Agreements among the socially challenged

awkward smiles and mutual discomfort during research activity in the school enviroment

Abstract

Among the researches in the Ethnography of Education that use classroom observation as a tool for data collection, it is possible to identify two major methodological trends: 1) a first one which claims the methodology of an ethnographic type (ANDRÉ, 1995); 2) a second with a methodological approach to ethnography in education (DAUSTER, 1997; ROSISTOLATO, 2013; 2018). On both sides, studies describe the ambivalences surrounding research in the school environment that carry out classroom observation. The text discusses some of these limits through research in two Brazilians Municipal schools of Belo Horizonte. The qualitative research included classroom observation and interviews with teachers and coordinators in two classes of Early Childhood Education, with children aged 5 years. The results point to alterity concerning the researcher's role in the school space, sometimes interpreted as an intern, sometimes as a researcher, sometimes representing a threat. However, the field seems to indicate that institutions that previously had contact with this type of research are less resistant to the presence of the researcher in the school environment.