This paper draws upon research data from a two year, open-ended ethnographic study of a group of young people in their final years of high school in one of Australia's capital cities. In its entirety, this study interrogates deficit models of youth (Epstein, 1998; Quijada, 2008; White & Wyn, 2008) and invites reflection upon the ways in which we seek to educate them within the hierarchical structures of institutional power relations. However, for purposes of this relatively brief paper, I focus upon just two aspects of the project: the complexities and challenges of educational ethnography; and, its worth as a methodology suited to youth research.