Critical Turns in Ethnography

In this chapter the authors share critical historic turns in ethnography in educational and social science research in the U.S. The authors describe initial radical departures from positivism toward emic approaches in anthropology and sociology, the interpretive turn, and the melding of interpretivism and critical theory in critical ethnography. They discuss the collapse of critical ethnography and explore movement toward a postcritical/post-critical epoch. They conclude with more recent ontological developments informed by post-structuralism, posthumanism, and new materialism, and address post qualitative research.