This is a proposal for joint symposium between net 19 and net 7.

Coordinators: Katariina Hakala, Sirpa Lappalainen and Reetta Mietola

Our symposium deals with the conference theme “The past, present and future of educational research in Europe” by gathering up together researchers working in Finland, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, England, Spain, US, Chile and Scotland who share an interest in how different social and cultural factors, such as gender, ethnicity,  social class and disability, are intertwined and constructed in  institutional and informal educational contexts and how they relate to  the construction of learner subjectivities and education  justice/injustice around discussions of present ways of doing ethnographic research. The idea for the symposium came up in the research network Justice through education in the Nordic Countries.

The symposium takes advantage of participants´ different methodological viewpoints to present, critique and discuss new ways of developing cross-cultural ethnography. The research presented includes research with Roma, with people with disabilities, people living in stigmatized surroundings , with migrant and other marginal groups. How power relations work in encountering those who take part in doing research and with hegemonies in choosing the “right” knowledge is taken into consideration as a challenge to researchers to ask the question who am I to tell “the truth”. This question is crucial in research on justice through education and educational research.  

The symposium has two parts. In part 1 epistemological and ethical approaches within ethnography are discussed. Papers focus on projects where knowledge is produced dialogically together with research participants. The studies are presented and reflected on critically through questions such as what does it mean ethically and practically to involve participants in knowledge production and research, what does it mean to “get to know” the people in the “fieldwork” and how does/can this knowing become scientific knowledge, how is the position of the researcher challenged in these encounters and how do ethical and epistemological questions intertwine with each other.