Session Information
SES C 05, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
The paper explores the methodological implications of combining concepts from Foucaultian discourse analysis with ethnomethodological approaches. It is based on experiences from an ethnographic study undertaken in a Scottish secondary school, looking at the appropriation of official discourses on “aspiration”.
The paper first discusses Michel Foucault’s notion of discourse in the light of its usefulness for an ethnographic study in a school setting. Foucault’s concept of discourse has been criticised for being deterministic and leaving little room for individual agency. Foucault himself responded to this criticism with his later works on the self, in which he emphasised the possibility of resistance and counter discourse (Foucault 1984). Yet, this still leaves open the question about how discourse is interpreted, used and transformed in interaction. Or in other words: How discourse and practice are related.
In attempts to solve this question, it has been proposed to combine the Foucaultian perspective with an ethnomethodological approach (Holstein & Gubrium 2008; Miller & Fox 2004). While Foucault allows us to see the “what”, i.e. the configuration of discourse, ethnomethodology shifts the focus on “how” meaning is made in social interaction (Holstein & Gubrium 2008). By bridging the two perspectives, so the authors, insights into the adaption of discourses to local circumstances are gained.
In the paper the practicalities and benefits of this “bridging effort” are discussed by drawing on the experiences of designing and conducting an ethnographic study in a school context. Assuming that the school is a space where institutional and everyday discourses meet, the study attempts a methodology which looks both at manifestation of discourses and the ways the discourses are negotiated in interaction. Drawing on Foucault and scholars who have made his ideas fruitful for social research, categories were developed in order to capture extant discourses in the school. By means of these categories discursive strategies, subject positions and “technologies” were sought to be identified. Additionally, sensitising concepts stemming from ethnomethodology were used with a focus on interactional processes.
Following the discussion on the feasibility of this methodological approach, the paper reaches some more general conclusions about researching discourse and practice in school contexts. The potential of ethnographic methods in this endavour is specifically addressed.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Arribas-Ayllon, M., & Walkerdine, V. (2008). Foucauldian discourse analysis. In C. Willig & W. Stainton Rogers (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology (pp. 91-108). London: Sage. Clarke, A. (2005). Situational analysis: grounded theory after the postmodern turn. London: Sage. Foucault, M. [1984] (1990). The History of Sexuality Vol. 3: The Care of Self. London: Penguin. Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical Inquiry 8(4), 777-795. Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity, 1984. Gubrium, J. F. & Holstein, J. A. (1997). The new language of qualitative method. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press. Holstein, J., A. & Gubrium, J. F. (2008). Interpretive practice and social action. In N. Denzin, K. & Y. Lincoln, S. (Eds.), Strategies of qualitative inquiry (pp. 173-202). London: Sage. Kendall, G. & Wickham, G. (1999). Using Foucault's methods. London: Sage. Miller, G. & Fox, K., J. (2004). Building bridges. The possibility of analytic dialogue between ethnography, conversation analysis and Foucault. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative research. Theory, method and practice (pp. 35-55). London: Sage. Nixon, J., Walker, M. & Baron, S. (2002). From Washington Heights to the Raploch: Evidence, Mediation, and the Genealogy of Policy. Social Policy & Society, 1(3), 237-246. Waldschmidt, A., Klein, A., Tamayo Korte, M. & Dalman-Eken, S. (2007). Diskurs im Alltag – Alltag im Diskurs: Ein Beitrag zu einer empirisch begründeten Methodologie sozialwissenschaftlicher Diskursforschung. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 8(2).
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.