Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Methodological Choice and Design pp 79–92Cite as

Ethnomethodological Research in Education and the Social Science s: Studying ‘the Business, Identities and Cultures’ of Classrooms

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Methodos Series ((METH,volume 9))

Abstract

Ethnomethdology is interested in the study of the methods by which members of a culture make orderly sense in and from their experiences. This chapter begins with an outline of the analytic elements of ethnomethdology, conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis, and summarises the domestic, work, and institutional domains to which it is applied. The chapter describes and illustrates applications of ethnomethdology to educational phenomena. The argument is developed that this orientation draws attention to a need to attend to the details of the pursuit of curricular goals in the sites in which those goals are enacted – e.g., classrooms – to disrupt the utopian assumptions that curricula and other policy instruments (e.g., assessments, professional development programs) are acted out uniformly or in a transparent, pre-determinable relation to policy statements. The chapter concludes with some challenges facing ethnomethdologists wishing to expand the influence of their work in areas such as education.

Social interaction is the primordial means through which the business of the social world is transacted, the identities of the participants are affirmed or denied, and its cultures are transmitted, renewed, and modified.

(Goodwin & Heritage , 1990, p. 283.)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For more developed general introductions refer to Heritage (1991) and ten Have (2007); for those that focus on education , see Hester and Francis (2000), Francis and Hester (2004) and Wootton (1997); for a review of EM/CA’s potential in the study of social work, see de Montigny (2007).

