Exploring the influence of the ethnographic researcher’s role in digital teaching practices in disadvantaged schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT For over three decades now, the use of digital devices and media has had a growing impact on educational and teaching practices in schools. Though ethnographic research has documented some of these effects, it has often done so from the neutral perspective of a non-partisan participant-observer and recorder-reporter of the events that unfold. The more specific objective of this paper relates to ethnographers’ involvement in research to transform how digital media and devices are used in disadvantaged schools and how interaction between researchers and teachers can influence the practices studied and the perspectives held by the teachers at these schools. By using examples of ethnographic research in disadvantaged schools in rural and urban localities on the use of digital media in teaching practices in Spain, between 2008 and 2021, this article shows how the researcher’ role in educational ethnographic research could provide insights into the transformative value of ethnographic research.