Fieldnotes in Qualitative Education and Social Science Research

Building upon the incorporation of fieldnotes into anthropological research, this edited collection explores fieldnote practices from within education and the social sciences. Framed by social justice concerns about power in knowledge production, this insightful collection explores methodological questions about the production, use, sharing, and dissemination of fieldnotes. Particular attention is given to the role of context and author positionality in shaping fieldnotes practices. Why do researchers take fieldnotes? What do their fieldnotes look like? What ethical concerns do different types of fieldnotes practices provoke? By drawing on case studies from numerous international contexts, including Argentina, Cameroon, Canada, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Kenya, Lebanon, Malawi, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the US, the text provides comprehensive and nuanced answers to these questions. This text will be of interest to academics and scholars conducting research across the social sciences, and in particular, in the fields of anthropology and education.

Casey Burkholder is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. Jennifer A. Thompson is Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Psychoeducation at Université de Montréal, Canada.

List of figures List of tables Notes on contributors Acknowledgments Series Editor Foreword What about Fieldnotes: An introduction Jennifer Thompson and Casey Burkholder Part I Producing fieldnotes - Writing in my little red book: The process of taking fieldnotes in primary school case study research in Kirinyaga, Kenya Catherine Vanner - Fieldnotes as a square dance: What can be learned through a metaphor Wendy Crocker and Lori McKee - Fieldnotes in marginal landscapes: Toward an Anthropocene ethic of care for small thingsJennifer MacLatchy - Fieldnotes as an imbricated space of observation, interpretation, analysis, and reflexivity Soon Young Jang - Reflexive uncertainty: Fieldnotes and emotion in participatory visual researchJennifer Thompson Part II Using fieldnotes - When fieldnotes don't work as expected: The challenges of team research with war-affected populations Bree Akesson and Kearney Coupland - Move like honey: Activating fieldnotes for building cultural health capital LaShaune Johnson - Performing fieldtexts Mary Ott - The poetry of fieldnotes Adam Vincent - The editing and rewriting of fieldnotes in ethnographic research Cecilia Vindrola-Padros Part III Sharing fieldnotes - Fieldnotes as private, public, and rhetorical achievement Dmitri Detwyler - Co-production, friendship, and transparency in Anthropological fieldnotes Janneke Verheijen and Sjaak van der Geest - Bumbling along together: Producing collaborative fieldnotes Andrea Wojcik, Rachel Allison, and Anna Harris - Vlogging as sense-making: Fostering diffractive practitioners Julie Rust and Sarah Altman - Analyzing a public digital archive of comic-style fieldnotesCasey Burkholder Part IV Reflecting on fieldnotes practice - Fieldnotes and lived experience of housing precarity: Co-creating transparent research practices for social change Jayne Malenfant - Reconceptualising fieldnotes: The materiality of making knowledge for an embodied, dialogical, creative understanding of self-other Daisy Pillay, Simita Sharan and Jacquie Hendrikse - Queering fieldnote practice with queer, trans, and non-binary populations Amelia Thorpe Index