While the research literature on teaching as a form of scholarship has been growing, there has been a concomitant growth in understanding that teaching itself is a kind of performance--an interactive dramaturgical relationship between students and teachers with potential positive outcomes for student learning, motivation, discovery, and community.…

This paper analyzes the connections between the oral genres displayed by Gitano (also known as Gypsies or Romani) children and adults during religious instruction classes of an Evangelist Church and the writings produced by Gitano children in a computer after-school program of the same community. Subjects were Gitano children (n=30), ages 5-13…

This paper examines the oral and written discourse processes in a high school physics class and how these discourse processes are related to sociocultural practices in scientific communities. The theoretical framework is based on sociological and anthropological studies of scientific communities and ethnographies of classroom life. The use of…

This paper describes a study of a speech community, a group of approximately 10 women, aged 25 to 65, who met at least 3 times a month to knit, drink coffee, and chat. The paper notes that knitting circles have survived through history because they serve a social function that surpasses historical events--they are communities that co-construct the…

The term "venting" has been used interchangeably with negatively-connotated words like "outburst,""bitching,""complaining," and with more functional words like "disclosing." A literature review of venting showed that researchers have approached the term from multiple perspectives. Because of the…

Ethnographic pedagogy builds a bridge between nontraditional students' home community with the values of the academic community, but the point of "bridging" the two communities seems to be for the student to come over to "our side." This paper proposes an ethnographic pedagogical approach that is reciprocal, bridging both…

This study described and documented collaborative learning by students in two sections of a graduate education course at a large southern U.S. university. Ethnographic observations were made of the two groups, and participants were interviewed about their experiences in their respective groups. Analysis of field notes from ethnographic…

A research project explored the potential of collegial coaching and reflective dialogue as mechanisms for school leaders to use to significantly alter the organizational context so that cultural change might occur. The study investigated the possibility that collegial coaching, reflection, and dialogue about teaching practices may provide an…

A study applied an ethnography of speaking to the study of a bilingual child, with the construct of a frame as the unit of analysis. The child was observed and tape recorded playing a commercial game in Chinese with her mother and in English with her father. Both activity frames and conceptual frames were analyzed toward answering: (1) what frames…

This paper explores the roles students play in support of technology in elementary classrooms. In this ethnographic study, new models for support were developed by examining support for technology and the use of technology in three third and fourth grade classes. Data were collected through teacher interviews, informal conversations, observations…

Describes a course in ethnographic field methods/qualitative research methods. Discusses concepts and learning opportunities provided by the various texts utilized and by the experiences of several pioneers in field research. (GC)

Reviews the contributions of anthropology in educational experiments designed to help educationally and socially disadvantaged children. Cautions that educational psychology will retain its hegemony in educational research, unless anthropology is able to show how educational failure can be reversed. (GC)

Designed to attempt an assessment of the quality and quantity of information on traditional Navajo women in view of feminist concerns about the treatment of women in ethnography, data from 10 basic ethnographies on the Navajos and 14 published life histories of Navajo men and women are explored. (Author)

Discusses varied roles a qualitative researcher or ethnographer plays in the educational research process. Focuses on ways in which these different roles affect others' behavior in the presence of the ethnographers; how ethnographers interact; and how ethnographers interpret, analyze, and present data. (Author/MJL)

Explores the skills used by instructional developers to comprehend unfamiliar content, discusses the nature and characteristics of disciplines, and presents self-reports of experienced developers. Ethnography is examined for heuristics on interviewing and questioning techniques for eliciting information. Eleven references are provided. (Author/BK)