Mind the Gap: A critical analysis of school ethnography

Abstract

School ethnography is a relatively young form of scientific inquiry, originally designed to solve social problems in the late twentieth century. As such, there are a series of prevailing issues that plague its use. This analysis searches to pinpoint what these issues are, how they contribute to knowledge gaps in school ethnographies, and the problems of interpretation and application that can arise from them. This will happen through first an evaluation of past ethnographic work and existing critiques to identify the most glaring issues, and then an application of how said issues are relevant to more recent ethnogra­phies. Finally, this paper will conclude with a series of potential solutions that would help to alleviate some of these gaps.