Straight work and the skin horse: drawings and comics and how to use them in the anthropology of education

Sally Pirie

Chapter 35 in Research Handbook on the Anthropology of Education, 2026, pp 370-403 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Graphic anthropology has historically included such things as sketches and diagrams in fieldnotes, participant drawings, and other forms of in-the-field documentation. More recently, the practice has expanded to be of further use in data analysis and dissemination of findings in both informal and more elaborate forms, under the umbrella of Comics-based Research (CBR). However, the anthropology of education has been somewhat reluctant to move comics into the realm of methodological practice, despite the increasing prominence of comics in schools and schooling. This reluctance might stem from the peculiar position of education as a field of inquiry, and the anthropology of education's related challenges, as well as the persistent belief that comics-writing constitutes a sub-literature with a distressingly wide subjective warrant. However, CBR may be uniquely positioned to address some of the unique challenges facing the field.

Keywords: Comics-based research; Sequential art; Observation; Arts-based methods; Visual fieldnotes; Drawing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332908
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