Identity, Agency and Social Institutions in Educational Ethnography

The prime focus on the social processes of schooling within educationalethnography has tended to marginalise or eschew the importance of otherinformal education... » 

The prime focus on the social processes of schooling within educationalethnography has tended to marginalise or eschew the importance of otherinformal educational sites. Other social institutions such as familycommunity media and popular culture work and prisons are salient arenas inwhich behaviours and lives are regulated. They all interrelate and are allimplicated in the generation management and development of social identitiesand the social and cultural reproduction of structures and relations.Individuals though are not merely shaped by these social institutions theiragency is evident in the way they creatively adapt and accommodate to thetensions and constraints of economic educational and social policies. Themaintenance of self in these situations requires identity work involvingmediation conflict contestation and modes of resistance which oftencontribute to a continual reconstruction of situations and contexts.This volume of Studies in Educational Ethnography focuses on identity andagency in a variety of social institutions in educational ethnography. Thecontributors explore these themes in a wide range of international contextsincluding Belgium Sweden North America South Africa and England. Theydemonstrate the capacity of educational ethnography to provide accounts ofparticipants perspectives and understandings to highlight the agency ofeducational subjects. «