EDUC47310: Ethnographies of Education

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• Introduce students to key debates concerning ethnographies of education.
• Introduce students to core methods for ethnographic research in education.
• Introduce students to core methodological arguments around ethnographic research in education.

• What is ethnography? What are ethnographies of education?
• Negotiating access to research sites.
• Doing participant observation.
• The ethics of ethnography of education.
• Introducing methods for ethnography: writing field notes, collecting artefacts and documents, photography, video.
• Contemporary debates in ethnography: online and virtual ethnographies; multi-sited ethnographies.
• Introducing data analysis on paper and computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS).

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• A critical understanding of current debates in the ethnography of education.
• A critical understanding of key methods and methodologies in the ethnography of education.
• A critical understanding of ethical issues pertaining to the ethnography of education.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Evaluating approaches to the construction, management, and analysis of ethnographic data.

Key Skills:

• Demonstrate skills in academic writing.
• Demonstrate skills in the selection and evaluation of ethnographic literature.

• Workshops - each workshop will rest on a body of prior reading to be completed by students before class. All students will be expected to read the two core articles/chapters before each workshop all other reading during drung the module will then be guided by the students particular research interests (for example, some students may wish to read about multi-sited ethnographies in more depth, or to read about the specific ethical issues that pertain to online ethnographies).
• Workshops will follow a participatory format:
• 1. Small sections of tutor-led content.
• 2. Peer and tutor-led discussion groups.
• 3. Short practical exercises to exemplify issues covered in reading - for example, analysing samples of field notes; analysing photographs; planning for observations.
• 4. Data analysis on paper and/or using CAQDAS (NVivo - students who are interested in this will be able to download NVivo to their own devices and/or use university PCs). Data management.
• Assessment - students will be asked to write a comparative review of two published journal articles, to be chosen from a prepared list, that each rest on different modes of educational ethnography.

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