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TIME FOR ETHNOGRAPHY

Paper presented at the NorFa Pre-Congress 6-7th March 2002
by
Bob Jeffrey – The Open University – England and
Geoff Troman – Nottingham University – England
Please do not quote without permission

ABSTRACT
Ethnography derives from traditional anthropology where time in the field is needed to discern the both
the depth and complexity of social structures and relations. To the commissioners of research, the cost of
extensive time in the field can seem exorbitant and unlikely to satisfy 'value for money' criteria in spite of
the rewards to be gained from 'thick description' and a rich analysis that gets close to the 'subtle reality' of
social life.
However, ethnographic time need not be perceived of as only a length of time over a long period up to a
year or two. We suggest that there are different forms of ethnographic research time, each with specific
features. Drawing on our experience of ethnographic research we exemplify some of these different forms.
We conclude by suggesting that the selection of the appropriate form is dependent on the purpose of the
research.

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TIME FOR ETHNOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................0

ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................................0
TIME FOR ETHNOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................2
People...................................................................................................................................................3
Contexts................................................................................................................................................3
Time......................................................................................................................................................3
ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK TIME MODES.................................................................................................4
A Compacted mode...............................................................................................................................4
Panoramic Perspectives..................................................................................................................................4
Metaphoric Invocations..................................................................................................................................5
Highlighting Grand Theory Relevance...........................................................................................................6
Bringing out the colour..................................................................................................................................6
A Selective Intermittent Mode...............................................................................................................8
Zooming into the relevant...............................................................................................................................8
Catching the Serendipitous.............................................................................................................................9
Exploring the depths.......................................................................................................................................9
A Recurrent Mode..............................................................................................................................10
Incorporating the contradictory.....................................................................................................................10
Searching for tensions...................................................................................................................................11
Monitoring change........................................................................................................................................11
Building narratives........................................................................................................................................11
Identifying adaptations and coping strategies................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................12

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TIME FOR ETHNOGRAPHY

Fieldwork takes time. Does that make time the critical attribute of fieldwork? According to ethnographic
tradition, the answer is yes.
(Wolcott 1995) p.77

INTRODUCTION
We have been researching the changing nature of teachers' work in the English education system for over
a decade. Our various projects were all focused on primary teachers’ responses to recent educational
reforms. We charted the adaptations of 'creative teachers' to the National Curriculum and other prescribed
policy changes between 1992 and 1995 in eight primary schools (Woods 1990, 1993, 1995; Woods and
Jeffrey 1996), showing teachers not merely responding to policy prescriptions but playing an active and
creative role in the implementation process. Since 1995 three allied projects with ‘creative schools’ have
taken place (Woods 2002; Jeffrey 2000, Forthcoming) which focus more on the creative learning of
students. More recent work on school restructuring (Troman 1997; Woods et al. 1997) carried out between
1994 and 1996 and the impact of Ofsted inspections on primary teachers (Jeffrey and Woods 1998)
carried out from 1995-9 reported a growth of constraint, intensification of work and increasing
managerialism. It was clear from this research that stress was a major aspect of primary teachers' work in
the mid 1990s, and indeed, occupational stress has become an urgent issue, both in teaching and generally
and appears to be growing, causing much personal distress, financial cost, and educational counter-
productivity (Bartlett 1998). Our most recent research on teacher stress, carried out from 1997-2000,
focused on the social aspects of stress and teachers’ experiences of stress, to complement quantitative and
psychological studies, which form the bulk of the existing literature. These four studies, creative teaching,
the intensification of teachers’ work, the effects of Ofsted inspections on primary teachers and the
experience of stress are the research projects we use to explore different forms of time in ethnography.
All our research sought to provide detailed qualitative material which was derived from using an
ethnographic approach (consisting mainly of interviews, observation and documentary analysis), and
involving long-term engagement in fieldwork in schools.
Our research approach is derived from classic ethnographies in the Chicago tradition of the 1920s and
1930s; what Woods (Woods 1996 p.32) refers to as the 'main line' of interactionist ethnography and
derives from Mead, Blumer, Becker, Glaser and Strauss. The ethnographic work inspired by this
movement is underpinned by symbolic interactionist theory. Symbolic interactionists concern themselves
with the subjective meanings and experiences of individuals (Hitchcock and Hughes 1995). The emphasis
here is on human beings' use and interpretation of symbols and on social life as constructed by 'generating
meanings and making interpretations within small social groups' (ibid. p.34). Like Blumer, Woods (1996)
stresses the importance of the 'empirical social world', that is
the minute by minute, day to day social life of individuals as they interact together, as they develop
understandings and meanings, as they engage in joint action and respond to each other as they
adapt to situations, and as they encounter and move to resolve problems that arise through their
circumstances.
Woods (Forthcoming) argues that in order to study the empirical social world we must focus on social
processes and this involves immersion in the setting over time.
Ethnographers are interested in how understandings are formed, how meanings are negotiated, how
roles are developed, how a curriculum works out, how a policy is formulated and implemented,
how a pupil becomes deviant. These are processual matters, not products. Social life is ongoing,
developing, fluctuating, becoming. It never arrives or ends. Some forms of behaviour may be fairly
stable, others variable, others emergent. Some forms of interaction proceed in stages or phases.
This again emphasises the need for long and sustained researcher immersion in the field in order to
cover whole processes and produce ‘thick description’ (Geertz, 1973) that will encompass this
richness. Processes for example of cultural induction, labelling, identity formation, differentiation
and polarisation, curriculum modification, friendship formation - all require lengthy involvement in
the research field, otherwise only part of the process will be sampled, leading to misleading
analyses. (Woods, Forthcoming, p. 5

