Ethnographical mapping of thick places – teaching and learning practices in teacher training schools

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to use an ethnographic method in order to map where understandings of teaching and learning practices (TaLP) are being discussed in three schools. The questions posed are: what are the relations between thick places, meaning, affect, and TaLP? This study uses an ethnographic method outside the classroom and in between different activities as a starting point for understanding TaLP and where many students at the same school produce thick places of affect and meaning. The main conclusion from this study is that matters of where, what, and who are shaping TaLP. Another important conclusion from this study is that training schools offer new conditions for teacher students, but also offer new opportunities for ethnographic studies that aim at understanding these school environments with a range of new questions.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnographic study
• teaching and learning practices
• training schools
• thick places for didactic talks
• time and place

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Mikael Jonasson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2972-6273