The transition of a French distance learning institution to a fee-based model : an ethnographic study.

International audienceThe results of a 3-year fieldwork study within France’s National Centre for Distance Education are presented, specifically detailing the impacts on higher education middle management overseeing curricula design for a series of French 3-year degree programs undergoing revision in how students are financially charged for the programs. Following the ethnographic research process model, an amalgam of the researcher’s prior knowl- edge of middle management and the sharing of that knowledge with educational workers are reported. Find- ings were as follows: (1) an ethnographic researcher’s preconceptions and knowledge should be carefully employed when conducting ethnographic studies; (2) possessing a strong base of prior knowledge of the field under study is an important aspect of the ethnographic research process; (3) emerging observed controversies and debates should not be extinguished with the researcher’s knowledge base so that these may be docu- mented and examined (knowledge, even when academically stabilized, undergoes constant adaptation. It is of utmost importance for the education ethnographer to be precise when previous knowledge is relevant to the setting, including the fundamental limits they present.)