ABSTRACT
Ethnography is a fashionable approach to modern educational research. It involves in-depth study of a particular group or setting over an extended period of time. Ethnography requires the researcher to immerse herself within the site of study and attempt to experience it from the perspective of an inhabitant. This chapter identifies important and recent examples of ethnographic research in education. While acknowledging that the term is used in a variety of ways, the chapter outlines some of the common characteristics of the approach. Strengths and limitations are examined and three distinct branches are considered – practitioner ethnography, critical ethnography and autoethnography.
