sikh church and then followed up by going to their regular classrooms. Today was a special day for everyone since it was the first Sikh Gurus birthday so the teachers lessons revolved mostly around him. This was great since I got to see what this group does different on a holiday than what they do on an average Sunday. I didnt see much difference from last class and this class except for the kids getting treats and getting out a little earlier than usual. Teacher 1, although, did something different with his class today. Instead of making it mostly a lecture type of class, he made them get into groups and they were going to play a game of jeopardy. Just like before, the boys wanted to stay together and form their own groups while the girls did the same thing. Again, I got to see how well the class would communicate with each other and figure out the questions that were given to them. I saw a huge difference between the groups and how they interacted with each other. The girls group would actually talk with each other and use their fifteen seconds that they were allotted to figure out the question while you had some of the boys like TA that would just blurt out answers without even confirming it with his group. Seeing this proved that communication is key because the girls had won because they worked together and got every question right while the boys missed one of the questions because they didnt even try to talk to each other about the questions.

Observing this class showed me how it would be like to be in one these Sunday Schools and to be able to understand how the class works and what would be expected from me. The teachings

of both teachers taught me how it's important for the next generation to learn something that is so precious to them since it is something that will be a part of them forever. One of the biggest lessons I learned from my observation of this Sikh Sunday school is how communication is probably the most important way of being able to express what we know. I saw how the students were able to grasp the knowledge by either working together in groups, doing classroom activities, or by just listening to what the teacher was saying and taking notes at the same time. This class wouldn't be so much of a class if they had no way of communication with each other.