‘Muddy Boots’ and ‘Grubby Hands’

This chapter outlines the research methods or ‘box of tools’ (Foucault, 1977b: 208) which were used to study pupil disaffection and which, to some extent, is also about coming clean about my ‘muddy boots’ and ‘grubby hands’ (Punch, 1994: 95). The structure of the chapter is as follows: First, a ‘confessional tale’ (Van Maanen, 1988) is given. This reflects upon the experiences which have kept me grounded and ensures I see youth disaffection in a ‘real’ light and not in terms of fluffy ideas that can be rectified through fluffier actions. The second section considers the selection process and procedure undertaken. The third section focuses on the specific measures used for collecting data. Data collection was in three phases and therefore the section is organised in three subsections which cover being a ‘professional stranger’ (Agar, 1980/1995) and mining data from documents. Woven into this discussion are issues of validity, reliability, positionality, and ethics.