Past event Part of series: Researching Youth – Methods Seminar Series
For those Youth Researchers considering, or already undertaking an ethnographic approach, this session will explore differing approaches to ethnography, focusing in particular on the embodied experience and the digital realm.
Ian McGimpsey & Frances Howard will explore the opportunities and constraints of ethnography as a research method alongside the conflicts that ethnographers may face in different settings. Together we celebrate ethnographers’ scope for playful, creative engagement within youth spaces which can be constrained by local social relations and programme funders. Our ethnographic evaluative research explores the positionality of researchers working in local places and the micropolitics of the research representations they construct. We argue that our presence, time and playfulness can seek to disrupt the capturing of young people as subjects and the locale as policy territory.
Moving ethnographic methodology online, Harry Dyer investigates some of the methodological issues raised by working in digital spaces with youth, and the possibilities of digital methods and methodologies. This will explore some of the methodological and ethical issues raised by digital ethnographic research during the pandemic to explore what is being amplified and silenced online when we consider young people. We will also critically explore the assumptions of voice online, drawing on the pioneering work of Black female digital researchers to unpack why digital spaces tends to amplify what Tressie Cottom calls ‘roaming autodidacts’ and how we might avoid listening to the loud voices alone in digital spaces. Finally, we will explore the volume of data online, looking at the rise of ‘big data’ and how ethnography can respond to this volume of data.
Following these short presentations, there will be space for event attendees to share questions, ideas and their own approaches to ethnography within Youth Research.
| 13:30 | Welcome & BERA Introduction |
| 13:35 | Moving ethnographic methodology online Harry Dyer, University of East Anglia |
| 13:55 | Time, presence and playfulness: ethnography within youth settings Frances Howard, Nottingham Trent University & Ian McGimpsey University of Birmingham |
| 14:15 | Provocation |
| 14:25 | Discussion in breakout rooms |
| 15:00 | Sharing and Event close |
Watching a BERA Virtual event
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Lecturer in Education at University of Birmingham
Ian joined the University of Birmingham School of Education as a lecturer in 2013, immediately following the completion of his ESRC funded doctoral research at the Institute of Education, London. His undergraduate study was in youth and community...
Senior Lecturer - Youth Studies at Nottingham Trent University
Dr Frances Howard is Course Leader for BA (hons) Youth Studies at Nottingham Trent University. She has previously worked in local authorities, arts education and youth work and continues to conduct research on young people, youth work, the arts...
Lecturer in Education at University of East Anglia
Harry joined UEA as a lecturer in education after successfully completing his PhD at UEA in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning. He has a broad academic background, with degrees in linguistics and social science research methods, as...
Does your research involve working with young people? Are you interested in youth-led, creative or culturally-responsive methodologies? The British Educational Research Association (BERA) special...
The special interest of the SIG is in research and scholarship relating to theory, policy and practice issues in Youth Studies and Youth and Community Work. These include: youth transitions and...
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