In this book, Fitzpatrick and May make the case for a reimagined approach to critical ethnography in, of, and for education. Working with an expansive notion of critical, they make a compelling argument that many of the social, and political issues currently facing education can be explored via a methodology that is personal, embodied, located, and lived, as well as unapologetically concentrated on relations of power. Drawing on a wide range of educational studies, they argue that many of these can be described as critically ethnographic because they are concerned with power relations, employ critical social theories, and employ ethnographic methods. They show that, while neo-Marxist accounts of schooling have an important place historically in the critical ethnographic tradition, critical ethnography has moved and engaged with ongoing theoretical developments, including poststructuralisms, postcolonialisms, and posthumanism.
This book thus re-positions critical ethnography as an expansive, eclectic, and inclusive methodology, and one that has a great deal to offer educational inquiries in the current moment. The book offers theoretical and methodological arguments, canvasses the key tenets of critical ethnography, and provides insight into ethics and positionality, as well as focusing in-depth on critical ethnographic research that illuminates language, in/equity, in/justice, race/ism, language, gender and sexuality in educational settings. It is essential reading for students, scholars, and researchers in educational research methods, sociology of education, philosophy of education, urban education, gender and sexuality, and language education.
It has been endorsed in review by Patti Lather as: “inclusive and inviting to read” and by Michelle Fine as “a sensual invitation to critical ethnography where theory is sutured to methodology; where interrogation of power is the project; an antidote to neoliberal sped up research, and a seductive call to slow - deep - critical inquiry, rooted in relationships, stitched in theory and designed to reveal and provoke the radical imagination for what else is possible."