Quand l’ethnographe se heurte au silence des enquêtés lors des situations de retour : une expérience ethnographique en contexte d’excellence scolaire

Abstract

This article aims to provide elements of interpretation that could make it possible to understand what lay behind the silence of interviewees during the ethnographer’s restitution. As part of doctoral work on Physical Education (PE) taught in an elite Parisian high school, the author proposes revisiting the « return situations » experienced with the teachers who taught the discipline at this establishment. She will show that the investigative narrative made it possible to objectify her position as an ethnographer in the field and facilitated a reflective return to the relational framework of the investigation. This review of her first ethnographic experience will lead her to formulate perspectives in order to develop dialogue and cooperation between the academic world of the researcher and the professional world under study, in particular by offering interviewees “accompanied and occasional returns” from the start and throughout the investigation.