In its very simplest form, ethnography refers to the study of peoples and cultures. Beyond this broad definition, however, it is a term that accommodates a range of interpretations and supports a variety of research practices. That ethnography is not one single thing is apparent in the range of specialisms that have recently become established as researchers have sought to ask specific types of questions, work with particular materials, or understand particular communities: autoethnography, sonic ethnography, visual ethnography and digital ethnography, to name some examples.
A traditional view of ethnography sees a researcher striving to become deeply immersed in a community over an extended period, during which time relationships, customs and practices might be observed and understood. A contrasting position involves the use of ethnographic methods (such as observation and conversation), often as part of a wider study, but without the researcher aiming to become intimately involved with the ‘field site’ or the members of a chosen community. A useful discussion of this subject is provided by Green and Bloome (1997) and also by Mills and Morton (2013), who encourage us to accept that ethnography can be meaningfully used in varying ways and across different disciplinary contexts. Our own approach in this block of the EDC course, reflecting the limited time available, is to adopt what Forsey (2008) describes as an ‘ethnographic sensibility’ as we explore a chosen educational community without committing to becoming immersed in that community.
Putting aside differing interpretations and methodological approaches, what we can confidently say is that ethnography has become firmly established as a way of investigating educational communities, often traced back to studies by Hargreaves (1967), Lacey (1970) and Lambart (1976) that investigated the UK school system. Looking towards more recent examples of education research, ethnography has been used to explore attitudes towards classroom technologies (Tummons et al. 2016), the materiality of educational space (Roehl 2012), the ways that students interact within the setting of the campus canteen (Spiteri 2014), and many other interests besides. It is clear, then, that ethnography is seen to have considerable value in enabling us to understand the people, practices and places that help to shape educational communities. Reflecting the nature of the EDC course and the Digital Education programme more generally, in this block we will use approaches from digital ethnography (sometimes called ‘online ethnography’ or ‘virtual ethnography’) to investigate the nature of educational community online.
Hine, C. (2000). Chapter 3: The virtual objects of ethnography in Virtual ethnography (pp. 41-66). London: Sage.
Hine’s seminal work on virtual ethnography will provide you with important context for your micro-ethnographic explorations, as well as providing an interesting comparison to the Kozinets reading.
Kozinets, R. V. (2010) Chapter 2: Understanding Culture Online in Netnography: doing ethnographic research online (pp. 21-40) London: Sage.
This chapter gives an excellent overview of the ways in which communities have been theorised and studied online. As we only have a print version currently available in the library use this link to access the Chapter online.
Pink, S., Horst, H., Postill, J., Hjorth, L., Lewis, T. and. Tacchi, J. (2016). Chapter 1. Ethnography in a digital world In Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice (pp. 1-19). London: Sage.
The opening chapter of this text helpfully suggests how we might think about digital ethnography, before going on to propose five key principles for doing digital ethnography. The early part of the chapter also gives a nod to some of the contested ground that exists around the field of ethnography itself.
References cited in the introduction (not core reading)
Forsey, M. G. (2010). Ethnography and the myth of participant observation. Studies in Qualitative Methodology, 11. 65-79. doi:10.1108/s1042-3192(2010)0000011007
Green, J. and Bloome, D. (1997). Ethnography and ethnographers of and in education: a situated perspective. In Flood J., Heath SB and Lapp D (Eds.) A Handbook for Literacy Educators: Research on Teaching the Communicative and Visual Arts (pp. 1-12). New York: MacMillan.
Hargreaves, D.H. (1967). Social Relations in the Secondary School. London: Routledge.
Lacey, C. (1970). Hightown Grammar. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Lambart, A. (1976). The sisterhood. In Hammersley, M. and Woods, P. (Eds.) The Process of Schooling. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul.
Mills, D. and Morton, M. (2013). Ethnography in Education. London: Sage.
Roehl, T. (2012). Disassembling the classroom – an ethnographic approach to the materiality of education. Ethnography and Education, 7(1), 109-126. doi: 10.1080/17457823.2012.661591
Spiteri, D. (2014). Student interactions at a college canteen: a critical perspective. Ethnography and Education, 10(1), 28-41. doi:10.1080/17457823.2014.924860
Tummons, J., Fournier, C., Kits, O., and MacLeod, A. (2016). Teaching without a blackboard and chalk: conflicting attitudes towards using ICTs in higher education teaching and learning. Higher Education Research & Development, 35(4), 829-840. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2015.1137882