Discussions that ‘tickle our brains’: constructing interpretations through multiple ethnographic data-sets

In this article, we discuss the usefulness of collaborative, multi-sited and cross-cultural ethnography. Giving three examples from our work, we suggest that it is possible to find new kinds of interpretations by joint reflections that draw from several studies with their own research questions. The cases presented discuss teachers' embodiment and sexualisation, construction of normality in educational settings and gendered patterns in post-compulsory educational routes. We suggest that the reflections on issues that ‘tickle our brains’ have methodological value when formulating research questions, as well as in analysis and interpretation. They might set an ethnographic gaze in new directions thereby revealing cultural patterns. Combining data-sets generated in different decades also provide possibilities to spread the time span of the analysis. Finally, we also discuss some of the problems and challenges in the methodological perspectives that we have adopted.