The work of John Furlong on school and classroom ethnography is located in its context and its achievements celebrated. The paper focuses on class, ethnicity and gender issues as it explores the changes and continuities in the ethnography of education over the 66-year period covered. The qualities of a good ethnographer are playfully compared to…

The sociological study of education involves focusing upon teaching and learning, upon explicit instruction and the acquisition of the tacit knowledge and skills that are essential if learners are to become enculturated into a new "habitus". Sociological insight into these processes can come from research on conventional educational…

Good educational ethnography whether done by sociologists or anthropologists, makes the familiar strange. The history of that proposition is outlined, and five strategies available to all ethnographers focused on teaching and learning, whether sociologists or anthropologists of education or not, are outlined. The vital importance of the working…

"Capoeira," the Brazilian dance and martial art is now globalised and taught widely outside Brazil. Instruction is provided by Brazilians who are living in self-imposed exile from their homeland. The authentic "capoeira" that such teachers provide is a major attraction for non-Brazilian students. However, there is little…

There has been a rising acceptance of autoethnography in the past 15 years. Instead of studying social phenomena, in an appropriately reflexive way, some scholars have taken to researching themselves. Drawing on concrete examples from an ongoing ethnographic project, the paper contrasts the beneficial, even essential, practices of autobiographical…

Two British authors reflect on the current state of qualitative research, viewed as a battlefield through roiling smoke. From a UK perspective they reflect on the perceived crisis in qualitative research in the United States. They also suggest that there are four important features that good qualitative research should rely on: problematizing…

This book, an attempt to present a balanced view of qualitative methodology and research, is structured around classic texts by methodological pioneers. It examines these key premises in these texts. Chapters are: (1) "Strangeness and Familiarity"; (2) "From Over-Rapport to Intimacy and Autoethnography"; (3) "Whose Side Are We On?"; (4)…

Examines research interest in the ethnography of schooling (research on and in educational institutions based on participant observation and/or permanent recordings of everyday life in natural settings). Sociological and anthropological approaches to ethnography are compared. (Author/DB)

The Brazilian martial art, "capoeira", is popular in many countries outside Brazil, including the UK. "Capoeira" is generally taught by Brazilians whose livelihood depends on recruiting and retaining enough paying customers to keep their classes economically viable and socially pleasurable for the students. The teachers also…

In an analysis of two American and two British texts, ethnographic studies of teachers are compared. The comparison reveals how different the approaches are, although both sets of texts use ethnographic methods, and how the role of the teacher is understood in contrasting ways in the two bodies of research. (IAH)

"Capoeira," the Brazilian dance and martial art, is now taught in many countries outside Brazil. Reflections on a year's fieldwork on capoeira teaching in the UK are used to make educational ethnography anthropologically strange. Issues of locality, noise, uncertainty and bodily contact are explored in a reflexive way. (Contains 7 notes.)