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'…

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…

From a sociological perspective, the topic of emotion in schools has been a rather neglected issue. In this article, we present two types of "emotion work", namely degradation work and rectification work. We describe how teachers in a special education programme called Time-out class employ feelings to get the work done efficiently.…

The paper presents a microethnographic examination of an operatic masterclass, based on a transcribed video recording of just one such class. It is a companion piece to a more generalised ethnographic account of such masterclasses as pedagogic events. The detailed analysis demonstrates the close relationship between spoken and unspoken actions in…

The focus of this article is children's positioning and agency in a Swedish school class. Drawing on ethnographic data generated during a year-long field study, the actions of three different children are used by the researcher to illustrate how children position themselves and are positioned by others. Using the concept of "professional pupils"…

The article focuses on pedagogical practices of recognition and esteem (Wertschatzung) and on the question of how those practices can be appropriately studied and epistemologically grasped. The investigation involves an inner-city elementary school in a socio-economically problematic district. With regard to the communication forms in this…

This article is divided into two parts: in the first one, after mentioning episodes of violence against immigrants, the author discusses the issues of "race" and racism within the debate on immigration and diversity taking place in Italy. Pointing out a number of relevant indications and reflections that qualify such debate, she argues that the…

This article explores the approaches to risk that some teachers adopt when they are involved in facilitating outdoor activities. The research was carried out at a residential outdoor centre as part of a PhD study and a follow-up pilot project. The participants were primary school pupils, their teachers and the centre staff. For the purpose of this…

Researching actual or purported sexual contact between teachers and students raises many difficult ethical issues, questions and dilemmas, which may help to explain why few have ventured into the field. This experientially based paper addresses key problem areas under the headings of: the ethics of researching a sensitive taboo topic; the ethics…

In the current era of "zero tolerance", disciplinary practices including punishment, expulsion, physical and psychological surveillance, and confinement are a major part of resistant students' lived experiences. This article is an ethnographic study of student resistance that is observed in an alternative high school in the USA, which serves…

A curious piece of ironic, partially-dramatised auto/ethnography, this paper reflects an ongoing attempt to explore the vapid certainties of my own faith, some of the brittle discomforts of contemporary schooling, and the possibilities of a social science research methodology which can artfully assemble on the same stage belief, empirics and…

In this article we used an orienting framework of interactional ethnography to make visible classrooms acting as cultures. We examined the interactional patterns from two different classrooms as participants jointly negotiated and constructed meaning. We first demonstrated how participants began to construct a classroom culture in the first weeks…

This study focuses on an attempt by a Swedish secondary school teacher to fashion a more participatory education situation by involving his students in deciding the rules for their group work. Five group sessions were video recorded and examined using a conversation-analytic approach. The findings show a complex interplay between democratic and…

Spending just a few hours in the classroom situation as a participant observer, one definitely recognizes "boredom" as one of the main features of this situation. In spite of the obvious relevance of boredom in the classroom situation there is almost no research on the topic of boredom at school. Boredom seems to be a taboo of sorts in school…