In the past several years a number of authors have suggested that science education could benefit from insights gained by research in the social studies of science that documents and theorises science as it is actually done. There currently exist two gaps in the literature. First, most research in science studies are concerned with the practices…

This study looks at female relational aggression in an effort to illustrate factors involved in selecting appropriate responses for the situation. This ethnographic case study analyzes a principal's interview, personal journal, and artifact file to describe the situations and reactions present in a severe case of female relational aggression.…

In this article, the author shares how he was able to change the negative attitude of his students towards their United States history class. The first section of this article outlines the changes the author made to the history curriculum in his class; the second section outlines the effects of those changes; and the third section explains why his…

This paper explores the distinction between "secular" and "Koranic" schooling and literacy in South Asia. It begins by tracing an archaeology of the distinction between secular "literacy" and religious "illiteracy". It locates the emergence of the distinction in the colonial census of the 19th century, in…

The first aim of this article is to present a characterization of the techno-mathematical literacies needed for effective practice in modern, technology-rich workplaces that are both highly automated and increasingly focused on flexible response to customer needs. The second aim is to introduce an epistemological dimension to activity theory,…

This article begins to fill a gap in recent discussions of the future of Islamic studies with an account of the nature and significance of Anthropological and Ethnographic contributions to the study of Islam and Muslims. Drawing attention to both the problem of essence in Orientalism and the dissolution of Islam's significance for Muslims in…

Drawing on a larger ethnographic study of four high school young men, this paper foregrounds high school male-male friendships as a context for examining how heterosexism and homophobia operate to limit and delimit the ways masculinities are constructed. I begin this article by first highlighting an inconsistency between recent school initiatives…

The use of peer mentoring in a successful high school jazz band was explored during one academic year of instruction using ethnographic techniques. Participants included primary informants (student jazz band members, director, assistant director, adult mentors) and secondary informants (guidance counselor, principal, parents, non-jazz band member…

Background/Context: This study attempts to join the debate around the definition of "education" by looking at it as an ongoing, everyday social practice. It follows decades of work done on "love" in America and opens an inquiry into "friendship" as a product of situated practical action. It also challenges social…

The use of visual methods has become increasingly significant to ethnographic research. The possibilities and challenges I experienced using visual research methods in the school ethnography are examined. This paper explores some of the ethical, practical and methodological issues that arise from the use of video, photographs, pictures and images…

This paper describes a collaborative relationship between a community member and an eighth grade English teacher that was documented through an ethnographic study during an entire school year. The community member taught a weekly poetry workshop where students are encouraged to take risks in their writing and also take a critical stance towards…

The purpose of conducting this study was to understand how neoliberal discourses manifest within the local context of a short-term, job-training program offered at a two-year college in the USA. Ethnographic data were collected at the local site through interviews, observations and document analysis. We then situated these data within a global…

The purpose of this study is to find out how public schools accommodate the growing Hispanic school population in a New Hispanic Diaspora in New Jersey, and what strategies Hispanic families and schools adopt to mitigate home-school discontinuity. This study also attempts to find out what constitutes the formation of Hispanic identity among…

A recent nine-month field study considered the relationships among school-sponsored and community forms of literacy practices in a migrant-sending area of rural Mexico. While many teachers in rural Mexico argue that students should remain in school rather than migrate to the U.S., this study demonstrates the ways in which schools in rural Mexico…

This report is part of a larger, 2-year ethnography of bi- and multilingual speakers in Japan. On the basis of audio and videotape recordings of discussions among international students in a Japanese university, this study examines participants' deployment of different conversational resources to understand and talk about marginalizing…