References

  • Austin, H., Dwyer, B., & Freebody, P. (2003). Schooling the child: The making of students in classrooms. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, C. D., & Freebody, P. (1987). ‘Constituting the child’ in beginning school readers. British Journal of the Sociology of Education, 8, 55–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boden, D., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1991). Structure-in-action: An introduction. In D. Boden & D. H. Zimmerman (Eds.), Talk and social structure: Studies in EM/CA and conversation analysis (pp. 3–21). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cicourel, A., Jennings, K., Jennings, S., Leiter, K., MacKay, R., Mehan, H., et al. (1974). Language use and performance. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuff, E. C. (1994). Problems of versions in everyday situations. Washington, DC: International Institute for EM/CA and Conversation Analysis, University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Montigny, G. (2007). Ethnomethodology for social work. Qualitative Social Work, 6, 95–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (1992). Analyzing talk at work: An introduction. In: P. Drew & J. Heritage (Eds.), Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings (pp. 3–65). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (1994). Talk at work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1937). [1895]. Rules of sociological method (G. Kaplin, Trans.). New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eglin, P., & Hester, S. (1992). Category, predicate and task: The pragmatics of practical action, Semiotica, 88, 243–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elmore, R. F. (1996). School reform, teaching and learning. Journal of Educational Policy, 11, 499–505.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emmison, M., & Smith, P. (2000). Researching the visual. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, D. W., & Hart, C. (1997). Narrative intelligibility and membership categorisation in a television commercial. In: P. Eglin & S. Hester (Eds.), Culture in action: Studies in membership categorisation analysis (pp. 123–152). Boston, MA: International Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis & University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, D., & Hester, S. (2004). An invitation to EM/CA: Language, society and interaction. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freebody, P. (2003). Qualitative research in education: Interaction and practice. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freebody P., & Freiberg, J. (2000). Public and pedagogic morality: The local orders of instructional and regulatory talk in classrooms. In S. Hester & D. Francis (Eds.), Local education order: Ethnomethodological studies of knowledge in action (pp. 141–162). Amsterdam, London: John Benjamins, Pragmatics and Beyond Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freebody, P., & Freiberg, J. (2001). Re-discovering practical reading activities in schools and homes. Journal of Research in Reading, 24, 222–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freebody, P., & Freiberg, J. (2006). Cultural Science and qualitative educational research: Work ‘in the first place’ on the morality of classroom life. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19, 709–722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freiberg, J. (2003). Topical talk in general practice medical consultations: The operation of service topics in the constitution of orderly tasks, patients and service providers. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freiberg, J., & Freebody, P. (1995). Analysing literacy events in classrooms and homes: Conversation-Analytic approaches. In P. Freebody, C. Ludwig, & S. Gunn (Eds.), Everyday literacy practices in and out of schools in low socio-economic urban communities (pp. 185–372). Report to the Commonwealth DEET, Curriculum Corporation, Canberra, Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freiberg, J., & Freebody, P. (2009). Applying Membership Categorization Analysis to discourse: When ‘tripwire critique’ is not enough. In T. Lê & M. Short (Eds.), Critical discourse analysis: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 49–64). New York: Nova Science Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, H., & Forrester, M. (2010). Analysing interactions in childhood: Insights from conversation analysis. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in EM/CA. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfinkel, H. (1972). Studies in the routine grounds of everyday activities. In D. Sudnow (Ed.), Studies in social interaction (pp. 1–30). New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfinkel, H. (1996). An overview of EM/CA’s Program. Social Psychology Quarterly, 59, 5–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garfinkel, H. (2002). EM/CA’s program: Working out Durkheim’s aphorism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfinkel, H., & Sacks, H. (1970). On formal structures of practical actions. In J. C. McKinney & E. A. Tiryakian (Eds.), Theoretical sociology: Perspectives and developments (pp. 337–366). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, C., & Heritage, J. (1990). Conversation analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology, 19, 283–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heap, J. L. (1985). Applied EM/CA: Looking for the local rationality of reading activities. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Institute for EM/CA and Conversation Analysis (pp. 39–74). Boston, MA, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heap, J. L. (1991). A situated perspective on what counts as reading. In: C. D. Baker & A. Luke (Eds.), Towards a critical sociology of reading pedagogy (pp. 103–139). Amsterdam, Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heap, J. L. (1992). EM/CA and the possibility of a metaperspective on literacy research. In R. Beach, J. L. Green, M. L. Kamil, & T. Shanahan (Eds.), Multidisiplinary perspectives on literacy research (pp. 35–56). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heap, J. L. (1997). Conversation analysis methods in researching language and education. In N. H.Hornberger & D. Corson, (Eds.), Research methods in language and education (Vol. 8, pp. 217–226). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heritage, J. (1984). Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heritage, J. (1991). Garfinkel and EM/CA. London: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heritage, J. (2005). Conversation analysis and institutional talk. In K. L. Fitch & R. E. Sanders (Eds.), Handbook of Language and Social Interaction (pp. 103–147). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hester, S. (2009). EM/CA: Respecifying the problem of social order. In: M. Jacobsen (Ed.), Encountering the everyday: An introduction to the sociologies of the unnoticed (pp. 234–256). New York: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hester, S., & Eglin, P. (1997). Culture in action: Studies in membership categorization analysis. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hester, S., & Francis D. (1995). Words and pictures: Collaborative storytelling in a primary classroom. Research in Education, 53, 65–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hester, S., & Francis D. (Eds.). (2000). Local educational order: Ethnomethodological studies of knowledge in action. Amsterdam, Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Housley, W., & Fitzgerald, R. (2009). Membership categorization, culture and norms in action. Discourse & Society, 20, 345–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jayyusi, L. (1982). Categorization and the moral order. Boston, MA: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jayyusi, L. (1984). Categorization and the moral order. Boston, MA: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jayyusi, L. (1991). Values and moral judgement: Communicative praxis as moral order. In G. Button (Ed.), EM/CA and the human sciences (pp. 227–251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jefferson, G. (1972). Side sequences. In D. Sudnow (Ed.), Studies in social interaction (pp. 294–338). New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingston, E. (1995). The idiosyncratic specificity of the methods of physical experimentation. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 31, 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macbeth, D. (2000). Classrooms as installations: Direct instruction in the early grades. In S. Hester & D. Francis (Eds.), Local Educational Order: Ethnomethodological studies of knowledge in action (pp. 21–72). Amsterdam, Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKay, R. W. (1974). Standardised tests: Objective and objectifies measures of competence. In A. Cicourel, K. H. Jennings, S. H. M. Jennings, K. C. W. Leiter, R. MacKay, H. Mehan, et al. (Eds.), Language use and school performance. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marr, L., Francis, D., & Randall, D. (1999). ‘The Soccer Game’ as journalistic work: Managing the production of stories about a football club. In P. L. Jalbert (Ed.), Media studies: Ethnomethodological approaches (pp. 111–134). Lanham, UK: International Institute for EM/CA and Conversation Analysis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard, D. W., & Clayman, S. (1991). The diversity of EM/CA. Annual Review of Sociology, 15, 177–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • McHoul, A. W., & Rapley, M. (Eds.). (2001). How to analyse talk in institutional settings: A casebook of methods. London: Continuum International.

