Key Themes in the Ethnography of Education

Dr Sara Delamont, DSc Econ, AcSS. read Social Anthropology at Girton College Cambridge, did her PhD at Edinburgh, and lectured at Leicester before moving to Cardiff in 1976. She was the first woman to be President of BERA (the British Education Research Association) and the first woman Dean of Social Sciences at Cardiff. She has done ethnographies in schools, and other settings where teaching and learning take place such as operatic master classes and martial arts studios. With Paul Atkinson she is the Founding Editor of Qualitative Research, and is the author of fourteen books.

Introduction: A Detective of Some Kind One Page of Notes and No Hypotheses: The Spyglass of Anthropology Places and Spaces: A Group on the Store Porch Time and Timescapes: 'We Were to Dance Three Hours' Memories and Memorials: A Diploma and a Chevrolet Movement and Mobilities: Heading my Toenails Bodies and Performativity: Not a Pleasure Dancing but Ceremonial Groups and Identities: The Profound Silence of the Initiated Narratives and Other Tales: 'Ah come to collect some old stories' Senses and Multi-Sensory Matters: Indescribable Noises, Sights, Feelings Knowledge and its Transmission: 'Taught Me All That He Could' Conclusions: Through the Roiling Smoke

This is a beautifully written book that takes the reader to the heart of ethnography as experience. Readers can walk in the shoes of ethnographers who have travelled before them, and learn as they learned. Sara Delamont is an undisputed expert in both ethnography and education, and here illustrates she is also a tour de force in writing style. All the important ingredients for a recipe to make a good quality ethnography are here, and they are served up with relish! -- Professor Karen O'Reilly This is a powerful, richly nuanced, evocative work; a stunning and brilliantly innovative intervention. It provides ground zero - the starting place for the next generation of social scholars of education. A major accomplishment. -- Norman K. Denzin