Classroom cultures and the ethnographic experience

Abstract

This chapter explores how ethnographers study classrooms and schools to produce ‘peopled’ ethnographies written up into ‘luminous’ descriptions. The starting point is four incidents recorded by ethnographic observers in one school during the first (original) Oracle project. These four incidents are the basis for an exemplification of how an ethnographer could derive six working hypotheses with rich research potential, to move towards an ethnography of that school (or any school). The importance of fighting familiarity, writing detailed field notes, analysing the data and writing up into vivid accounts is all stressed. Gathering data on recurrent and persistent features of classroom interaction and school life, such as teacher control, lesson preparation, the timescapes of teacher careers, sexism, ethnocentricism or xenophobia and the ‘contemporary legends’ that pupils share about the next school they are due to attend is illustrated in the examples. Examples of published studies that an ethnographer could read to embed their research are included.