 Discomforting coherence: how and why we should keep studying appropriation in educational processesSusana Ayala Chapter 16 in Research Handbook on the Anthropology of Education, 2026, pp 158-169 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: The focus of research changes radically when ethnographic observation in education is assumed as a mutual interpellation where the voices of the actors are listened to and taken seriously. From this stance, the process of cultural appropriation by social actors involves questioning, transforming, and using discourses, objects, interactions, and spaces in contrary and contradictory ways to what is expected from the instances of authority. In this chapter, I present three examples in which the concept of appropriation from the anthropological perspective is fruitful in understanding the complexities of education. They are situated in contexts where there might seem to be coherence in: (1) the relationship between school and locality; (2) the acceptance of education policies; and (3) the acceptance of the use of technological resources in education. Through these examples, I argue that ethnography has the challenging and never-ending task of discomforting simple explanations and conceptualizations of what happens in education. Keywords: Engaged ethnography; Appropriation; School–community relations; Social categories (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23336_16 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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