Analyzing fieldnotes of Fieldwork in Lower secondary Schools

This research methods case focuses on producing and analyzing field notes of a fieldwork in lower secondary schools in Denmark. In this case, I deal with the questions of how to do fieldwork and how to produce and analyze field notes in ways that are more alert and open to the affective and spatial dimensions of the everyday life in schools. The case is based on my experiences on the affectivity of handwritten field notes, which bring up thoughts about what counts as data, how data are collected, and how to approach the analytical work. St. Pierre writes that it is important to understand that data appear, come into being, and exist in a particular ontological and epistemological structure. Following this statement, the case is based on an assumption that the ontological and epistemological thoughts are intertwined. Informed by a posthuman approach, the case lines up how I have traced the intensities, movements, and rhythm of the everyday school life during fieldwork and how a post-analytical approach allows another way of thinking of the handwritten field notes as affective processes and intensities.