Abstract
In Chap. 3, Obrovská elaborates the research methodology, the techniques of data collection, and the data sources analyzed throughout the book. She discusses the numerous methodological advantages ethnography represents in the research of ethnically diverse classrooms. Ethnography offers a variety of different research methods (including observation, and formal as well as informal interviews), including those having a distinctive participatory appeal, such as focus groups and socio-games. These methods enable the researcher to capture the linguistic and cognitive aspects of ethnicity as well as its bodily, aesthetic, and emotional dimensions. The author also discusses her positionality in relation to the teachers and the students and uncovers the ethically sensitive situations and issues that were part of her daily research experience.
This chapter is based on the chapter previously published in the following book: Jarkovská, L., & Obrovská, J. (2015). Teoretický a metodologický rámec studia etnicity ve školním prostředí. In L. Jarkovská, K. Lišková, J. Obrovská, & A. Souralová (Eds.), Etnická rozmanitost ve škole. Stejnost v různosti (pp. 19–34). Praha: Portál.
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Notes
- 1.
In one informatics class, students had a period of free choice and they could do whatever they wanted on their computers. The teacher told me before the start that today I would not have much to observe, because there was going to be a free class. I replied that this was very interesting for me, because I would be able to observe what the students are interested in and what they search for on the Internet. “Well, girls do the girly things and boys play soldiers. It has always been like this,” was his reply. I did not understand what he meant by “playing soldiers.” Later on, the teacher said that the boys from the seventh grade prefer shooting games, those from the ninth grade like tanks, and the eighth graders hang under a helicopter. I interpreted the teacher’s response in a similar way to the reaction of another informatics teacher, who was surprised by my interest in student cultures, because he did not, as he stated himself, find them interesting at all (field notes, 23 October 2014).
- 2.
The school preventist is responsible for the prevention of risky behavior. She focuses on the prevention of aggressive behavior, truancy, bullying, expressions of intolerance, and so on.
- 3.
Elsewhere, I have focused directly on the teachers’ opinions on the education of Roma children (Jarkovská et al. 2015). The main focus of this book is on the peer relationships.
- 4.
While considering a suitable activity, I had searched for inspiration in a whole range of publications. For instance, James (2007), in his ethnographic research, makes children write stories on certain topics, draw maps, and work out various group projects, which make it possible for them to visually or in another way re-create their ideas or fantasies. Boyden and Ennew (1997), in Children in Focus: A Manual for Participatory Research with Children, present many activities used in research with poor children in developing countries that can be adapted for use also in developed countries.
- 5.
Before handing out the sociometric questionnaires, I asked the students to place all their classmates on a scale of 1–5 according to the authority they have, where 1 meant the highest authority and 5 meant no authority at all. Then, the students were supposed to decide how friendly their classmates were, and 1 meant the most friendly and 5 stood for completely unfriendly. Because not everyone knew what “to have authority” meant, we discussed the term for a while. I assessed the questionnaires with the assistance of sociometrie.cz.
- 6.
For example, to capture spontaneous conversations during breaks or whispered talks during classes is not an easy task. The obtrusive presence of the researcher can ruin all spontaneity and the feeling of privacy protected by the whisper.
- 7.
Russell (2011), in her ethnography of student cultures with an emphasis on resistance, declared that she decided to take the side of the students. My research experience complicates the dichotomy of “taking the side of students or teachers” and instead of adopting one of these poles, it calls for a negotiation of one’s own position as a never-ending and changing process that results not only from the researcher’s own decisions. During my research, it sometimes just “happened” that I unwittingly took someone’s side.
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Obrovská, J. (2018). The Methodological Aspects of Educational Ethnography in Ethnically Diverse Classrooms. In: Roma Identity and Ritual in the Classroom. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94514-9_3
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