In this book, Fitzpatrick and May make the case for a reimagined approach to critical ethnography in education. Working with an expansive understanding of critical, they argue that many researchers already do the kind of critical ethnography suggested in this book, whether they call their studies critical or not. Drawing on a wide range of educational studies, the authors demonstrate that a methodology that is lived, embodied, and personal—and fundamentally connected to notions of power—is essential to exploring and understanding the many social and political issues facing education today. By grounding studies in work that reimagines, troubles, and questions notions of power, injustice, inequity, and marginalization, such studies engage with the tenets of critical ethnography. Offering a wide-ranging and insightful commentary on the influences of critical ethnography over time, Fitzpatrick and May interrogate the ongoing theoretical developments, including poststructuralism, postcolonialism, and posthumanism. With extensive examples, excerpts, and personal discussions, the book thus repositions critical ethnography as an expansive, eclectic, and inclusive methodology that has a great deal to offer educational inquiries. Overviewing theoretical and methodological arguments, the book provides insight into issues of ethics and positionality as well as an in-depth focus on how ethnographic research illuminates such topics as racism, language, gender and sexuality in educational settings. It is essential reading for students, scholars, and researchers in qualitative inquiry, ethnography, educational anthropology, educational research methods, sociology of education, and philosophy of education.

Ethnographic methods are becoming increasingly prevalent in contemporary educational research. Critical Ethnography in Educational Research provides both a technical, theoretical guide to advanced ethnography--focusing on such concepts as primary data collection and system relationships--and a very practical guide for researchers interested in conducting actual studies.

By using critical ethnographic research to explore the practices and policies that sustain a residential outdoor school in the United States, this book problematizes the relationship between science education and climate change politics in the United States. Weaving together empirical data from fieldwork with theoretical resources spanning the sciences and humanities, this book demonstrates how community activism, political alliances, and policy changes have guaranteed the survival of an outdoor school in Oregon. This example enables artful reexamination of the relationship between science education, politics, and policy more broadly, as well as the relation of science education to climate change politics in particular. Gleason ultimately reconstructs science education towards epistemic and ontological pluralism, and illustrates how critical ethnographic research can instigate a reimagining of the relationship between curriculum and how we relate to the world. This book will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in the philosophical underpinnings and implications of science education, environmental education, and educational policy more broadly. Those specifically interested in critical ethnographic research will also benefit from this book.

This text firstly attempts to deal with challenges about the validity of qualitative research. Then, after outlining the theory and methodology adopted, seven case studies are presented, covering such topics as multicultural literature, school restructuring, and standardized testing.

This book addresses the relationship between the production of social problems in educational policy, the research practices required to inform policy, and the daily production of normalcies and differences in school contexts. It reports on the opportunities and consequences for policy, research, and practice when normalcy is stigmatized at the same level as difference. The book employs a critical analysis combining queer, feminist, and post-representational theories to understand the implications of dominant ways of understanding the division between normal and different subjectivities and how they reiterate structures of inequality in schools.

In this volume, Thomas unites two traditions in social science - critical theory and qualitative research - in an attempt to apply a critical worldview to the conventional logic of cultural inquiry. Rather than standing in opposition to traditional ethnography, it offers a style of considering the direct relationship between knowledge, society, and political action. Thomas addresses the question: If the duty of the researcher entails the righting of social wrongs as well as producing valid research results, how is it possible to juxtapose the two goals? He defines the rules and guidelines for a praxis-oriented ethnographic tradition, one both ideologically engaged and scientifically valid. In addition, he outlines the various types of critical ethnography, explaining the tenets of each and how research can be carried out under these frameworks.

A state-of-the-art reference on educational ethnography edited by leading journal editors This book brings an international group of writers together to offer an authoritative state-of-the-art review of, and critical reflection on, educational ethnography as it is being theorized and practiced today—from rural and remote settings to virtual and visual posts. It provides a definitive reference point and academic resource for those wishing to learn more about ethnographic research in education and the ways in which it might inform their research as well as their practice. Engaging in equal measure with the history of ethnography, its current state-of play as well as its prospects, The Wiley Handbook of Ethnography of Education covers a range of traditional and contemporary subjects—foundational aims and principles; what constitutes ‘good’ ethnographic practice; the role of theory; global and multi-sited ethnographic methods in education research; ethnography’s many forms (visual, virtual, auto-, and online); networked ethnography and internet resources; and virtual and place-based ethnographic fieldwork. Makes a return to fundamental principles of ethnographic inquiry, and describes and analyzes the many modalities of ethnography existing today Edited by highly-regarded authorities of the subject with contributions from well-known experts in ethnography Reviews both classic ideas in the ethnography of education, such as “grounded theory”, “triangulation”, and “thick description” along with new developments and challenges An ideal source for scholars in libraries as well as researchers out in the field The Wiley Handbook of Ethnography of Education is a definitive reference that is indispensable for anyone involved in educational ethnography and questions of methodology.