Ethnographic research in innovative education settings has shown the practical impact and conditions on both research and professional development of curriculum and teaching strategies.

Following the process of innovation in the educational sector, themes that are high on political and institutional agendas have included “information technology–enhanced learning” and currently show how organizational and pedagogical development also becomes a matter of digitalization. In online learning projects the curriculum development and the process of didactization are already digitalized and refer to the new digital learning culture.

Ethnographic methodology enables ongoing interpretation of educational development as reflected by professionals and teacher teams, thereby facilitating elucidation of changes and consequences. The general question can be expressed as follows: How can innovative education, associated online and/or offline learning processes, embedded digitalization, and the context be understood, described, and explored in a practical sense?

Against this background, ethnographic research is challenged to go beyond the rhetoric to explore the practical implications of the innovative process and associated discourse. The challenge has been approached in terms of research facing the innovative practice and renewing the ethnographic approaches across the spectrum from the policy and organizational levels to practical learning-level investigation. The challenge is also embedded in research contributing to mapping the field of practice or "mapping the paradigm” and cross-case studies covering different learning contexts.

The common highlighted theme is that changes in educational systems and practices are necessitating changes in ethnographic practices.