This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of the arts curriculum and pedagogy in a British primary school. The policy context for the study is the school's involvement in promoting creative partnerships between teachers and artists. The pedagogies of three different artist-led projects are analysed, using a Bernsteinian framework,…

The first thing a visitor notices when entering Hollytree primary school is the art-work displayed on every wall. This paper, based on a three-year ethnographic study of the school, mobilizes field notes and interview and photographic data to probe the meanings of this visual "display". We argue that the walls (re)produce and promote…

While some studies have examined second language (L2) learning in young children who have at least one peer who speaks the same first language (L1) in the same preschool classroom (Clarke, 1999; Damhuis, 1993; Fraser & Wakefield, 1986), little research has been done concerning a young child learning an L2 through play in a natural setting in…

This article introduces a novel consultative method termed reconstitutive ethnography, considered useful for the in-depth description and analysis of the interaction between professional and client in the delivery of a health or social care program. The article contextualizes this method in process evaluation generally and specifically in what the…

This mother-daughter case study focuses on a key feature of discourse within a Mexican immigrant family that links oral traditions to resilience and motivation. I combine observations from a previous ethnographic study with recent follow-up interviews of a Mexican immigrant student building on a funds of knowledge framework and an ecological…

"Change Matters," written by leading scholars committed to social justice in English education, provides researchers, university instructors, and preservice and inservice teachers with a framework that pivots social justice toward policy. The chapters in this volume detail rationales about generating social justice theory in what Freire calls "the…

What causes students to leave school? According to Azzam (2007), over 47% of students in the United States who drop out of school reported they did so because school was boring and irrelevant to their life situation. What can schools and teachers do to encourage students to stay in school? One possible solution may be to look at experiential…

This is an investigation into the accelerated acquisition of English among young ESL learners in an International School. It employed an ethnographic case study approach where data were gathered through non-participant observations, unstructured interviews, relevant documents, students' portfolios, field notes and biographical details. The sample…

This article uses a multiple literacies theory framework to explore the processes of "becoming" technologically literate through a year-long ethnographic study of two Master of Education pre-service second language teachers, a Latina woman and an African American woman, who learned how to use computer technology to teach Spanish at a large…

Researchers have noted that technological innovation and advocacy has far outpaced research on how teachers learn to incorporate technologies into their classrooms, perhaps leading to slower integration of technologies into schools. Therefore, the purpose of the study was use cognitive developmental learning theory to examine shifts in preservice…

This article is based on an ethnographic study I conducted in southern Morocco during 2004. I explore the historical, ideological, and cultural background behind educational specialization among Moroccan university students. I describe how French colonial educational policies and postindependence Moroccan national schooling ideologies have created…

This study focused on a concept entitled shared ethnography. The researcher and youth participants share race in common. Critical Race Theory was used to analyze the reflective journal. An after school science program in a high poverty urban environment provided the context for this study. The findings of the study suggested that when researcher…

An ethnographic study explored the critical evaluations of audience members who viewed an ethnographic performance adapted, directed, and performed by a doctoral student in the Speech Communication Department on the campus of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The performance was a one-person show consisting of a series of personal…

This book presents essays written by school reformers that discuss the reform movement and examine the partnership that inspired the creation of small, intimate school communities known as charters. They also reflect on the comprehensive changes that inform each charter and the personal and collective struggles to institutionalize these new…

Taking the position that performance ethnography should be a viable and valued alternative and/or supplement to print ethnography, this paper explores ways to integrate phenomena that are visual, aural, and dynamic into existing scholarly practices. The paper advances one solution: create mechanisms for reproduction and distribution that have the…