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Qualititative research has the capacity to make clear the connections between macro (structural) the meso
(organisational) and micro (personal) levels. In the case of the stress research these levels were
conceptualised as follows:
MACRO (structural) Level
intensification of work - school restructuring - education policy
MESO (organisational) Level
school organisation - teacher culture - teacher/pupil relationships
MICRO (personal) Level
personality - values - commitment - career - role
In this case stress is viewed as individually experienced but socially produced
Woods et al (1997) categorise influencing factors arising at structural (macro), organizational (meso) and
personal (micro) levels and argues that these are interrelated (see also (Helsby 1999). As A. Hargreaves
(1998 p.422) argues, these levels are not 'tightly insulated from one another' and 'structure and agency are
relationally connected'.
The major considerations in our sampling are considered to be people, contexts and time, (Ball 1990;
Hammersley and Atkinson 1995; Woods 1996).

People
The number of people to include in ethnographic research could be seen as only being limited by the
number of people at any research site. Different categories of people are usually identified within a
particular research context, for example, teachers, support workers, students, parents. If this argument is
supported it is important to collect as many different relevant perspectives as possible from within
categories and across categories. This aids triangulation or cystallization – multiple perspectives -
(Richardson 1990) in the pursuit of the ‘subtle reality’ of the research site. An opposing argument is that
put by Wolcott (1995). He argues that one person is enough because researching a person’s perspective
over a length of time will bring to the surface the complexities and inter-relations of the research site
together with the effects of macro and meso structural forces and the variety of coping strategies entailed
in managing the process being researched. Between those poles exists a more pragmatic selection based on
possible categories of people involved and the boundaries selected to carry out the research effectively.
However, some people may not wish to be included, others may be excluded by hierarchies within
research sites, e.g.: students and it may considered inappropriate to converse with some groups for fear of
damaging the main research, e.g.: management if researching teacher practice.

Contexts
In studying teacher perspectives it is well known that behaviour 'can differ markedly in different
situations' (Woods and Jeffrey 1996, p.43). Teacher behaviour has been found to change considerably
between the settings of classroom and staff room (Sharp and Green 1975; Keddie 1971; Hammersley
1981; Lacey 1977). It is argued that observation of contexts about which respondents are talking is
essential to ensure verisimilitude, to be able to compare their interviews with their classroom practice
(Atkinson 1990). However, as with people, we are not always able to observe all the contexts of a research
site. Consequently other methods need to be employed to maintain an ethnographic practice such as the
acquisition of different people’s perspectives of a particular context unavailable to the researcher.

Time
It is important to spend time in the setting in order to attempt to penetrate the various 'layers of reality' in
the school. An ideal length of time in the field is difficult to establish. Wolcott (1995) describes an ideal
fieldwork term of two years as having become the standard as 'perhaps related to the success of
Malinowski's inadvertently long fieldwork among the Trobrianders (he had to sit out World War I because
of his Polish ancestry). Earlier anthropologists researching rural cultures had an ideal of twelve months
minimum in order to study the annual cycle of the growing season. These days the realities of academic
life and the pressures of funding bodies for quick completion make a twelve month minimum a luxury.
Most often contemporary ethnographers, as we did, 'link brief visits that extend over a long period of time,
so that the brevity of the periods is mollified by the effect of long-term acquaintance' (Wolcott 1995 p.
77).
However, we found that all our four main research projects were restricted in some ways in relation to
these three features of ethnography. The creativity research rarely included conversations with
management and limited itself to a sample of about 20. The intensification research used a similar sample

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but did not include any students’ perspectives or governors and parents and the stress research, again with
about 20 in its sample did not speak to respondents colleagues or family. The creativity researcher did not
inhabit the staff room regularly in contrast to the inspection and intensification research, where he saw this
as a prime site and the stress researcher did not visit any of the work sites of the sample although
interviews were often carried out in people’s homes. The length of time spent on each project was similar
but there were differing time features.
Tome for ethnography is a major issue for both practitioners and commissioners of research. We focus, in
this paper, on different kinds of time in ethnography and attempt to distinguish some of their features.

ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK TIME MODES

Time on a research project has a number of features. The total length of a research project may be defined
by the researcher indicating its closure as a research project; however, some projects are built upon the
whole of a researchers life even though the people and the contexts may alter, so an ethnography may
become a long episodic narrative. Ethnographic projects are never finished, only left, with their accounts
only considered provisional and tentative (Walker 1986). Further, the ‘whole project’ period does not
mean that researchers work on research projects full time, for they may have other work activities
alongside the research. Project length needs to be defined in terms of a specific start and a (temporary)
closure point and researchers need to be explicit about the amount of actual time spent on any research
project in terms of field work, analysis and interpretation and writing. Our four projects have similar time
parameters from two to three years and with about 63% of the researchers’ full time employment being
allocated to the research. (Other work included university responsibilities, preparing new proposals, and
contributing to the academic world through reviews, attending conferences and consultations). Fieldwork
took approximately 30% of project time with 70% being allocated to analysis and writing. One year of any
of the four projects included here could therefore be calculated as 63% of 200 annual working days = 133
per year. Of this number of days, approximately 45 days were allocated to fieldwork per year.
However, there is a second feature of time that affects the research practice itself and that is the frequency
with which researchers’ visited sites. The frequency might vary according to access limitations, project
time available and the research orientation. We have identified three types that determine, to some extent,
the nature of the ethnographic practice. They are fieldwork time modes, a ‘compacted’ mode, an
‘intermittent’ mode and a more systematic ‘recurrent’ mode. Each has specific features that highlight
different aspects of an ethnography and each may well be considered different types of research although
in some cases they are all incorporated into one research design. Nevertheless, the exploration of their
differences illuminates the varying time elements that can be employed in ethnography. We explore these
with reference to our four research projects.

