Negotiating Power Relations and Ethnicity in a Sociolinguistic Ethnography in Madrid

Abstract

One of the major dilemmas when practising critical sociolinguistic ethnography within the field of education is the ethnographer's degree of implication within the studied site (Goldstein, 2003; Martín Rojo, 2003; Unamuno, 2004). How far should the researcher intervene within the daily practices he/she is observing? This exercise of methodological reflexivity implies, amongst other things, bringing to the fore the ways ethnographers negotiate their positions and identities when carrying out the fieldwork, a contingent complex process influenced by multiple factors that demands a continual renegotiation of such identities and positions. The main purpose of this article is to reflect upon the major dilemmas I faced, as a female researcher of Latin American origin, in negotiating power relations within conflictive classrooms in a high school located in the centre of Madrid. The conditions under which relations are negotiated give rise to consequences for the entire research (i.e., data collection and analysis, amongst other things).

Keywords:

• sociolinguistic ethnography
• school failure
• Latin American student
• reflexivity
• interaction

Notes

¹“A socio-pragmatic analysis of intercultural communication in education: Towards integration in schools in Madrid” (ASoPraCiPEIa, BFF2003-04830) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education. The results of this project are published in Martín Rojo, L. (2010) Constructing Inequality. Mouton de Gruyter.

²The names of the site and the participants have been changed.

³The Catholic religion as well as historical links have also been highlighted as some of the facilitating factors for integration. In contrast, children of Magrebian/Arabic backgrounds were placed at the other end of the spectrum with the claim that these groups do not speak Spanish, nor do they share the local customs (Aja, 2000).

⁴The number of students of immigrant backgrounds in 2003/04 was 82.5% (123 of 149), decreasing from then on. Principal origin backgrounds: Ecuador, 53 (26.6%); Spain, 26 (13.1%); Dominican Republic, 15 (7.5%); China, 15 (7.5%) from bridging programmes, which implies that they did not attend the mainstream classes; Colombia, 8 (4%); Rumania, 7 (3.5%); Others, 75 (37.8%).

⁵Some of the programmes offered were Computer Technician and Accounting Assistant.