Neighbourhood ethnographies

We are carrying out community-based research to understand how educational opportunities and experiences of schooling are shaped by place. This involves research with former pupils and local community members to explore how people make sense of the places in which they lived and learned as children. This research will deepen understandings of how localised geographies and urban infrastructures – housing, transport, health care, community resources and so forth – shape educational opportunities and experiences.

Our research in this area is guided by questions such as, how does place embody and re-produce educational injustices over time? How are these place-based injustices understood, negotiated and resisted?

We are engaging with a range of ethnographic and creative participatory methods to carry out our place-based inquiry. Drawing on critical walking methodologies that allow reflecting and thinking in movement, we are inviting former pupils to take us on a tour of their school neighbourhoods. Working with visual and spoken prompts the participant-led walks explore former students sense-making, memories, connections and disconnections to their school neighbourhoods.

Alongside this we are carrying out walking interviews with ‘community knowledge holders’ who have long-standing knowledge of neighbourhoods and school communities. This includes a diverse cross-section of people, from youth workers and community organisers, to school governors and local librarians.

Explore some of the stories generated through this place-based research on our interactive archive: A People’s History of Schooling in Bristol.