‘This won’t take long…’: Interviewing, ethics and diversity

This chapter examines the story of the methodological challenges that have arisen within one research project spanning a year and in doing so both problematises method and addresses some fundamental issues in the field. It explains in chronological order, the story of the research from its original conception through to the data analysis phase. This chronological sequence both allows and requires us to map the challenges and dilemmas as if they took place in discrete chunks of time, and then were resolved, allowing us to move on. A way forward for researching inclusive school cultures must, it seems to us, address not only the shared language that helps to identify the culture but also the different levels of culture. The methodological advantages had to be balanced with the risk of pathologising children, of joining in with and somehow condoning the problematising of some while making others the normative group.