Zhu, Yan;
Wang, Yuchen;
(2024)
Like Water: Feeling and Negotiating Relational Complexity in School-Based Ethnographic Childhood Research in China Through the Lens of Emotional Reflexivity.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
10.1177/08912416241246114.
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Abstract
Ethnography is often considered as a suitable methodological approach to explore childhoods, nevertheless, there is limited reflection on ethics in the field in the Global South educational settings, such as China. Previous China-based fieldwork studies suggest complex field relationships as a major ethical challenge. Although the issue is especially prominent in research that contests “normative” Chinese childhoods, it hasn’t been sufficiently discussed due to a culture of silence surrounding researchers’ emotions and positionality. This paper uses emotional reflexivity as a lens to revisit two Chinese female researchers’ experiences of fieldwork, respectively, with left-behind children and disabled children in Chinese primary schools. The analysis examines how we identified ourselves and negotiated complex relationships with school members and unpacks experiences of “sameness” and “otherness” and the vulnerability and creditability impacted by our fluid identities. The paper adds insights into ethical considerations of school-based ethnographic research with diverse children in the Global South.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Like Water: Feeling and Negotiating Relational Complexity in School-Based Ethnographic Childhood Research in China Through the Lens of Emotional Reflexivity |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/08912416241246114 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08912416241246114 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2024. Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0) This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
| Keywords: | ethnography, childhood studies, China, school, reflexivity |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10192173 |
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