It is some time since James Clifford (1997) argued the need for shifting ethnographic imperatives from “dwelling” to “travel”. This urge towards a more mobile ethnography, reflecting the realities of a globalizing world, quickly became apparent in approaches focused on ‘global’ and ‘multi-sited’ ethnography, as well as in the ethnography of the internet, focused on “mobility between contexts of production and use” (Hine, 2009: 11). All of these significant epistemological and methodological developments from sociology and anthropology are less recognized in educational research and scholarship.

Recognizing that education is a multi-sited social process, not bounded nationally, following global trends, and leading individuals to constantly reshape educational routes and pathways that are structured by inequalities, diversity and power relations, offers a powerful rationale for a mobile ethnographic approach to educational research.

But what happens to the ethnographic imaginary when we acknowledge that education plays a defining role in a mobile modernity associated with opportunity, progress, collaboration and freedom is the main focus of this panel, exploring the methodological and epistemological implications of following educational routes ethnographically (Forsey 2015; Forsey et al 2015).

If following is the field and in a way is the fabric of the “ethnographic place” (Pink, 2009), can educational ethnographers enhance understanding of new educational mobilities and trajectories and of how educational mobility is experienced? In turn, we should ask about the extent to which these global, regional and local educational mobilities or movements (re)frame the doing of ethnographic research?

We are interested in discussing empirical, conceptual and methodological contributions from scholars with an interest in the ways in which various forms of mobility impact upon and are also impacted by educational institutions and their attendant practices and engagement. The scale of mobility can vary from day to day movement, individual or collective routes and pathways, to large-scale migration. Contributions will canvass a range of movements to test and evaluate their differential effects on educational practice and ethnographic research approaches. Social media research and offline and online (in) divides have also a place in this discussion.

Clifford, J. (1997). Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. New York: Routledge. Forsey, M. (2015). Learning to Stay: Mobile Modernity and the Sociology of Choice. Mobilities 10(5):764-783. Forsey, M., Breidenstein, G. Krüger, O., Roch, A. (2015) Ethnography at a Distance: Globally Mobile Parents Choosing International Schools, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 28 (9):1112-1128. Hine, C. 2009, ‘Question One: How can Internet Researchers Define the Boundaries of Their Project’, in N. Baym and A. Markham (eds.), Internet Inquiry, Sage, London. Pink, S. 2009, Doing Sensory Ethnography, Sage, London.