Interactional Ethnography: An Approach to Studying the Social Construction of Literate Practices

What counts as literacy in any group is visible in the actions members take, what they are oriented towards, for what they hold each other accountable, what they accept or reject as preferred responses of others, and how they engage with, interpret and construct text. This article examines the processes through which a set of literate practices were constructed and reconstructed by the teacher and students across five classes for a Year 11 student in a vocationally oriented school in Australia. The comparative analysis of the five classrooms examined what counted as literacy in the Mathematics, Industry Studies Metal, Hospitality and Food Technology and General English. Through analysis of what counted as text, as literate practices, and as participation in each class, we illustrate our research approach, Interactional Ethnography, and provide a theoretical discussion of the relationships between theory and method.