School Without Walls

5

SCHOOL VISIT IN OXFORDSHIRE

After attending a seminar in the Department of Educational Studies of the University of Oxford, I realised that getting access to schools in England for research purposes was not an easy job. One would have to negotiate with governors, head teachers and other teachers, may be even with parents, on dimensions of research, assure anonymity and guard against any unintended harm to the subjects of the research. Richard Pring's account of ‘the toilet ethnographer’ (or the ‘undercover ethnographer’) describes the plight of the educational researcher and the associated value system in the researching process¹:

Some years ago an established researcher investigated the classroom ethos of three middle schools. Entry to these ...