Research with as opposed to: educational ethnography and challenging modernist notions of the researcher and the researched

This paper challenges modernist conceptions of research. It offers a critique of the increasing dominance of this investigatory style in educational research. It draws upon insights from sociologists of education and ethnographers to indicate the value that qualitative methods continue to offer scholars who are attempting to understand educational settings and identities. The paper calls for all research to be valued and for academics to challenge the dominance of any one research paradigm. This it is argued can be partially achieved by blurring the lines between the researcher and researched, that are increasingly being established in many research communities.