This article presents a detailed case study analysis of oral and written language expressed by Jacqueline Meyer, a teacher of elementary English Language Learners (ELL),as she struggled to navigate the current political terrain with her students. Ms. Meyer's district adopted commercial materials and increased the amount and substance of testing…

This article examines media coverage of a high school Native American mascot controversy. Discourse analysis of media documents and artifacts was utilized to explore how the issue was socially constructed for public consumption. Critical race feminism was used as a framework to examine how media discourses can oversimplify the complex interaction…

Delane Bender-Slack takes on the important subject of teaching for social justice. Her article's strength is in its uncompromising look at complex, often misinterpreted teaching challenges. This article focuses on actual teachers working for social justice in their classrooms. Working from a strong theoretical framework, she pushes us in new…

This article describes the results of a six-month ethnographic case study of a French immigrant of Senegalese descent and how he recreates the culture of an American company's speech community. Data were collected through interviews, field notes, and shadowing the participant at his place of employment. The transcribed interviews and field notes…

This article focuses on the author's applied anthropological work with the Ingham County Health Department between 1998 and 2001. Government administrators were reflexively aware that nobody had ever stepped back to assess the area's overall environmental health and rank the issues according to some criteria, such as by the "most urgent…

The evolution of Rwanda's language policies since 1996 has played and continues to play a critical role in social reconstruction following war and genocide. Rwanda's new English language policy aims to drop French and install English as the only language of instruction. The policy-makers frame the change as a major factor in the success of social…

After 2 years of progress, the literacy initiative at Donaldson Elementary faces challenges because of a disagreement between Principal Joanna Jackson and Literacy Coordinator Loretta Sullivan over whether Sullivan's role should include evaluative classroom observations and whether teachers should be mandated to receive coaching. The case is…

The Answers in Genesis Creation Museum opened in May of 2007. During the opening day, a loosely affiliated group of scientists joined in a Rally for Reason as they termed it to protest the museum's potential effect on science in the United States. This paper discusses ethnographic data collected before and during the rally. Scientist narratives…

Uses a control-loss model to explore the effects of multiple channels in formal organizations, and presents an argument for the superior control properties of dual hierarchies. Two variant forms of multiple hierarchies are considered. (Author)

Analyzes the theory and rationale for prohibiting the possible monopolistic practices of the divested Bell Operating Companies. Suggests some reasons that the latest Justice Department recommendations are moving from restriction to regulation. (JD)

Using interview and survey data from a quick-service restaurant chain and a robotics company, this paper examines the relationship between perceived departmental power and the extent to which departments might share important organizational values with top management. Preliminary results support the importance of perceived value congruity in…

Explores the related concepts of "bureaucracy" and "the bureaucrat," focusing on the characteristics of bureaucracy as an organizational form and on the sources of bureaucratic power. (PGD)

Discusses power with the purpose of educating female administrators and managers about its importance and how to use it appropriately to be effective in their jobs and careers. Describes traditional sources of power and strategies for enhancing interpersonal power. (Author/ABL)

Functionalist conceptions of mentoring view it as a rational, humanistic process. A critical or radical humanist perspective reveals unequal, possibly exploitative power relationships. Although most mentoring relationships provide nurturance, all should be viewed through several different perspectives. (SK)

Cites the limits of organizational learning and proposes finding insights from postmodern thinking to redefine it. Explores the postmodern strategy of deconstruction as a method that induces a more critically reflective approach to learning at work. (SK)