A Compacted mode
A compacted mode involves a short period of intense ethnographic research in which researchers inhabit a
research site almost permanently for anything from a few days to a month. Researchers live the life of the
inhabitants as far as is possible. A researcher on a project designed to gain a whole picture of a community
or institution would, if possible, seek access to as many site contexts and people as possible. In the case of
a school, this would be the classrooms, staff rooms, meetings, the playground, assemblies, class visits,
school journeys, social gatherings of parents and teachers. This type of ethnography captures the dynamics
of a context, documenting the visible and less tangible social structures and interactions. Observation and
field notes are a central part of the data as opportunities for conversations with inhabitants is more limited
as they go about their business and the time frame is short. Everything is recorded in an intense experience
where the relevancy of any observation will not be immediately clear. There will be a lot of hanging
around soaking up every tiny detail in case it might be of some particular significance in the later analysis.
The nature of the site’s routines is explored including the tensions between them and within them, any
disturbances to those routines and the effects of these on the sturdiness of those routines.

Panoramic Perspectives
The observation of many contexts and interactions with people at a site may well lead to a proliferation of
perspectives with which to initially portray the site. Peter voluntered to join a school journey to the Isle of
Wight for a week with year 6 students. The opportunity provided him with a ready made research project.
His early observations and thoughts indicate the breadth of his compacted task.

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From a front seat on the top deck of the coach, I have a good view of the beautiful English
countryside, very lush and verdant after all the rain, and in full flower in the bright sunshine.
Somebody's finger hurts. Hannah asks at 9.10 a.m. if it's nearly lunchtime. I reflect on the transition
taking place for both children and parents. Another one of those key moments, first time away from
home and away from parents. And coming at the end of their primary days, preparatory to
secondary school and to secondary socialisation. The main features seem to be:
-de-institutionalization (away from school, far away in fact - an additional feature. There is no
going back for an evening, no nipping down the road on a bike)
-communitas - very noticeable at mealtimes, inside and out, and at times on and near the coach.
The coach a very interesting situation.
-educational, but different from normal activities. How different - subject matter first hand, on-
site, new instructors; new methods; extra-National Curriculum; combined with play….
-party atmosphere. The emotional aspect very important, to counter the sadness of departure and
of home-sickness, but also to celebrate the transition
-the hotel, cf public boarding school; and cf Hackleton School. What kind of institution is the hotel
+ excursions? It combines family, school and holiday functions. Compare the 'total institution'.
They are all together for 5 whole days, 24 hours a day, and there is no escape. Parents and pupils
have been advised not to make phone calls, as this increases homesickness. But the emphasis is on
the upbeat, character formation, personal growth, quite the opposite to the mortification of
Goffman's total institutions and to some public, boarding schools. Here, the total institution only
applies for five days, so a more balanced progression is secured.
-meeting new people in different roles e.g. PW and the student teachers. And their teachers in
more expansive roles, and in new places, all eating and sleeping in the same place.

-rule governed relations, the most important one being the teacher's hand in the air which brings
almost instant order and complete silence with little effort - it quickly catches on through a ripple
effect (cf Kounin), two of the senses - sight and hearing - being brought into play. Any stragglers
are brought into line by the others. Sue has trained them in this. An agreed signal that covers all
contingencies. It is a collective thing that they all want to do, not just the imposition of order for
others' purposes. Another important rule concerns security. They must keep with their group leader,
and they must keep in pairs on outside activities. They are never to go anywhere on their own. A
protective measure but also a defence against solitude. When necessary, they divide into 6 groups
with their group leaders, for ease of management. This is one of the respects in which the trip is an
extension of school. (Field Notes The Isle of Wight)
At the end of such a compacted mode the analysis will need to be more than just a list of what the
researcher observed, as in a travel brochure. The relations between the various perspectives or lenses
through which the whole site is viewed must be shown through analysis.

Metaphoric Invocations
One of Bob’s research schools oozed creativity and a metaphor was invoked to describe it.
An umwelt is a ‘significant environment’. It is part of a wider environment that an organism, like a
school, chooses to inhabit. It is the subjective universe of the organism. The latter acts as a sign of
the umwelt in that the structure of the organism will in some sense be given clues to the nature of it
environment and conversely the umwelt also shows that it is, itself, a sign of the organism in that it
is possible to make inferences about the organism based on an analysis of its environment…..

Visitors included: Irish dancers; Scottish bagpipe performers; harpists; artists; stone masons; a
military band; a demonstration of sea shanties accompanied by an accordion; a bell ringing group;
a vet ministering to the sheep; a member of the Cromwell society on a horse; an army helicopter; a
juggler on a one wheel bike; a specialist in children’s playground songs and rhymes from America
and a Muslim woman talking about her faith and culture. These talks, demonstrations or
performances not only engage the children's interest and take them on something akin to ‘the Grand
Tour’ of the world outside the school but they generate an ‘umwelt of appreciation’. Although
some of the presentations are not followed up by the teachers, they contribute to the creation of a
learning community (Woods 1995; Woods 1995) an umwelt that appreciates its world.(Jeffrey
2000)

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Metaphors are one way of analysing the compacted time at a site but they need to be new and illuminating
not dead metaphors (Jeffrey 1997).

