Further education sector governors as ethnographers: five case studies

ABSTRACT

This paper considers how governors in the English Further Education and Skills (FE) sector examined their practice as ethnographers. The paper locates both FE governance and ethnography within the challenges of the performative and Panoptic environments facing English education. In doing so, the paper explores how the informants’ mobilisation of ethnographic methods revealed a novel lens on both governance and the role of ethnographer. Employing Grounded Theory, the paper considers how the participants negotiated philosophical questions regarding evidence, objectivity and truth. The paper suggests that despite the deep-seated complexities inherent in conducting ethnography in performative contexts, the participants generated data which painted a unique and revealing picture upon their practice as governor and researcher.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnography
• governors
• performativity
• policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Although outside the scope of this paper, the research team defined innovative governance as a means of considering and facilitating transition and positive change as a board that will benefit the organisation as a whole.

2. FE in England provides technical and professional education and training for young people, adults and employers and takes place post compulsory participation in education.

3. All informants and organisations mentioned in this paper have been given pseudonyms to provide confidentiality.

4. Interviews between the governor ethnographer and the research team were audio-recorded and transcribed.

5. At the time of writing, Chris was in the process of tabling an agenda item, where he took these data back to his board so as to effect change as to the processes involved in committee reports and reviewing previous minutes.