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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

189754

Problematizing evaluative categorizations

collaborative and multisited interpretations of constructions of normality in Estonia and Finland

Sirpa Lappalainen Elina Lahelma

pp. 843-864

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates collaborative and cross-cultural analysis combining ethnographic studies conducted in multiple educational settings. The authors give two examples of their work, illustrating how the interpretations are jointly built. In the first example, the analysis is focused on the construction of a 'special student" in a lower secondary school in post-communist Estonia. Interpretations, based mainly on data produced in Estonia, were generated with reflections drawn on data produced in Finnish lower secondary schools. In the second case, the analysis concentrates on representations of "normal" childhood and youth in research reports and policy texts on education, and on the impact of these representations on the evaluation of normality made by educational professionals. Interpretations were based on two ethnographic data sets, one generated in the pre-primary education and the other in the lower secondary school. The main conclusions of the paper discuss the usefulness, as well as prerequisites, of the joint analysis. Contrasting and reflecting data from various fields helps to reveal the limitations of straight-forward analysis that would be expected to provide concrete answers to research questions that were defined beforehand. The authors suggest the importance of liberating themselves not only from the bounded site, but also from the idea that the ethnographer's field could ever be coterminous with or the same thing as a geographically bounded location.

Publication details

Published in:

Smeyers Paul, Bridges David, Burbules Nicholas C., Griffiths Morwenna (2015) International handbook of interpretation in educational research. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 843-864

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-9282-0_40

Full citation:

Lappalainen Sirpa, Lahelma Elina (2015) „Problematizing evaluative categorizations: collaborative and multisited interpretations of constructions of normality in Estonia and Finland“, In: P. Smeyers, D. Bridges, N. C. Burbules & Griffiths (eds.), International handbook of interpretation in educational research, Dordrecht, Springer, 843–864.