Highlighting Grand Theory Relevance

Another strategy for making the most of a compacted time at a site is to relate one of the perspectives or
lenses to other research or theories. Geoff joined one school for a week to explore how and why the head
and teachers considered it to be a low stress school. One of his conclusions, after immersion in their
routines and extensive interviews, showed a
different use of power. At Stanhope Road there is democratic participation. The principle of equal
inputs underwrites the collaborative culture. The head teacher has ultimate authority, but he does
abuse his power. It is invested in the interests of the team, where it serves another purpose in
addition to strengthening the bonds within the group, Seen against the external force of government
policy, it is helping to generate a form of power consisting of 'relationships of co-operation, mutual
support and equity' (Bloome and Willett 1991, p. 208). These relationships can prop up and indeed
advance the values of the group, which are all the more sharply defined by the comparison with
those sought to be imposed from without (see Woods 1995, Chapter 3), There are signs here, too,
that this form of power is being extended beyond the school in an incipient learning community
(Retallic, Cocklin, and Coombe 1999). This is not just a matter of avoiding stress. There is grossing
evidence of its educational strengths (Fink 1999). (Troman and Woods 2001 p 135)
This is a form of qualitative validation in that it attempts to satisfy the criteria of plausibility and
credibility for providing a picture of subtle realism (Hammersley and Atkinson 1995).
However, there is another way in which a compacted approach can aspire towards a subtle realism and
that is paying attention to the detail of a context, seeing into the life of things (Woods 1996, p.77).

Bringing out the colour

This maybe necessary where access to a broad range of sites is limited. This happened in the case of our
inspection research. The researcher planned a compacted period during the week that the schools were
having their first national external inspection. A team of five inspectors descended on the school early on a
Monday morning and stayed until Thursday evening from 07.00hrs each morning until late in the evening.
They were given their own room and expected to have open access to all areas in the school including
toilets and kitchens and to everyone who crossed the threshold of the site including parents, governors and
students. However, there was one place they were not welcome and that was the staff room.
Contrary to the inspectors’ freedom the researcher, Bob, was only allowed access to this room during the
week of the inspection. He was not allowed elsewhere in the school in case he interfered with the
inspection process. Nevertheless, he had the opportunity to inhabit the place where much of the drama of
the week was considered, interrogated and reviewed. He was privy to emotional reactions, moments of
exhilaration and quiet brooding periods. The compact nature of the research, always in the staff room,
every day until all the staff left in the evening meant attention to the minutia of a context - changing and
differing atmospheres, interactive behaviours, tensions and coping strategies. In particular it was possible
to identify exhibitions of solidarity, insularity, self denigration, anger, humour, panic, resistance, empathy,
support and obliviousness. The following extract from the full memo (see appendix 1) exemplifies this
compacted approach.
The place is Lowstate school. It’s 10.10 on Saturday morning. I’ve been allowed into the school to
research the effects of Ofsted inspections on primary teachers. I’m sitting in the infant hall with my
back to the windows facing the display boards. It is very quiet and a contrast to the normal buzz
and chatter of a school. I can hear a blackbird singing in the garden. The light, albeit filtered
through tall pot plants climbing up the large window frames, shows up the highly polished floor.
Every display board has a uniform three centimetre border made from black sugar paper - one was
removed because it didn’t conform. The contents of the displays are all mounted and uniform
computer printed labels explain the contents or challenge the reader to respond mutely. There are
few teacher written labels.

Monday – Early Encounters

On Monday at 8.15 the car park is full to overflowing. ‘It looked like a motorway service station.’
All the inspectors drive cars no more than 18 months old. A Mazda Xedes 6, an Audi A4, a Honda

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Elite Civic, an Escort and a Fiat Tipo, believed to belong to the lay inspector, stand bright and
gleaming amongst the teachers’ older cars. At 8.44 the staff appear in the staffroom. There is much
talk and occasional jocularity, ‘I couldn’t find any clean clothes this morning’. There are three
boxes of sweet things, milk chocolate marshmallows, a packet of dark and white chocolate biscuits
and a tin of butterscotch shortbread on the main central table around which people sit. The
marshmallows are opened and Angelina and Aileen declare they are ‘eating for Ofsted’. Most of
the teachers have put on their smarter clothes. At 8.47 the inspection team led by the Lead
Inspector enters the room. There is one man and three women. They too are smartly dressed with
jackets and the man has a bronzed tan. The lead inspector smiles and states that this is the worst bit
for the teachers but it will whiz past and she laughs. She says they will be exhausted by Wednesday
and not to worry for it is known as ‘dip day’ - where enthusiasm drains away and tiredness is felt
most strongly - and there is general laughter. There is loud chatting and amongst this hubub Laura
notices me scribbling quickly and with a glint of humour tempered by the euphoria and tension of
the moment she says ‘you’re just a vulture’ and Esther gives me a short diary of her last week. The
head then raises her voice above the chatter, and says ‘once more into the breech dear friends’ and
all the teachers begin to leave the staff room for their classrooms, some of them trying to break into
singing ‘we shall overcome’. With loud laughs and chatter the event has begun.

Halfway through the lunch break at 12.45, it is unusually quiet in the staff room with even the
loudest and most cheerful of staff lost in their own thoughts. Five minutes later there is a quiet hum
as people talk quietly in twos and threes in a staff room where the only accommodation is round
the central table. Aileen gives Edith advice, Tracy and Letica discuss their practice, Elaine, Evelyn
and Esther chatter quietly about non school issues, Laura works and Lional slides in and then
leaves without a word. Five minutes on and Angelina arrives and the group all talks together for a
while. Another five minutes later only four remain talking about home and life far from this event.

Wednesday – Dip Day

From 3.30 to 4.15 p.m., 10 teachers drift in and out of the staff room. On this dip day some just
wanted it to end. ‘I’m just getting through it, getting on with life. It was an horrendous build up and
I just want to get it over and look forward to doing something else.’

At 3.43 Aileen brings up her news, ‘I saw the lead inspector go into Tracy’s room. Is everything all
right?’ Evelyn is sat at the table, Aileen stands with her back to the radiator thinking and Lional
enters and yawns, reflecting his tiredness. The phone rings and no one answers it, which is unusual.
It rings again and Aileen says vehemently ‘Oh God go away.’ Lional tells his tale of working in
someone else’s class on some maths with some children and how badly it went.

As two of the teachers go for a cup of tea to the staff room they walk past me looking grave and
don’t acknowledge me. The first teacher, Tracy, who has just been criticised by the Lead Inspector
slowly walks out of the school burdened by many bags and flops into her ancient ‘A’ registration
car and drives slowly out of the school. A few moments later the second teacher leaves, head
lowered as she struggles with her bags following a few yards behind her husband who wearily
fingers the car keys in his hand.

Thursday – Last Performance

Others continued their survival strategies by eating vast amounts of chips, ‘I’ve never eaten so
much rubbish food in my life.’ One of the teachers, criticized the previous evening by the lead
inspector, eats her dinner quietly on her own at one end of the room, though after a while Aileen
goes and talks to her… For a while the chat turns to the children and then away from the children
and then one of them spots me and accuses me of bringing them back to the event by being there.

Friday – Celebration and Review

At lunchtime there is much discussion about the negative aspects of inspection and the unfairness
of the critical comments made about the two teachers, and in other places in the school there is
concern about the effects of the ‘excellent’ gradings. One of the criticised teachers, Tracy, puts a

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card on the staff room table: ‘Thank you everyone for your support through my “downs”. This is
becoming rather a habit don’t you think? You’re a sport. Love Tracy.’ It’s a sad end to her week
that began with so much optimism and enthusiasm from her.

At 4 p.m. most of the staff, including the support staff, adjourn to a local pub where a room has
been set aside for a celebration with a large buffet and large rounds of drinks are bought by the
management. The party goes on till after 8 p.m. and there they relax, make presentations to the
head and deputy, tell tales of the event and evaluate the process.
The main features of a compacted ethnographic period is the broad sweep of camera of a particular site or
event, one in which all perspectives are particularly relevant and the interaction of people and context is
described in detail. It is more context led than interview dominant. However, a compacted approach on its
own cannot develop a focus in depth allowing time for reflection and the testing of impressions,
perspectives and interpretations.

A Selective Intermittent Mode

This mode is one where the length of time spent doing the research is longer, for e.g.: from 3 months to
two years but with a very flexible approach to frequency of site visits. Site engagement is dependent on
the focus of the research and the events at the research site. The dominant criteria are depth of study,
entailing progressive focusing (Strauss and Corbin 1990) on one part of a picture for a sustained period.
Apart from the initial period of broad familiarization, specific rich contexts are selected for examination
and interpretation. There is less ‘hanging around’ than there might be in a compacted approach where a
continuous length of time in the field is stipulated. This type of research would not only have specified the
specific area for investigation such as a curriculum, hierarchies, gender relations, micro politics, student
teacher relations but the researcher would be continually selective about the place and the people with
whom they spent time.
Although the total amount of time for the research may be designated the amount of time actually in the
field work and the frequency with which researches visit the site is not decided before hand. The amount
of time in the field is determined by a decision as to whether a site has been ‘saturated’ (Strauss and
Corbin 1990). There is a much more fluid relationship between fieldwork and analysis than in the other
two modes.
Our creativity and intensification research projects fitted this model. The objective of the creativity project
was to record the impact of national educational reforms on primary teachers’ creativity and to show their
adaptations and appropriations. We needed to visit over a length of time – about 2 terms – to gain some
knowledge of the range of teaching and learning strategies used by teachers. However, the objective was
not provide a broad picture but to find out what constituted those strategies, to detail their features, to
ascertain the quality of the interactions and outcomes. We took time to interpret and further constitute
practices that teachers considered routine through discussions, reflections and review.
We also needed time to allow the relationships to develop, in order to ensure greater collaborative
investigation between teacher and researcher. We needed time between visits to reflect on our
observations and conversations and to experiment with relevant theories as different ways of interpreting
the data from the site. We would then re-visit the site when we were ready to view the teachers’ practices
from a new perspective. Conversely, teachers informed us of relevant events and we altered plans to
accommodate these suggestions. We also needed the flexibility to satisfy our ‘compelling interest’ (Woods
1986)(Wolcott in). Research site visits were determined as and when the researcher felt it appropriate and
they were for short bursts or sporadic. This was a flexible and intermittent frequency.

Zooming into the relevant

Using visits intermittently Bob was able to gradually select the particular sessions or days that were likely
to be more relevant to the research. He was then able to identify what would be most appropriate for the
research and zoom in these moments, for example,
In Marilyn’s Tudor topic, the Year 6 pupils learnt a musical, choreographed some dances,
composed some Tudor music, visited Hampton Court, watched part of the film of Columbus and a
TV series, read ‘fact finders’, looked at some Shakespeare plays, learnt poems, wrote life stories,
painted figures and made large collages of Elizabethan figures, constructed pirates, maps, props for
the play, time lines, sand timers, compasses, listened to stories and put together an extensive topic
folder. (Woods and Jeffrey 1996 p.126)

