For the last two years I've been doing research in two Italian kindergartens with the goal of analysing how the school culture is changing a result of the arrival of foreign families and their babies. This research gave me the opportunity to reflect on some aspects of my role as a researcher, with particular regard to: 1 being familiar with the Italian educational system, so that at times I would see school behaviour as "natural", because I'm used to it. Furthermore, having been trained for it made me feel strongly in favour of teachers and what they define as their difficulties; 2 my beliefs in intercultural education and social justice led me to negative evaluations of behaviours to be found in schools.; In my presentation, besides further elaborating these points, I plan to discuss them and their significance for ethnographic research.