An intensive 2-year ethnographic study looked at the formal intake process involving preschool Hispanic deaf children at a special school. The progress of one family is analyzed in detail to demonstrate the social and cultural complexities of the ideological and social relationships between participants in the intake process. (Author/DB)

Summarizes recently articulated research needs in business and technical communication. Argues that qualitative studies of writing on the job and in the classroom are the most needed form of empirical research. Shows how research can be conducted using one type of qualitative research, ethnography. (JAD)

Although ethnographic studies sometimes reveal ways in which incongruity contributes to inequity, the research does not imply that teachers should always promote cultural congruity. Unless teachers understand the problems underlying endorsements of cultural congruity, they may contribute to the miseducation of future teachers and their students.…

Ethnographic qualitative assessment methods can be used to evaluate gifted programs. Noted are the use of multiple tools in fieldwork, allowing an extended time span, the research as the research instrument, ethnographics research cycle, and use of both macro and micro approaches to the evaluation product. (Author/CB)

A rebuttal to three responses to an article opposing use of the natural science-technical model in special education research suggests that the responses demonstrate a continuing vitality of the positivist ideology critically opposed in the original article. (Author/CB)

Explanations of minority school failure incorporate native definitions of failure and minority group membership. They are limited by their starting assumptions and they are apologies for our present system. Minority school failure and its explanations by social scientists are two levels of the same process that we need to confront. (Author/VM)

This paper critically reviews administrator work activity studies which follow the research of Henry Mintzberg. It discusses directions for future research using qualitative and quantitative methods and discourages research that relies solely on Mintzberg's structure. (Author/JAZ)

Discusses the relevance of the anthropological or ethnographic approach to journalism. Suggests ways that an appreciation of this methodology can help journalism students become more effective and perceptive in their future careers by nudging them out of the commonsense work perspective and requiring greater empathy and involvement with sources.…

Socializing effects that carpooling has on pre-school and elementary students were studied. The behavioral patterns and roles that emerge in this setting were examined and their impact on the developing child analyzed. Three carpool-generated relationships identified were intimate, combatant, and obligatory. Socialization occured concurrently…

Examines the use of "directed ethnography," a collaborative ethnographic approach, found to improve the work of Ladino teachers in rural Yucatan community schools. The participating teachers analyze the collected community data and modify their teaching style/curriculum materials to reflect the experience of their Maya Grade 3 students.…

Loosely coupled educational organizations exhibit structural similarities to preliterate societies in their lack of formal leadership and control. The identification of social outsiders as "witches" to explain disasters affecting preliterate societies may have its counterpart in educational organizations when nonconformists are…

Native American science is defined as activities of native peoples of the New World in observing physical phenomena and attempting to explain and control them. Problems in studying native science, ethnoscience and native science, archaeostronomy and ethnoastronomy, ethnobotany, agriculture, technology, and future directions are discussed. (JN)

Reviews the work of James M. McCallister, who examined content area reading in school settings in the 1920s. (FL)

Notes that the street-based commitments and engagements of young black men in Port-of-Spain, largely reflect their intention to seek and to design certain sorts of sociality. (Author)

This book explores changing understandings of literacy and its place in contemporary workplace settings. It points to new questions and dilemmas to consider in planning and teaching workplace education. By taking a social perspective on literacies in the workplace, this book challenges traditional thinking about workplace literacy as functional…