This is an expanded version of a paper given at a conference held in Cape Town, South Africa from December 11-13, 2008 entitled "The Native Speaker and the Mother Tongue." In keeping with the conference's themes of exploring and interrogating the notions of "mother tongue" and "native speaker," I consider…

This article examines a recent reform effort that has opened hundreds of small high schools in poor urban communities in New York City, The New Century Schools Initiative (NCSI). Outcome data have shown that NCSI has dramatically increased graduation rates among poor students and students of color. However, an ethnographic study of the…

The emphasis on socio-cultural theories of learning has required the understanding of multi-dimensional, dynamic and social nature of acquiring the scientific knowledge and practices. Recent policy documents suggest a focus on formative and dynamic assessment practices that will help understand and improve the complex nature of scientific learning…

A unique aspect of Aotearoa/New Zealand physical education is the inclusion of Maori culture in the form of te ao kori. Te ao kori translates to mean the world of movement and is represented by the interpretation of indigenous movement, games and pastimes. Participation in te ao kori means the sports-based normative frame of reference for physical…

The successful participation of students with disabilities in a general education classroom is generally presumed to be contingent on the creation of classroom communities that can nurture the qualities of equity and care and where different forms of diversity are valued. However, there has been less scholarship that documents the production of…

This study explores the effects of traditional beliefs, Confucian ideology, Chinese government policy and western influences on China's inclusion of people with a disability in the Chinese community in the 21st century. Using visual ethnography and an auto-ethnographic approach, the study examines data obtained over a period of five years to…

In this paper, I problematize the inextricable relationship between how I constitute knowledge and how I articulate knowledge. Through various narrative reflections I explore my own reckoning with dominant ways of articulating knowledge that reinforce ways of constituting knowledge that are inherently strange to me. I also outline my sojourns and…

This article offers two transcripts of classroom activity from a secondary comprehensive school in London. The transcripts capture passages of the same lesson, at first taught by the mainclass teacher and then by the author. Data gathered through video recording are presented as storied episodes of the activity field. By exploring the significance…

This article describes the Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI), a six-year-old cross-campus program at the University of Illinois that offers students the opportunity to conduct original ethnographic and archival research on their own institutions and supports faculty who guide that research. It helps the researchers and faculty…

In this article, the authors present their duo-ethnographic conversation on social justice activism which explores issues of identity, racism, and activism with young people. The authors initiated their writing of this article as a sporadic and candid e-mail conversation between colleagues over the course of five months from in 2006. Both of them…

I draw on two traditions of research: the social psychology of collaborative groups, and the ethnographic study of improvisational performance. I outline a general model of group creativity derived from these traditions. I show how the model can be used to better understand musical competence and performance, and I provide recommendations for how…

The purpose of this article is to explore the meanings and implications of dangerous memories in two different sites of past traumatic memories: one in Israel and the other in Cyprus. Dangerous memories are defined as those memories that are disruptive to the status quo, that is, the hegemonic culture of strengthening and perpetuating existing…

Despite popular beliefs about social mobility in American society, research consistently shows that inequalities are reproduced across generations. And yet, while social reproduction hinges on the transmission of advantages from parents to children, scholars take for granted children's role in this process. We do not know whether children…

This paper examines the use of mobile technologies such as iPods and tablets in promoting the development of oral competencies and literacy skills in early French immersion classrooms in Canada. The paper is based on a two-year collaborative action research project involving 16 teachers in two schools. Data collection involved digital ethnographic…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the choices learners have in steering their way through the educational system in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on data from two studies, one conducted in a state secondary school and the other in a Further Education College, both based in the north-west of England. Both used…