What counts as ethnography & what counts as good ethnographic methodologyare both highly contested. Volume 6 of this expanding series of books draws together a collection of chapters presenting a diversity of views on some of the current debates and developments in ethnographic methodology. It does not try to present a single coherent view but, through its heterogeneity, illustrates the strength and liveliness of debate within this area.

This book draws together a series of semi-autobiographical reflexive accounts of the process of doing a doctorate using educational ethnography. The individual studies include research into school effectiveness, the experiences of Asian teenagers, sexual cultures in the primary school, mature students on Access courses, primary school management, the experiences of children with special educational needs, and teachers' work intensification

Within the United Kingdom questions about the relevance of educational research and its relationship to policy have recently been the centre of a prolonged, public and sometimes acrimonious debate. The chapters in this book illustrate the ability of ethnographic work to assist in understanding the effects of educational policies to gradually influence the policy discourse. The book includes studies of policy initiatives at the local level that show the extent to which an intended change actually occurred in practice, others where actual change occurred, but there were unintended consequences...

What counts as ethnography and what counts as good ethnographic methodology are both highly contested. This volume brings together chapters presenting a diversity of views on some of the current debates and developments in the field. It does not try to present a single coherent view but, through its heterogeneity, illustrates the strength and impact of debate. The topics discussed include participant observation, research roles in fieldwork, access to places and people in research, ethical issues concerning anonymity and intimacy in research, generalization in ethnography, the use of video,...

Following a brief introduction to the nature and history of ethnography, Walford considers questions of site selection, access, and ethics in research. Each chapter is illustrated with practical examples for the authors' own works.

This collection of specially commissioned articles exposes the practical and personal influences on the process of doing sociology of education. All of the authors have been involved in conducting well know major research projects, and discuss here the pitfalls and problems, conflicts and compromises that went into doing their particular research. A particular feature of the book is that a wide variety of types of research in the sociology of education is covered. The range is from small-scale ethnographic case studies to large-scale postal questionnaire sample surveys and includes studies...

Britain's public (that is, its major independent) schools have a conspicuous role in the country's social system, and as a result are the subject of a long-standing political debate. The discussion is generally founded on a stereotyped image of what these school may have been like in the 1950s - this books shows how they were in the late 1980s. It is based on fieldwork in two major public boarding schools which the author conducted over an extended period, and draws on interviews, observation and documentary sources to establish a picture of what public school life is actually like for pupils...

Can privilege be bought? Arguments have raged over whether private education in the UK is 'the cement in the wall' dividing British society, or whether parental choice is, as has also been argued 'a key component of a free society'. The author here describes the traditional private sector schools, paying attention to the ways in which parents can purchase privilege for their children through attendance at such schools. He argues that the privatized system is kept under tight control if a growth in social and educational inequality and a deepening of social class and ethnic group division is...