Research in Elite Educational Contexts The Ethics and Challenges of 'Studying Up'

Building on previous research (Mapes 2021), the current study seeks to examine issues pertaining to food, language, and social class in the context of high-end Swiss education. Specifically, I am planning to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in an acclaimed school in Switzerland, where I will video-record children’s lunchtimes for several weeks during Autumn 2024. I hope to identify the material objects and discursive processes which are key to students’, teachers’, and parents’ food-related communicative strategies. I am especially interested in how ideologies of progressive, egalitarian, and multicultural eating actively socialize children who are “on their way to becoming elitely segmented worker-consumers” (Riley 2021: 135). Thus, this project will not only interrogate the ways in which food is deeply connected to (multi)cultural identity and social status, but also how even children are expected to perform the “good taste” (Bourdieu 1984) of contemporary privilege. In this regard, my presentation will address a number of challenges related to this sort of research: 1) the dilemma of gaining access to so-called “elite” communities; 2) the ethics of consent when studying children; 3) the practicalities of data protection; and 4) the ways and means by which data protection can be communicated to research participants. I highlight these problems using examples from my project, and would welcome input regarding the following questions: · What are the most ethical procedures for gaining consent from parents (and from children themselves)? · Regarding data sensitivity, how much information should be communicated to research participants (i.e. is it better to provide all details or just the most important ones?) · What are the best ways to “anonymize” video data? · What is the most secure way to monitor who has access to the data? (i.e. research assistants) References Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste, trans. by Richard Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Mapes, Gwynne. 2021. Elite authenticity: Remaking distinction in food discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Riley, Kathleen C. 2021. Negotiating “good food” at an elite elementary school in New York City. Signs