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Paper short abstract

In this paper we document and assess ‘ethnographic monitoring’ (Hymes) in a research project on literacy acquisition of newcomers and assess its deployment and potentialities as a decolonial strategy of applied ethnographic research.

Paper long abstract

In this paper we document and reflect on ‘ethnographic monitoring’ (Hymes) and assess its deployment as a decolonial strategy of ethnographic research within our project UNLOCK (Unlocking newcomers’ literacy development: learning for life in formal, non-formal and informal spheres).

In UNLOCK we study the literacy trajectories of newcomers to Belgium in L2 classrooms as well as in non-formal and informal learning environments. The monitoring consists in an ongoing collaborative feedback process of researching, co-creating and implementing learning practices together with professionals, volunteers and learners, situated within an empowering ‘academic collaborative centre’ (ACC).

One year into the ethnographic research, looking back on a wealth of encounters, this paper asks how ‘monitoring’ – and its implied surveillance and guidance – relates to, and articulates with, ‘ethnography’ – and its acclaimed agility and serendipity?

Furthermore, we ask how the ‘epistemic solidarity’ is experienced and perceived by researchers, teachers/instructors and learners alike, how ‘empowering’ and ‘democratic’ UNLOCK’s ACC is and how it is fulfilling its decolonial promise.

These questions are addressed using (a) Fabian’s perspective on fieldwork as a communicative, dialogical, hence intersubjective process, (b) as well as Ingold’s take on “ethnography as education” – both emblematic of the collaborative ethnographic enterprise UNLOCK aspires to be. This paper confronts these established methodologies with the challenges of the decolonial as formulated by Deumert (‘performance of (dis-)semblances’), Martin-Rojo (‘recasting diversity in language education’) and Mignolo (‘epistemic disobedience’).