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The intensification project was similar. The researcher, Geoff needed access to specific sites within the
school but these had to be developed over time.
Researching the school for eighteen months allowed the sampling of different temporal phases, that
is, the school day, week and year. It was important to spend this length of time in the setting in
order to attempt to penetrate the various 'layers of reality' in the school….I would visit the school
for one, two, sometimes three days each week. Different times of day, and days of the week, were
chosen for these visits. I was originally asked by the senior management team if I would only visit
on Wednesdays. After some months I departed from this schedule without asking permission (I
thought they had probably forgotten). The first week I deviated from my 'normal' routine a member
of the management team said to me, 'What are you doing here? It's not Wednesday'. Apart from
this comment, no other participant seemed to either notice or object to my being in on days other
than Wednesday. This approach gave a representative range with which to sample the routine
events of school life. At other times, interesting, special, and even extraordinary events were
attended. Examples included a special after school meeting of the senior management team, an
after school drama production, a paper making exhibition by a visiting artist, an evening meeting
for parents and governors, the visit of an HMI and staff INSET days. (Troman 1997 p. 46)
Geoff’s fieldwork lasted a long time but he was selective about sites and he used a form of progressive
focussing (Strauss and Corbin 1990) to spend more time with ‘key informants’, in order to enquire more
deeply into specific contexts and with specific people.
The most commonly visited were whole school staff meetings in the school hall and classrooms,
working party meetings in various classrooms, senior management meetings in the Headteacher's
office, and break, lunchtimes and after school in the staff room.
Although he did visit the occasional classroom, once covering for an absent teacher he felt it wasn’t
appropriate to request observation of lessons or interviewing of students. The request may have been a
request too far and prevented him from access to the main sites in which he was interested. People may
well be initially suspicious of a ‘total gaze’ (Foucault 1977) and accept more readily only some of their
life and work being open to scrutiny (Goffman 1961).

Catching the Serendipitous

However, with time other contexts often become open due to familiarity,
One context I had not envisaged visiting at the outset of the research was the school sailing club
which met one evening each week. Here I could develop relationships with some of the teachers
and learn something of their perspectives in a context distant from the school. I attended the club at
the invitation of a female teacher who became a key informant.
Central to the intermittent mode is the flexibility to follow specific interests and paths that open up.

Exploring the depths

In the creativity research Bob worked particularly closely with one teacher Judy.
Judy and I engaged in conversations ranging across politics, biographies, learning strategies,
academic work (Judy was in the middle of a her MA) and school issues. We met mainly in cafes
and chatted for hours. Judy was given copies of any papers that were produced and asked to
comment. ……In this way we developed a third eye which began to give us insight into our own
actions; a form of standing outside oneself….(Jeffrey 1997 p. 60)
As we talked together I asked questions, offered analysis, made assertions and invoked controversial
perspectives. We constructed ideas and understandings together (Jeffrey 1995),
In many instances the teacher may not have I thought about some of the areas we discussed and the
ensuing conversations were a development of a new way of viewing her practice. In this approach
we slid easily between her conscious intentions and new constructions of how her practice could be
perceived. Moreover, we re-defined some of her practice in terms that were our own. Apart from
claiming some ownership of the practice we were also able to elaborate the nature of the creative
practice in terms of our values. (Jeffrey 1997 p.66)

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Developing a long term intermittent approach to a research site means flexibility to enter the site at any
time, the gradual opening up of areas for access, the gaining of respondent’s trust and commitment to the
research, the opportunity to decide during the process of research what it is that one needs to progressively
focus on and the chance to respond to serendipitous events.
The main features of a discriminatory intermittent approach to ethnography is the flexibility to follow a
particular empirical or analytical path across people and contexts and to be able to focus more and more
closely on any relevant aspect of a site just as a cinematographer who gradually zooms closer and closer
on to his or her preferred subject. The main interest of the researcher, in this mode, is being open to the
events of the research process and to be able to pursue particular interests with gusto and to discard those
avenues that seem less relevant or interesting. This mode of research combined equally specific contexts,
respondents’ interpretations and researcher-respondent discussion and conversation.

A Recurrent Mode
A recurrent research mode is one where temporal phases formalise the research methodology. These
research projects may aim to gain a picture by sampling the same temporal phases, e.g.: beginnings and
ends of terms, school celebratory periods such as Christmas, exam periods, inspections or researchers
would sample on a regular basis irrespective of specific events. This is not a broad sweep nor a zooming
approach but a systematic recording of a narrative that is legitimised by the regularity of the fieldwork.
There is less flexibility in the frequency of field visits less progressive focusing for the main objective is to
monitor comparison and change. Like the compacted mode everything observed during visits that was
relevant to the specific perspective would be relevant so that comparisons can be made. Conversations
with people would be concerned with the similarities and differences with past encounters with the
researcher or event in the case of celebrations or beginnings and ends of terms. The recurring
conversations become narratives that have a past, present and future, ‘How different was it to last time?’,
‘What’s your assessment of the impact?’ What coping strategies will you take next time?’
This mode provides an opportunity to study a whole cycle such as a school year or a term and assess the
balance between the different phases. Secondly, the recurrent mode is an opportunity to follow the
narrative of an experience such as art lessons, or gender inequalities over a specific time period and to
chart the development, tensions and dilemmas of people in the narrative. The third opportunity is to
research the effects of change on an institution, group or set of individuals. In this case the researcher
might be interested in the effects over time of the introduction of new programmes, policies or routines,
implementation effectiveness, inculcation experiences or the effects of specific events. The recurrent mode
with its built in time factor assists the unpacking of the relationship between the macro, meso and micro of
social structures for example during times of reform.
Observation would less prominent in this mode with conversations being more dominant coupled with
analysis of documentation such as student’s work or staff meeting minutes. Although observation of
respondents in situ is considered necessary to counteract respondent rhetoric (Atkinson 1990) this can be
partly resolved by conversations over time, in which researchers reflect back to corespondents their
previous perspectives and together they explore contradictory behaviours (Jeffrey, Forthcoming), where
people exhibit over time what appear to be inconsistent reactions and behaviours.

