Bearing witness through creative expression: ethical ethnography for the future

Thea Renda Abu El-Haj and Ellen Skilton

Chapter 34 in Research Handbook on the Anthropology of Education, 2026, pp 360-369 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter considers the complexities of the participant observer's ethical stance in educational anthropology. It calls for ethnographers to bear witness to the people, contexts, and conditions we engage with in the field and in our analysis and representations of what we have experienced. We argue that these representations, because they include emotional and experiential realities, are often well served by artistic modalities. The authors include examples of their own ethnographic poetry and painting processes, drawing on artist/scholars who illustrate the value of both bearing witness and the possibilities of artistic expression in ethnographic practice. With an eye toward the future of educational anthropology, the chapter expresses the value of ethnography and an urgency to continue to adapt our approaches to address more fully what it means to be human.

Keywords: Bearing witness; Creative expression; Ethnographic methods; Ethics; Poetry; Visual art (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332908
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