Ways in which qualitative methods are viewed relative to evaluation research are described. Topics include: the changing climate in evaluation research and its philosopical/conceptual background; actual evaluation efforts; data gathering techniques; and how to comprehend these data. (Author/GK)

States that products are tested for usability before they are released, but usually in a lab, an artificial environment. Suggests ways in which ethnographic principles can be used along with traditional usability testing to predict a product's acceptability in the marketplace. (PA)

Counters the tendency toward narrative omniscience in critical ethnography by reexamining researcher voice in ethnographic text, rejecting the notion that the current crisis of representation is based on uncertainty about how best to describe a scene and arguing that the crisis stems from objectification. The paper extends the crisis from…

Explores narrative theory and research in fields allied with professional communication to clarify the value of narrative in the discipline. Addresses the move in many fields to reconceptualize research as narrative. Frames narrative within postmodernism, and examines the centrality of ethnography. Discusses implications of postmodernist…

Asks whether computer-mediated communication allows creation of isolated virtual communities for its interlocutors or brings closer the ideal of a global community. Examines the question from the standpoint of R. Cathcart and G. Gumpert's medium theory. Uses data derived from an ethnographic study to illustrate how a new approach is required. (PA)

This paper seeks to contribute to existing understandings of the impacts of education policy reform by drawing together analyses of state-level policy reforms; institutional responses to these; and day-to-day school- and classroom-level practises that constitute particular sorts of learners. The paper draws on data generated through a school…

The pressures of new agendas, new students and new degrees are challenging traditional pedagogical frameworks in doctoral education. This article draws on an ethnographic study that examined the changing nature of doctoral supervision and the pedagogic practices that support the doctoral endeavour in programs that explicitly link research with…

Within the Participatory Design community as well as the Computer Supported Cooperative Work tradition, a lot of effort has been put into the question of letting field studies inform design. In this paper, we describe how game-like approaches can be used as a way of exploring a practice from a design point of view. Thinking of ethnographic…

Background/Context: Students spend a large part of their time in schools in silence. However, teachers tend to spend most of their time attending to student talk. Anthropological and linguistic research has contributed to an understanding of silence in particular communities, offering explanations for students' silence in school. This research…

This article examines the complex social production of white racial identity. Specifically, the author theorizes white people's fear of people of color and make a case for conceiving of white racial identities as profoundly ambivalent. Drawing from a larger ethnographic interview study conducted in a small, rural, white community in the Midwest of…

This article reports on year-long critical ethnographic study conducted in a Singapore school and examines how the standard English language educational policy is interpreted by a Secondary 3 (Grade 9) female student from China. She is a member of an exclusive group of academically able students who has been carefully recruited by the local…

Background/Context: The study examines teachers' and administrators' perspectives on the persistent academic failure of African American male high school students. The study took place between 2003 and 2005 in a low-performing high school in Summerfield County, a Black suburban county in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States with a poverty…

Recently, culture has taken an important role in language education. In this view, creating a global cultural consciousness among second language (L2) students can help bridge the gap between linguistic ability and functional intercultural communication. This paper, which makes reference to Japanese adult EFL learners, justifies the body of…

Beginning with Lev Vygotsky's long-established assertion that the play of children always involves both imaginary play and rules of behavior, this article argues for a theoretical framework that connects such play with the construction of social identities in kindergarten peer groups. It begins with a discussion of Ivy Schousboe's model of the…

Education policy is characterized by struggles over meanings of key concepts related to schooling, teaching, and learning, especially as these meanings affect practice. In this study, I examine the notion of "accountability" as a floating signifier, analyzing its usage by the proponents of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and…