Drawing relationally for an ethnography of practice

ABSTRACT

Education ethnographies show that observing bodies, objects and settings can illuminate previously hidden learning practices but the relational characteristics of these practices presents methodological challenges for conventional qualitative analyses. Using an example from an ethnographic study of everyday learning, I show how methods from art (specifically researcher-created drawings) can address some of these challenges. I use the concept of ‘epistemic objects’ to theorise drawings as analysis, and to show that rather than being a process of deconstruction, this analysis is constantly bringing knowledge into being. With original interdisciplinary insights from art/social science, this article problematises art in sociomaterial research and offers direction for relational analyses.

KEYWORDS:

• art-based
• drawing
• methodology
• relational
• sociomaterial

Acknowledgements

The wider ethnographic study contextualising this article would not have been possible without the generosity of the participants: Claire Barclay, Roderick Buchanan, Duncan Campbell, Christina McBride and Karen L. Vaughan. Additionally, I wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on earlier versions – hidden but essential work in academia – this article has benefited greatly from their insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The public nature of the participants’ art (exhibitions, websites, and performances) and their names, meant a condition of participation was consent to relinquish anonymity: the participants own names were used throughout the original study and also, where appropriate, in this article.

2 Each individual photograph used with consent from each respective artist.