Incorporating the contradictory

One teacher from the inspection research summed up an internal contradiction which threw light upon the
effects the inspections were having upon her professional identity
I still am worried; I haven't found me yet. I haven't found myself because I do in fact care. I don't
feel that I'm working with the children any more, I'm working at the children but it's not a very
pleasant experience. You feel responsible for every part of the school, whether you had anything to
do with it or not but at the same time I feel alienated from it all, divorced from it all. Does that
make sense? No it doesn't really.
The Ofsted inspection research fitted this mode of ethnography as, to some extent, did the stress research.
The inspection research began in each school approximately a term before their inspection with regular
monthly visits for 2-3 days to complete the collection of perspectives from the identified sample. As the
inspection drew closer the frequency increased slightly until the inspection week itself where the
researcher stayed in the school all week (see compacted research section). The sample, head teacher,
teachers, support workers and students were all interviewed the week after the inspection and then the
frequency became more regular with visits returning to once a month for a term. The main objective of the

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research was to ascertain the effects of the inspection on the school and the teachers. One other piece of
data was added to the research, the perspectives of the lead inspectors of the six schools in the sample.
However, this was only one interview conducted over three months after the inspections.

Searching for tensions

We identified a conflict of values between the inspectors and the teachers and gradually became aware of
how the inspection colonized the school for the whole period leading up to and after the inspection.
Colonization is achieved through discourses as well as authoritative power. Although the Ofsted
team are seen once and rarely again, the discourse of inspection and accountability remains with
the schools. The Ofsted experience recedes for many teachers as time goes by, but follow up visits
by LEA inspectors using the same approaches revive memories of the event and remind teachers
that the Ofsted approach is the new orthodoxy. The language and discourse of Ofsted remains in
terms of targets, outcomes, evidence, failing schools and teachers, and the grading system which is
developed to ensure that all teachers are re-categorised as numbers. So schools and teachers remain
colonized to some extent. There is ‘an inner lining on the re-dressing of the school in Ofsted terms’
(Field Note 10/11/95). (Jeffrey and Woods 1998 p.106)

Monitoring change
The systematic interviewing of the staff, which focused on their values, current conflicts and the effects of
the inspection during the process and for some time after the event enabled profiles to be developed that
showed personal and pedagogic change,
My attitude to teaching has completely changed since Ofsted. There is no reason for me to be here
now except to collect a pay cheque. When I came into teaching that wasn’t the reason, it wasn’t the
reason I was meant to do it. All those things have gone. There is no feeling that this is my vocation,
my way of life, that I was meant to do this. I’ve accepted my lot. I’ve accepted that this is the way I
have to do it. While I was still fighting it was so awful for I was so stressed by it. Now I accept
that’s the way I have to do it. Although it’s depressing, you don’t feel so stressed by it. You just get
on and do it.

Building narratives
The stress research also collected narratives over time and was able to identify a range of teacher
adaptations, e.g.: retreatism, downshifting and self actualizing,
It was partly professional pride and also knowing the picture given by the inspection report was
flawed. I was also determined not to be a victim. I look at parents and see the process that is going
on. They're thinking, 'Is he cracking up; Is he just not up to it; Is it a mid-life crisis?' Friends
cannot understand why I would want to leave a relatively well paid job. (Troman and Woods 2001,
p.88)
Systematic recurrent ethnography, particularly when used in a context where people are experiencing
unusual and disturbing events, ensures that the respondent and the researcher focus on the passage of time
and how this has affected the former.

Identifying adaptations and coping strategies

We relied heavily on identifying coping strategies to explain the nature of change. In the stress research
Geoff found examples of personal resourcing - distancing, self-determination, regaining perspective and
balance and reading and writing. This was coupled with seeking alliances from medical professionals,
colleagues, family and trade union officials.
I'd met a former pupil in a doctor's waiting room and he'd been so nice, so good to me, about his
plans for the future and how well he was getting on, as though he expected me to really care about
him and be very interested. And 1 thought somebody thinks something of me because at that time
my image of myself was about six inches tall. I’d completely lost my confidence in myself. And it
was purely coincidence that this lad came up and spoke to me. But it made me feel as though
thought l was quite an important person.

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One of the difficult aspects of ethnography is to how to account for a wide range of perspectives and
experiences either from a group of people or a single person in a single context or different perspectives
and behaviours of people in different contexts. The losing or putting aside of some perspectives or
behaviours that don’t fit the developing theory is not appropriate for ethnography that attempts to uncover
the tensions, ambiguities and dilemmas of people’s lives. Typologies are one method to explain the range
of differentiated perspectives collected and although we have used them extensively (Woods et al. 1997)
we also wish to portray analysees of real people as well as identifying ‘types’ as illustrative analysis. The
Ofsted inspection research showed how the teachers used opposing coping strategies at the same time,
We found teacher responses here to be complex, and in some respects contradictory. At the same
time as they were experiencing colonization and deprofessionalization the teachers were
developing coping strategies. The latter, in themselves, contained apparently contrary behaviours.
On the one hand, teachers distanced themselves from the Ofsted process in order to maintain their
selves and professional identity. At the same time, they engaged extensively with the process in
order to satisfy the corporate pressures and their faith and commitment to work. These behaviours
were generally exhibited simultaneously by the majority of the teachers although within these
categories teachers positioned themselves differently. (Jeffrey and Woods 1998 p.141)
This analysis arose out of recurrent mode that showed up different and contradictory behaviours only
available over time in the field. A recurrent mode enables the researcher to compare the different phases of
a cycle, to identify change and to develop authentic narratives through respondent reflection and
researcher challenge, the researcher taking the role of a narrative film maker.

