Anyone involved in ethnographic research knows that in practice participant listening is an important technique employed by ethnographers, particularly among those of us who live in an ‘interview society’; yet its importance is barely acknowledged in the ethnographic literature. It is curious that ethnographers seem not to have reflected much on a gap between what we say we do and our real life practice. Based partly on my own research into schools and schooling, alongside the work of various other practitioners, I argue the need to better acknowledge the importance of engaged listening for ethnography, and the ways in which personal style (visual learners versus aural learners) impacts ethnographic data production. I also examine the use of interviews in social research, exploring ways in which we might construe ‘the interview’ conducted with an ethnographic imaginary as an ‘experience-near’ event in Western settings: they offer truly ethnographic moments.
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