Building ethnographic knowledge: reflections from field experience in school institutions

Abstract

This paper discusses challenges, dilemmas and critical situations that arise when doing ethnography in public schools serving to low-income segments in Chile. We reflect on specific experiences during ethnographic fieldwork. First, the entrance or access to schools is addressed, which requires a negotiation process where the context, actors and ways of interacting conditions the future of the ethnographic research. Second, we reflect on positions attributed to the researcher by actors of the educational community once inside the school. These circumstances influence the viewpoint of the ethnographer and his or her relationship to school culture and its agents. Given the lack of similar work in Chile, this article is expected to contribute to the development of greater reflexivity in ethnographic work.