CONCLUSION
Features of all these three modes are used in traditional ethnographies, sites are regularly visited for
compacted lengths of time as researchers lift the veil (Woods 1996) of the culture. However, modern
ethnographies sometimes eschew a full ethnographic enquiry. A considerable length of ethnographic time
in the field has, in the past, been considered essential to traditional ethnography but as we have tried to
show time has distinctive modes.
The compact mode needs to ensure a good deal of triangulation of people and contexts, although this may
need to be supported by reference to similar research or the drawing on relevant theory. Selective
intermittency requires less triangulation as it build acquires more and more specific data to underpin its
analysis. The recurrent mode builds its authenticity by reflecting back on the data and re-examining it
together with an interrogation of past and present perspectives and behaviours. Familiarity with the people
and the site would not be a priority for the compacted ethnography, but would be essential for the
intermittent approach where people would need to trust the person who dropped in at short notice and who
needs to get close to contexts and people. Familiarity would be less essential for the recurrent approach
where regularity and prior agreement determines the quality of the relationship. Processes for cultural
induction into the research site are developed gradually in the discriminating intermittent approach
whereas they can only be superficial in the compacted research and are possibly less necessary in the
recurrent approach.
There are a number of issues that arise from this differentiation of ethnographic time modalities. First is
the issue of personal involvement and prior assumptions is a major issue in ethnography. To respond to
these concerns the compact researcher needs to explicate the subjective clearly and ensure that adequate
comparisons with other research studies in the same area are incorporated into any analysis, interpretation
and writing. The intermittent approach is the one most susceptible to ‘going native’. Respondent
validation, team critiques, and memo writing (Jeffrey 1999) are all methods of responding to this issue by
the intermittent researcher. The recurrent approach is least troubled with this issue providing differences
between opposing, multiple and contradictory perspectives are a major part of the analysis process and
relations are humanly distanced (Jeffrey and Woods 1998).
A second issue is the fear that this breakdown of ‘time’ in ethnography could result in the reduction of
ethnography to qualitative research, i.e.: not the total package of ethnographic principles. We see these
ethnographic principles as:
1. taking place over time to allow a fuller range of empirical situations to be observed and analysed and
to allow for the emergence of contradictory behaviours and perspectives. Time in the field, alongside
time for analysis and interpretation, allows continuous reflections concerning the complexity of
human contexts.
2. considering relations between the appropriate cultural, political and social levels of the research site
and the individual's and group's/community's agency at the research site.

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3. including theoretical perspectives in order to:
 'sensitize' field research and analysis;
 provide an opportunity to use the empirical ethnographic research as an interrogator of theory;
 develop new theory.
The compacted approach would not meet the first criteria. However, the broad sweep produced needs
putting alongside other ethnographies or qualitative studies to allow comparison and interrogation of any
current theory. A broad sweep cannot suffice alone.
A research project adopting the discriminating intermittent approach would need to ensure that the second
criteria is not marginalised, for the temptation to deepen understanding of a particular interest might well
lead to the suppression of relevant political and cultural structures that contexts and people. It is also
important to incorporate theories of social structures and influences into any analysis as a defence to
accusations of subjective bias.
The recurrent research approach, with its emphasis on the narrative, may mean that researchers have to be
vigilant about not marginalising current theories for the emotional power of people’s stories may come to
dominate the written ethnographies.
The maintenance of ethnographic principles are a bulwark against the quantification of qualitative
research. There is a temptation to use qualititative studies in conjunction with the quantitative
methodology of asserting validity through statistical procedures. This involves counting the number of
qualitative comments or specific codings of qualitative texts eg: satisfaction with an innovation as
analysis. This quantitative approach does a dis-service to the power of qualitative research to explicate
meanings, understandings and structural influences. Ethnographic principles can be used as a marker to
show how qualitative research should be used for explicating the impact of life upon experience.
Thirdly, a wider contemporary problem is that time is considered to be a premium now and the
commissioners of research want quicker results. Simple responses that suggest that any ethnographic
research will take up to 2 years are being rejected. We need to indicate that there are different types of
ethnographic research in terms of time and at the same time construct strategies that can be adopted to
ensure that ethnographic principles are maintained.
A compacted research approach will not, of itself, be enough to find out how effectively a new policy is
being implemented but it might provide a broad sweep to act as a pilot for further research or be enough to
confirm, alongside others, the types of atmosphere that permeate a school. A research project, where
progressive focusing is required would not be able to respond to a request for an urgent report. However,
using a familiar a site would cut access time and relationship building. Alternatively, the preparation of a
site in terms of familiarity might be done prior to the start of a funded research period, shortening the
funding need. The need to understand the effects of change on people, their values and commitment would
need a research project over a long period but the frequency of field work could be minimal and together
with the analysis and interpretation might actually be a three month project over 18 months. One
innovation might be the operation of a 2-3 complimentary projects carried out on the same sites with the
same research teams but funded by different people, maximising ethnographic endeavour.
In today’s climate, commissioners of research want definitive answers for policy direction or the
resolution of funding options. One answer might be to show how analysis of longer-term projects could
become more episodic with papers and reports being written during the process of research, a strategy
with which ethnography is very familiar. We need to convince commissioners of research that long term
research does not necessarily mean reports delivered at the end of a long research period. Alternatively we
might suggest rolling programmes of research, each funded separately and using different but
complimentary time frames. We have to show how our approach is beneficial and what options there are
in terms of time, and therefore funding.
Lastly, research students are also limited by time for field work due to the range of the curriculum
expected to be covered in doing post graduate research, such as literature reviews and developing new
research methodology. It is hoped that this paper might be of some help in decisions concerning the
construction of research designs particularly if it chimes with realistic post graduate time boundaries.

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