This paper examines ethical issues and shifting power relations in educational ethnography that involves ‘studying up’. It extends critiques of codified research ethics by analysing situations in which research participants are not solely vulnerable or powerless in relation to the researcher. Drawing on an observational study conducted in an elite school in southern Sweden, the paper presents three analytic vignettes that illustrate how vulnerability, misrecognition and exposure may be experienced by both researchers and participants. These examples demonstrate how ethical concerns emerge and evolve as power relations move in practice. The analysis argues for an approach to research ethics that accommodates the fluid and relational nature of ethnographic fieldwork. The paper proposes voluntary vulnerability as a methodological and ethical stance for navigating the dilemmas that arise when conducting research ‘up’.