An ethnographic study examined a distinctive and recurrent form of problem solving interaction that has been previously unreported in the organizational communication and problem solving literatures--Informal Problem Solving Meetings (IPSs). The fact that participants in IPS meetings themselves neither name or ordinarily formulate Informal Problem…

The goal of this ethnography-based study is to investigate informal communication processes in shared governance institutions. Shared governance is academia's version of the corporate world's total quality management philosophy and outlines a system where members at all levels of the institution have a voice in decision processes. The interviews…

Some of the most prominent aspects of an ethnographic study of six black undergraduate women at the University of Pittsburgh have been the questions of authenticity and visibility that have emerged while the ethnographer watched the ways students' voices challenged their various composition and writing intensive course instructors' expectations.…

The conduct and use of qualitative research and the role of fiction as a way of examining the experiences of an African American woman are explored. The paper uses an alternative qualitative model to examine issues of power, equity, and race in the particular context of the African American woman. It discusses the writings of Zora Neale Hurston as…

It is only by the considered and judicious use of a range of methodologies that educators, policymakers and the public can make real advances to the system for teaching students to reach their full reading potential. By limiting reading instruction research to experimental and quasiexperimental studies, the National Reading Panel missed critical…

Provides an ethnographic description of kinship and residential patterns among Blacks in the South Carolina Sea Islands. Indicates how the family structure of this group differs from that of United States mainland Whites and is similar to that of Blacks in Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S. (MJL)

The nearly 100 citations here refer to material cited in the 11 preceding articles. Together they make up this special issue, entitled "Teaching Fieldwork to Educational Researchers: A Symposium." (GC)

Argues that peer group academic orientation is a reaction to the expectations and constraints of a specific educational structure. Analyzes the impact of one structure, tracking, on the peer group and explains the emergences of contrasting high and low track patterns. (Author/MK)

Responds to a recent article in which Harry Miller criticizes the use of ethnographic or naturalistic methods in educational research. Reviews a number of ethnographic studies of schools, discusses the methodological rigor of such studies, and stresses the importance of information that can be gained through this type of research. (GC)

Argues that research is not only a product and a process but an attitude and suggests that the attitude of ethnography stresses that good teachers should act like good researchers and good researchers should act like good teachers. (JL)

Discusses the Ilongots and their attitudes toward speech. Describes speech act theory, while questioning some aspects of it. Shows how the theory applies to Ilongot speech. (EKN)

A critical guide is offered regarding ethnographic evaluation data: the analytical descriptions or reconstructions of intact cultural scenes and groups which delineate the shared beliefs, practices, artifacts, folk knowledge, and behaviors of some group of people. (PN)

Examines the language style of news and the factors that influence it, with data drawn from extensive research on radio news in Auckland, New Zealand. Study of newscasters' language style shows that newscasters will alter their style of speech depending upon who they think is listening. (PD)

Describes the social world of childhood as told to the author by a group of primary school children, with particular reference to the classroom. Results reveal a complex knowledge of the values of social interaction. Knowing how to be competent members of the classroom was a primary concern. (Author/KC)

Because educational researchers are becoming interested in the uses of ethnographic field methods, the author examines some of the theoretical disputes and methodological problems being experienced in contemporary anthropology, such as hypothesis testing, observer bias, and reliability. (Part of a theme issue on anthropology of education.) (SJL)