Opinions on the value of self-study in teacher education are fierce. Utilising our relative perspectives as insider and outsider to this methodological approach to researching one's own teaching, the authors promote the value of self-study while simultaneously questioning certain assumptions associated with how it is typically enacted. To engage…

How much should ethnographers involve themselves with the people, places, and processes they study? One answer has become increasingly popular: invert the standard method of participant observation into observant participation. This article draws on an ethnography of ambulance work to consider the trade-offs between these approaches. My fieldwork…

In this article, we reflect on our experiences with teaching ethnographic skills and sensibilities to MSc students at a Dutch university. Using methods such as (self)observation, journaling and reflection, we highlight dilemmas (conceptual, practical, ethical) faced by students when doing ethnographic fieldwork and dilemmas that emerged in…

Class phenomena have primary significance for the diagnosis and intervention at both an individual and a whole-class level for school psychologists. Trying to bring undergraduate psychology students closer to class and teaching, a learning experience based on an adaptation of Lesson Study, a professional development method for teachers, was…

This study demonstrates the value of the field of public theology for cathedral studies. Both of these fields are concerned with the continuing role of religion in public life in contemporary societies, and yet those writing within these fields often do not draw from the work of the other. Therefore, in this study I show some findings of my PhD…

As the popularity of ethnographic research methods grows across and beyond the social sciences, it is of paramount importance that practitioners reflect on how to best teach participant observation to increasingly diverse and interdisciplinary audiences. While available literature stresses the importance of learning-by-doing to develop students'…

Taking a sociological view, we can investigate the empirical consequences of variations in the rhetoric of sociological methodology. The standards advocated in Qualitative Literacy divide communities of qualitative researchers, as they are not explicitly connected to an understanding of social ontology, unlike previous qualitative methodologies;…

This article presents an action research project conducted in a Swedish compulsory school. In the project the participants explored ways of identifying actions to improve in the practices of a professional learning community in order to develop teaching. This is important for participants in such communities, since the outcome of developed…

Increasingly, the broader public, media and policymakers are looking to qualitative research to provide answers to our most pressing social questions. While an exciting and perhaps overdue moment for qualitative researchers, it is also a time when the method is coming under increasing scrutiny for a lack of reliability and transparency. The…

Background: Previous research identifies organisational culture as one of a number of factors associated with the quality of life outcomes of group home residents' with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This study aims to elaborate on the dimensions of group home culture in settings in England. Method: Participant observations and…

The notion of the ethnographer as participant observer, as an active agent rather than passive observer, is well established within conversations about method and methodology. Less well explored is the extent to which the inherent curiosity and inquisitiveness of the ethnographer might be reciprocated: how might this be established and how might…

Courses: Introductory Research Methods, Digital Cultures. Objectives: This activity introduces students to participant observation as a method for data collection. Through this activity, students will gain experience taking observational field notes. The debriefing discussion will allow students to practice using their observational notes as…

The main objective of this research is to present and analyse the collaboration process established between the ethnographers and a school that faces the challenge of promoting change towards a more inclusive and social justice model. The methods used to carry out this four-year process were, in essence, participatory observation in multiple…

Community-based participant-observation purposefully combines participant-observation and community-based participatory research. While participant-observation is the core method of ethnography and foundational to cultural anthropology, community-based participatory research initially emerged from health and related applied sciences to align…

To understand how the digitalization of higher education influences the inter-relationship between students, teachers, and their broader contexts, research must account for the social, cultural, political, and embodied aspects of teaching and learning in digital environments. "Digital ethnography" is a research method that can generate…