Researching for justice: using meta-ethnographic synthesis to develop knowledge for research for social transformation

Abstract

In a special issue article on ethnographic synthesis from 2017, Karen Borgnakke addressed some of the challenging methodological questions and dilemmas associated with meta-ethnography by ethnographic researchers. The article compared meta-ethnography with evidence-based models for measuring learning effects in education, but highlighted that the founders of meta-ethnography, Noblit and Hare, described the methodology and its aims quite differently to this. Rather than the aggregation of findings, the aim was to, in the interests of social justice and social transformation, generalise findings from individual research based on critical interpretations of several ethnographic products. Using a qualitative synthesis of meta-ethnographic research from ethnographies on Sweden’s school system, the present article examines this aim further. It tries to generate and communicate knowledge about how ethnographers of education can engage in research to fulfil commitments connected to social justice and transformation. In short, it attempts to describe what this research can look like.