Drawing Relationally for an Ethnography of Practice

Citation

Michael MK (2020) Drawing Relationally for an Ethnography of Practice. Ethnography and Education, 15 (3), pp. 270-285. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2020.1739544

Abstract
Education ethnographies show that observing bodies, objects and settings can illuminate previously hidden learning practices but the relational characteristics of these practices presents methodological challenges for conventional qualitative analyses. Using an example from an ethnographic study of everyday learning, I show how methods from art (specifically researcher-created drawings) can address some of these challenges. I use the concept of ‘epistemic objects’ to theorise drawings as analysis, and to show that rather than being a process of deconstruction, this analysis is constantly bringing knowledge into being. With original interdisciplinary insights from art/social science this article problematizes art in sociomaterial research and offers direction for relational analyses.

Keywords
art-based; drawing; methodology; relational; sociomaterial

Journal
Ethnography and Education: Volume 15, Issue 3

People

Dr Maureen Michael

Senior Lecturer, Education