Using ethnographic research approaches to investigate complex social processes within a real-world school context

Leslie, Pippa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3513-5995 (2024) Using ethnographic research approaches to investigate complex social processes within a real-world school context. In: TEAN (Teacher Education Advancement Network) Conference 2024, 22-23 May 2024, Manchester, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This workshop is focused on using ethnographic approaches in collaborative research with teachers to investigate complex social and dynamic processes in a real-world context such as a school. To illustrate the key ideas, I will use my recent case study research project in a primary school where the staff were working collaboratively to develop children’s beliefs about intelligence for two or more years prior to my engagement with them. The school staff were trying to develop an approach to teaching that encouraged the belief that intelligence is malleable (Dweck and Yeager, 2019). The aim of the workshop is for teacher educators to take away some principles and strategies for ethnographic research approaches including: sustained immersion, focus on social interaction, participatory observation, visual and creative methods, ethically important moments, managing the volume and multiple sources of rich data, reporting on a non-linear research process, and the role of the researcher as a primary instrument (Walsh and Seale, 2018; Agar, 2004; Guillemin & Gillam, 2004; McGowan, 2020). Participants will take away some key principles and strategies for adopting ethnographic approaches in their research and which may also inform professional inquiry by their student teachers.

Key References:
Agar, M. (2004) ‘We have met the other and we're all nonlinear: Ethnography as a nonlinear dynamic system’, Complexity, 10(2), pp. 16-24.
Dweck, C. and Yeager, D. (2019) ‘Mindsets: A view from two eras’, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(3), pp. 481-496.
Guillemin, M. and Gillam, L. (2004) ‘Ethics, reflexivity, and “ethically important moments” in research’. Qualitative Inquiry, 10(2), pp. 261-280.
McGowan, W. (2020) ‘If you didn’t laugh, you’d cry’: Emotional labour, reflexivity and ethics-as-practice in a qualitative fieldwork context, Methodological Innovations, 13(2), pp. 1-10
Walsh, D. and Seale, C. (2018) ‘Doing Ethnography’, in Seale, C. (ed.) Researching society and culture. 4th edn. London: Sage Publications Ltd., pp. 257-274.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Workshop)
Departments:	Institute of Education > School Direct General Learning Education and Development (LED)
Additional Information:	Workshop 91 at this conference.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2024 13:16
Last Modified:	18 Jun 2024 16:00
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7724

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