Critical Ethnography and the Importance of Studying In-between
Martin Forsey, University of Western Australia
In this all too unequal world the orientation of many social scientists towards redressing the imbalances is not at all surprising. Enter the critical ethnographer! Following a research tradition that is committed to addressing unequal distributions of power, critical ethnographers (sometimes referred to as ‘criticalists’) seem remarkably unprepared for dealing with this issue as a research objective. The major problem explored in this paper arises out of my engagement with critical ethnography in the field of education or school studies, where there is a tendency towards producing accounts of schooling in which teachers are represented as mere cardboard cut-out figures. This particular form of ethnographic ‘thinness’ is attributable to the simplistic positioning of teachers as members of the dominant group in the resistance scripts that critical ethnographers appear to carry with them upon entering schools. Advocating a mindset attuned to the critical appreciation of social life, I reemphasise the importance of clear and precise documentation of the power-filled social relations characterising any social setting and for the need to position ourselves in ways that allow us to better see, feel and evaluate some of the multitude of interactions that take place in any social field.
