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…

To identify the possibilities for collaborative professional development; a research-driven model was adopted to assist an English First Additional Language teacher to appreciate how he could teach effectively by using an approach that takes into account the students' culture. Using critical observation and stimulated recall discussion, this…

This article explores how ethnography allows for an understanding of the way children are empowered through the use of popular culture during sociodramatic play. The study discussed was conducted in an inner-city Primary school in regional New South Wales, Australia. The participants were a composite fifth-to-sixth grade class, and the research…

This article reveals how test-based performativity pressures interfere with the pedagogical approaches preferred by teachers of second-language learners. Our findings derive from ethnographic research conducted in two non-mainstream high schools: one in a US city and other one in a Swedish city. Both schools serve immigrant students who speak…

The central purpose of this paper is to highlight the research in a context where inclusive education is recognised within current global challenges in education. We aim to present different teaching practices and perceptions of teachers from rural schools regarding attention to diversity, before and during a collaborative action that reinforces…

The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, where images of magical splendor obscure its challenges, provides a viewpoint from which to understand the contradictions that emerging economies face as they move towards mass education. Isolated from the outside world in every sense except for the mythologies that surround it, Bhutan is attempting to move from a…

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…

Evolution education in the US is conducted unevenly, or in cases is absent. Showing the strength of ethnography as a means of deeper explication in science education, this article explores the interactions of policy and practice in evolution education. Discussing vignettes from a larger ethnographic study, Creationist rationales and practices…

In this paper, I examine the nature of primary science expertise using an ethnographic and sociocultural approach and a theoretical analysis that conceptualises educational practice in terms of the resolution of dilemmas. Using data from an in-depth investigation of the perspective and practice of a single teacher, I discuss some of the "dilemmas"…

The intent of this paper is to show that while ethnographic research for decades has helped to challenge one-dimensional, deficit-oriented perspectives about Black males, this work has also helped to reproduce essentialised racial motifs. I define a racial motif as a central theme or story used to make sense of the social and educational…

This article explores the possibilities and frustrations of using digital methods in a multi-sited ethnographic research project. The project, "Urban School Performances: The interplay, through live and digital drama, of local-global knowledge about student engagement", is a study of youth and teachers in drama classrooms in contexts of schooling…

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…

This article examines the work of three urban youths as they designed and taught a social justice class at an urban continuation high school in California, USA. Drawing from a two-year ethnographic study of the project, it shows that youth participants constructed a set of imagined binaries to frame teachers, schoolwork and coercion "in opposition…

This paper illuminates a period of change in the lives of a group of 20 vocational lecturers as they find themselves challenged by both their own and others' categorisation of what and who they are. Such conflicting perspectives are made even starker by their management's introduction of technological innovation into the lecturers' traditional…

Environmental education has been at the centre of international and national policies of sustainable development for the last several decades, and has stimulated debate regarding both its inclusion in curricula and proposed methods for its implementation. Research has given critical attention to diverse theories and practices of environmental…