Reading an Academic Journal is Like Doing Ethnography

Graham Badley

doi:10.17169/fqs-5.1.660

Graham Badley Anglia Polytechnic University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-5.1.660

Keywords: ethnography of social sciences, publications, community of scholars, academic rigour

Abstract

One view of doing ethnography is that it is like trying to construct a reading of a manuscript. What follows is a text which turns that definition around. Thus the proposition here is that "constructing a reading of a series of manuscripts—a journal—is like doing ethnography". The article itself is an ethnographic explication of the numerous texts contained in one edition of Studies in Higher Education. The aim is to provide an account of the texts therein in order to judge, from a Rortyan, pragmatist perspective, whether or not these stories are good for us. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0401408

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Author Biography

Graham Badley, Anglia Polytechnic University

Graham BADLEY is Emeritus Professor of Educational Development at Anglia Polytechnic University. He is interested in all aspects of higher education development with a special concern for the improvement of university teaching, learning and research. He adopts a mainly pragmatist and ethnographic critical stance towards his research. Recent publications include articles in Quality Assurance in Education and Teaching in Higher Education.