This article draws on an ongoing ethnography of distributed medical education (DME) provision in Canada in order to explore the methodological choices of the researchers as well as the wider pluralisation of ethnographic frameworks that is reflected within current research literature. The article begins with a consideration of the technologically…

This document aims to help education ethnographers to think about, describe and complete their scientific research: based on a personal research curricula and ongoing scientific discussions in social sciences and psychology, I develop an anthropology synthesis of three epistemic distances. (1) Cultural distance from fieldwork: How far is the…

Much has been written about the style of lecturing that is adopted by lecturers in institutions of further and higher education. However, little has been written about interactions that take place in the informal settings of college and university campuses. Using an ethnographic approach, this paper presents an exploration of how students at the…

The concept of space is gaining increased attention in studies of sexuality and gender, not least those focusing on heterosexism and heteronormativity. Such studies have demonstrated that space is sexualised, gendered and actively produced. In this article, we present the findings from an ethnographic study of two Icelandic upper secondary…

Researchers' "reflexivity" about how they shape the phenomena that they study within the data collection process is often presented as a crucial component of ethnographic research methodology. Nevertheless, academic literature about ethnography is mostly silent around whether researchers' dreams are relevant to the research…

This paper is an ethnographic study of weekly intercultural meetings held at an alternative community space run by a large private university in Tokyo, Japan. Through a "team ethnography", the two authors of this paper illuminate ways in which alternative modes of learning were promoted and institutional boundaries were transgressed and…

This paper discusses the strengths of using ethnographic research methods in cross-national comparative research. It focuses particularly on the potential of applying such methods to the study of migrants and minority ethnic youth in education, where large-scale quantitative studies or single-sited ethnographies are currently dominant. By linking…

The article concerns doing ethnography in education and it reflects upon using "videographic participation" for data collection and the concept of "audiovisual narratives" for dissemination, which is inspired by the idea of developing academic video. The article takes a narrative approach to qualitative research and presents a…

This article explores challenges of applying an ethnographic approach, combining participant observation and interviews, to a study of organizational change. The exploration is connected to reform changes, as they are constructed in the interaction between managers and teachers, in a Danish Upper Secondary High School. The data material is…

In this article, we discuss the usefulness of collaborative, multi-sited and cross-cultural ethnography. Giving three examples from our work, we suggest that it is possible to find new kinds of interpretations by joint reflections that draw from several studies with their own research questions. The cases presented discuss teachers'…

The aim of this article is to describe and analyse learning processes among bodybuilders in bodybuilding environments, focusing on the ways activities form the basis for incorporation of both physical and cultural knowledge. Emanating from an ethnographic study, the arguments are based on a constructionist approach to knowledge. The result…

This micro-ethnographic study investigated pedagogy in two English primary schools, following a change of government and challenges posed by economic austerity. Unlike the previous decade's emphasis on children's curiosity and agency and valuing arts and partnership, emphasis on knowledge and attainment was now foregrounded. A two-stage…

Using fieldnotes from the non-formal adult education classes run by a non-profit international education with ground operations in rural Mozambique, this article documents how the comments made by class facilitators and class participants in those classes reflect inherent power inequalities between non-profit staff and local participants. These…

This paper is a re-engagement with some ethnographic data, originally analysed using a sociocultural approach. It makes use of a recent proposal that Lacan's "mirror stage" when applied to an analysis of classroom settings and interactions can offer a fruitful way of explaining and understanding classroom lives, identities and…

The uptake of mobile phones has been especially remarkable in the developing world. For the first time in history, people at the bottom of the income pyramid can also take part in the telecommunication society. Mobile phones can play a unique role in reaching those who are outside the scope of formal or institutionalised schooling and open doors…