Abstract

FONSECA, Claudia. When each case is NOT a different case: ethnographic research and education. Rev. Bras. Educ. [online]. 1999, n.10, pp.58-78. ISSN 1413-2478.

Several problems inherent to interdisciplinary investigation are identified within the fashionable context of "ethnographic research". When the ample concept of education is considered - which includes the processes of intervention - an interesting tendency is observed where specific characteristics of each case are brought out in order to avoid mistakes regarding theories and mass typifications. This tendency, however, when taken to extremes, reduces qualitative aspects to a purely subjective dimension. Our research with low-income popular groups include examples that propose to restore the social and historic dimension of the individual experience. Finally, we present the ethnographic method as a tense encounter between the sociological perspective and the individualized methodology.

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