Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores mothering, housework and homeschooling in Slovenia through multimodal ethnography. It examines how visual and other approaches complement each other and enable a better understanding of child-rearing practices, family life and the domestic division of labor.

Paper Abstract:

This paper explores the everyday lives, motivations, and identifications of housewives and stay-at-home mothers, including those who homeschool their children, in contemporary Slovenia. Using a multimodal ethnographic approach, I employed participant observation, interviews, informal conversations and visual ethnography (filming and photography) to explore child-rearing practices, household routines and the division of housework and childcare in families. The research draws on diverse materials, including interview transcripts, field notes, audiovisual recordings and photographs, to provide a rich, multidimensional understanding of the lived experiences of these families.

The paper focuses on the interplay between visual and written forms of representation in my PhD project, which includes the ethnographic film School for Life, which focuses on homeschooling practices, and a written dissertation. I analyze how these distinct yet interrelated modes of inquiry and representation informed my fieldwork and final interpretations, asking: what insights were made possible through visual media that could not be achieved through written analysis alone, and vice versa? How do these modalities complement or challenge each other in their ability to convey anthropological understanding? In reflecting on these questions, this paper highlights the value and challenges of multimodal ethnography in contemporary anthropological practice, such as qualitative diversity, epistemological complementarity, and new ways of representing anthropological knowledge.