This article gives an ethnographic glimpse of how an urban South African school mirrored a community's sense-making during times of rapid social change. The glimpse is extracted largely from an ethnography that was composed in 2000. In this study of school life, the biennial play was central to the year's activities. In the play the tone, content…

Identity formation is a critical dimension of how and why students engage in science to varying degrees. In this paper, we use the lens of identity formation, and in particular identities in practice, to make sense of how and why Melanie, over the course of sixth grade, transformed from a marginalized member of the science class with a failing…

This paper explores the salience of sport in the lives of eight-year-old and nine-year-old South African primary school boys. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data, I argue that young boys' developing relationship with sport is inscribed within particular gendered, raced and classed discourses in South Africa. Throughout the paper I show…

As we engage our students in social studies topics--whether at the college level or the secondary level--we are charged with promoting habits of mind and thought that produce our country's citizens. If we are doing our jobs, we are insistent about finding ways to connect the democracy in our classrooms with the democracy in our culture, and thus…

Based on an approximate eight month critical ethnographic action research project at a U.S. Midwestern high school in 2004-2005, this article presents data related to the linguistic ideology and associated cultural assimilationist attitudes and practices at Junction High School. During an intercultural peace curricula development project, members…

The continued low academic attainment of Black pupils is now a well-established, familiar feature of the annual statistics of educational attainment. Black pupils tend to consistently perform below their white counterparts and below the national average. Key debates, examining how to address the difference in attainment gap, have tended to focus…

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the application of mixed methods research designs to multiyear programmatic research and development projects whose goals include integration of cultural specificity when generating or translating evidence-based practices. The authors propose a set of five mixed methods designs related to different…

We examine abstinence-only-until-marriage education as part of a broad effort to reassert the primacy of conventional (hetero) sexual norms. While all sexuality education offers students lessons in "good sexual citizenship," abstinence-only-until-marriage education reserves the rights and responsibilities of membership and belonging for…

The purpose of this study was to assess the developmental progression of preschoolers' abilities to draw and paint. Over 3 years, 68 children were observed easel painting 595 times and 65 children were observed drawing 545 times. Results of hierarchical linear modeling indicated that (a) the complexity of children's drawings and paintings…

In this paper, the focus is upon daily school practices in Junior Secondary Schools in Ghana and Botswana. The data from 12 ethnographic case studies have been used to explore how the institution of schooling is gendered. The analysis focuses predominantly on the informal practices of the hidden curriculum through a theoretical perspective that…

This paper focuses upon the developmental role of rough and tumble (R&T) play with particular attention to the narratives that children use to underpin such activities. A review of the literature suggests that current early years research and practice pays scant attention to children's outdoor free play activities. A piece of original research is…

Background/Context: Culturally authoritative texts such as Text Revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV [DSM-IV-TR](American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2004) describe literate impossibility for individuals with disability labels associated with severe developmental disabilities. Our qualitative research challenges the…

This study investigates the learning exchange between three- to six-year-old children and their grandparents, in Sylheti/Bengali-speaking families of Bangladeshi origin and monolingual English-speaking families living in east London. The following concepts from sociocultural theory are applied to this new area of intergenerational learning:…

This paper revisits the question of "voice" in the context of neo-liberal social and educational reform. "Voice" has been one of the key concepts of feminist and critical pedagogies in the theory and practice of producing social transformation. I argue in this paper, that the political effectiveness of this concept needs to be…

This article examines how kindergarten-children are differentiated and segregated through vocal practices and processes. The analysis is based on empirical data, which originate from a long ethnographic fieldwork in Denmark. The author presents two different language tones: "a teaching tone and an exchange tone" and shows a pattern in…