This paper explores research in the always already colonized spaces of academia with people in what is now the United States. In research projects, Wilson (2008) reminds us to begin with community relationships. Through ethnographic work, we trouble the idea of beginning research via local powerbrokers, who may privilege particular narratives and…

In this article, we provide an overview of diffraction theory, followed by an explanation of diffraction as an analytical methodology. We highlight how tools like the agential cut can be used to redraw the boundaries of ethnographic research so that data can be a continuous becoming with the researcher. We offer vignettes from our work on…

We describe our decision points to disclose parts of our personal selves while building trust with vulnerable populations in schools during ethnographic studies. Finding how our subjective identities were similar to and different than those of our participants helped us to better understand the participants' lives. We argue in this article that…

Drawing on anthropological conceptions of pilgrimage, our ethnography of professional development at an Israeli Holocaust Memorial follows German teachers on journeys to Israel. Seeking transformative and transferable experiences to combat anti-Semitism in schools, teachers experienced the voyage as a secular pilgrimage rooted in Christian…

Drawing from an ethnographic study with mixed-status siblings who relocated from the United States to Mexico, I argue that access to U.S. papers continues to shape young people's educational lives beyond U.S. borders. Findings illustrate how U.S. passport privileges as well as young people's crossing of national, institutional, and linguistic…

Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic engagement in Guatemala with Indigenous youth, local community organizations, and transnational nongovernmental organizations, this article examines how young people imagine and work toward alternative futures at the intersection of extensive migration and a developmentalist push for educational attainment. I…

In this reflection, I contextualize my own experiences conducting educational ethnography in a synchronous online kindergarten classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. I highlight how conducting research in online classrooms transforms ethnographic research methodologies and concepts such as the field site. I offer four suggestions, derived from my…

In this article, we consider the notion of tacit modalities as a theory and method for researchers. Based on research studies with individuals across ages and stages of life, we interviewed people about objects that they value, and what pervades all of the stories are tacit, lived properties that objects possess. The research ostensibly sought to…

During an ethnographic study of two Chilean schools over a period of three years, we observed the discursive assemblage of "what is vulnerable" emerging from an algorithm used to allocate public resources. In this article, we unravel the ways in which the algorithm intra-acts with other elements in the process of producing what is…

This qualitative study examines educational life in a neighborhood in Mexico City, analyzing how discourses have produced the neighborhood, Tepito, as a place "without education." Simultaneously, ethnographic research entangles with theories of radical equality and resistance to explore how education emerges and how certain forms of…

New and newly widespread communications technologies make it possible for students to enjoy many of the benefits of an ethnographic field school with less commitment of money and time, thereby expanding access to a valuable cross-cultural research experience. This article reflects on the challenges, successes, limitations, and lessons learned from…

This paper explores ethnographic fieldwork as moral laboratories. Drawing upon two episodes in my field encounters in Southwest China, I illustrate the nature of our method as a form of moral striving and experimentation. Fieldwork is a stage where practical actions become vulnerable ethical dramas in search for the situated good. Fieldwork…

This article examines how sound--as a medium, method, and modality--attunes educational ethnographers to writing the "field" in new ways. In particular, the authors ask: How might cultivating practices of writing the field recording reorient the field note as an ethnographic object of inquiry? Examining the field recording as a…

Continuing to negate deficit framings of youth sexuality and amplify youth voices, this critical queer ethnography understands California high school students' experiences with comprehensive school-based sex education. Findings make visible the detailed account of youth voices in the space of sexual health education, highlighting their agency,…

Youth workers in community-based educational spaces often take on multiple roles in supporting young people such as mentors, cultural brokers, and educators. Youth workers' knowledge and expertise, however, are still undervalued in education. This article draws on a community-based ethnography with DACAmented Latinx youth workers to highlight how…