    Google Scholar 

  • McHoul, A. W., & Watson, D. R. (1982). Two axes for the analysis of ‘common sense’ and ‘formal’ geographical knowledge in the classroom. British Journal of the Sociology of Education, 5, 281–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehan, H. (1991). The school’s work of sorting students. In D. Boden & D. Zimmerman (Eds.), Talk and social structure (pp. 71–90). Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, T. (1949). The structure of social action: A study in social theory with special reference to a group of recent European writers (2nd ed.). New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Payne, G., & Cuff, E. C. (1982). Doing teaching. London: Batsford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Psathas, G. (1992). The study of extended sequences: The case of the garden lesson. In G. Watson & R. M. Seiler (Eds.). Text in context: Contributions to EM/CA (pp. 99–122). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rendle-Short, J. (2006). The academic presentation: Situated talk in action. Directions in EM/CA and Conversation Analysis Series. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sacks, H. (1963). Sociological description. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 8, 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sacks, H. (1992a). Lectures on conversation (Vol. 1). G. Jefferson (Ed.), Introduction by E. A. Schegloff. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sacks, H. (1992b). Lectures on conversation (Vol. 2). G. Jefferson (Ed.), Introduction by E. A. Schegloff. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organisation of turn-taking in conversation, Language, 50, 696–735.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schegloff, E. A. (1991). Reflections on talk and social structure. In D. Boden & D. Zimmerman (Eds.), Talk and social structure: Studies in EM/CA and conversation analysis (pp. 44–70). Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schegloff, E. A. (1999). Discourse, pragmatics, conversation, analysis. Discourse Studies, 1, 405–436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, D. (1998). Harvey sacks: Social science and conversation analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Speier, M. (1982). The everyday world of the child. In C. Jenks (Ed.), The Sociology of childhood: Essential readings (pp. 188–218). Aldershot: Gregg.

    Google Scholar 

  • ten Have, P. (2007). Doing conversation analysis: A practical guide (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, T. P. (1991). Social structure and the sequential organization of interaction. In D. Boden & D. H. Zimmerman (Eds.), Talk and social structure: Studies in EM/CA and conversation analysis (pp. 22–43). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wootton, A. J. (1997). Interaction and the development of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Peter Freebody

  2. Faculty of Education, School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt, QLD, Australia

    Jill Freiberg

Authors
  1. Peter Freebody
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jill Freiberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Freebody .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fac. Education & Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, New South Wales, Australia

    Lina Markauskaite

  2. Fac. Education & Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, New South Wales, Australia

    Peter Freebody

  3. Fac. Education & Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, New South Wales, Australia

    Jude Irwin

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Freebody, P., Freiberg, J. (2011). Ethnomethodological Research in Education and the Social Science s: Studying ‘the Business, Identities and Cultures’ of Classrooms. In: Markauskaite, L., Freebody, P., Irwin, J. (eds) Methodological Choice and Design. Methodos Series, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8933-5_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation