DRAFT ACTIVITY 7

Field research plan
My research question is “What is a yoga group? what is the point of a yoga group?”
Using this as the basis of my inquiry based research report, I’m hoping to understand the various reasons why people join a yoga group or why they practise this ancient exercise. I want to research the requirements and necessities that anyone interested in joining a yoga group may need to possess before actually joining. This would be a very informative type of report and will probably enlighten potential yoga enthusiasts to join a yoga group. I’ve based my research question of the research prompt “case study on an individual striving to fit into a discourse community” the discourse community here being the yoga group, so the context of the report should be on how one must be or act to become a part of a yoga group.
I’ve been doing yoga a for a few years now and I know that there are several “aasnas” (poses) in the yoga terminology that people who have never done yoga before would not know and may need to forst witness before actually practising. Many times certain aasnas are performed for certwain reasons and in most classes, those reasons are mentioneed before doing. This is actually very useful and helpful in case anyone may have some body ache or inability to do the exercise.
To conduct my research, I’m going to attend a session at the yoga studio. There are three sessions 1) Roots or the Foundation class (for beginners) 2) The advanced class and 3) class for children. I can attend two out of three classes. The classes take place once a week and I can adjust my schedule to make time for this outing. I will attend the class and observe the teaching method and how easy or how hard it is to follow along in the advanced class (which is the class that I’ll be attending). Since Yoga has its origin in India (yogaasna) and since I learnt the majority of my yoga in India under certified professional yoga gurus, I can contrast and compare the teaching methods and effectiveness. I will interview one of the members of the yoga group. I’ll have an already printed out list of questions that I’ll be asking them and hopefully they’ll let me record their replies. I’ve also gathered some sources for my secondary research. I will be using a spiritual book from the UCBA library titled “The Subtle Body” written by Stephanie Shyman. This book seems apt as it has a lot to do with the widespread of yoga in America and that’s essentially what my research report is about, however I’ll probably be referring to this book after I’ve conducted the majority of my interviews so that it doesn’t bias my opinion on the entire situation.