ETHNOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF THE ARTS AND EDUCATION

Special Issue Call for Ethnography and Education Journal (to be published in 2018)

Guest Editors:
Pat Thomson, The University of Nottingham, UK

David Poveda, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

Ligia Ferro, Universidade do Porto, Portugal

This special issue brings together detailed ethnographic studies of social practice and action in a variety of social contexts where the arts and aesthetic concerns are central. We seek studies reporting research that focuses on: performing arts (music, theatre), plastic arts (photography, painting, sculpture), literature (narrative and poetry), other forms of contemporary, traditional and vernacular artistic expressions and practices. Studies may be situated in a variety of educational contexts – schools, colleges and universities; community organizations or art institutions; open spaces, etc. as well as emerging collectivities and sites (including virtual spaces) for artistic and expressive practice. We are particularly interested in papers that reflect international scholarship, a diversity of socio-cultural settings and research stemming from a variety of disciplinary traditions (Anthropology, Education, Psychology, Sociology, Linguistics, Fine Arts, Folklore, among others).

While our call for invitations is broad in terms of scope and analytical focus, proposals must be centrally grounded in the main concerns of the journal:

(1) Papers must report expertly conducted ethnographic research. We understand ethnography and ethnographic research can be defined in a number of ways and has been taken up in distinct ways by various disciplines but preference will be given to proposals reporting sustained fieldwork in a particular setting/site (however defined) drawing on multiple forms of data.

(2) Papers must focus on educational processes broadly defined, which may include, among other dimensions, interactions between “teachers” and “learners”, learning artistic practices, changes in participants’ identities and subjectivities, apprenticeship and guided participation or learning through intent observation or encounter.

(3) Additionally, papers may explore the place of the arts and artistic practices in fostering “social change”, defined within any scale (individual emancipation, transformations in the community, wider institutional-policy effects, etc.) and/or focused on a variety of social dynamics (emancipation, empowerment, resistance, subversion, etc.)

Preference will be given to manuscripts reporting empirical findings stemming from research built on the principles described above, rather than theoretical essays or critical reviews. Studies of the arts in and as practice may incorporate and critically reflect on attempts to expand how ethnographic research is conducted and reported and draw from “artistic resources” to do so, such as innovative forms of collaborative research, multimodal and multisensorial artifact co-production, visual forms of data representation and analysis, use of digital media and social media, etc.

For questions and submission of abstracts within the timetable set below, please contact Patricia Thomson (patricia.thomson@nottingham.ac.uk) or David Poveda (david.poveda@uam.es)

Instructions and timetable

December 2015 – Special Issue call for papers announcement.

29 February 2016 – Abstract submission deadline. Send 300-500 word abstracts to the special issue editors detailing: (a) goals of the study, (b) methodology and research design, (c) main conclusions.

31 March 2016 – Abstract selection and invitation to submit full papers.

31 July 2016 – Full paper submission deadline, following Ethnography and Education instructions for authors.

August 2016 – January 2017 – External review and submission of final manuscripts.

2018 – Special Issue publication.