Reconnaissance work in educational research: an exploration under pandemic conditions

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the emerging concept and method of reconnaissance in educational research through the lens of Rhythmanalysis and the work of Henri Lefebvre which explores the rhythms of the everyday within capitalism. The research was undertaken during the period of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and involved postgraduate students and their supervisors across two Higher Education Institutions situated respectively in the North of England and the West Midlands. A reconnaissance exercise was undertaken on the use of reconnaissance itself as a research methodology under the demanding conditions in education of the pandemic. The findings from this brief exercise give voice to the role and nature of researcher curiosity and informality in research by exploring the value of reconnaissance as an approach to ‘grasping rhythms’ and challenges to familiarity during the pandemic .