Journeying across sites : knowledge building and identity positioning in team ethnography

Recent qualitative research has started to address the processes of working in research teams in the social sciences and in ethnography in particular. Although the image of the lone ethnographer still persists, larger diverse and often multi-disciplinary teams are becoming more and more frequent. There is still limited research, however, on how members of a research team engage in knowledge building and negotiate interpretations and positionings (but see Conteh et al 2005, Creese et al 2008, Jones et al 2000 for notable exceptions). Our presentation reports on findings from the first of a three year ESRC funded project on language and literacy learning among young Londoners across four faith communities (RES-062-23-1613). The faith communities consist of Ghanaian Pentacostalists, Bangladeshi British Muslims, Polish Catholics and Tamil Hindus who have largely migrated to the UK since 1950. Our aim in this presentation is to explore how through our noticings we privilege particular aspects of social action, negotiate various forms of knowledge and expertise and acknowledge that of others and represent ourselves and the research participants. In so doing, we seek to shed light on social processes through which our research team is coming into being as well as the possibilities and constraints involved.