the project (in the form of diaries). I got my own story of it and the experiences and
reflections that it generated. I collected data of how the participants understood and
viewed key aspects that underlie their self-directed learning. I interacted with the
participants in their own learning context. I worked with individuals, with pairs and with
groups in such a way that they were able to put into practice first and then into words
their learning processes. In this regard, I might call my method of inquiry ethnographic
research. In the following paragraphs, I will explain to the reader the reasons for this type
of research and the specific features of my own ethnographic approach.

5.2.1 Ethnographic research

As I stated in the previous chapter, one of my aims is to describe the learning
culture of the students in SAC Oaxaca, and for this reason I thought that an appropriate
methodology for this research should understand the cultural factor as the core of
research analysis and interpretation. Let me start with a quotation from Hammersley and
Atkinson (1983,1), who have written extensively about ethnographic issues. According
to them

there is a disagreement as to whether ethnography's distinctive feature is the
elicitation of cultural knowledge (Spradley 1980), the detailed investigation of
patterns of social interaction (Gumpersz 1981), or holistic analysis of societies
(Lutz 1981). (my italics, 1983,1)

Rather than focusing on the differences between the definitions, I want the reader
to notice that culture is the common denominator of these three different approaches (for
a definition of culture and learning culture, see p. Ill and p. 117). It is evident that,
while ethnographers do not agree about different aspects of theoretical and practical
matters (something I am going to deal with in the following paragraphs), all of them
seem to agree about the relevance of focusing on culture. Regarding ethnography as a
philosophical paradigm, Clifford defines it as "writing about, against and among
cultures" (1986,3) To add to this, Byram (1989,88) states that, in general, the work of the
social anthropologist is "to explain a foreign culture to those who have not experienced
it". In this regard, from the beginning of this thesis my purpose has been to describe my
own "foreign culture" to outsiders. Obviously, the connotation offoreign and outsiders is
not that of nationalities but of people outside the group who make up this specific
learning culture. In other words, doing ethnography has as its purpose the immersion of

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