An ethnographic study examined the culture of the Chinese students and scholars in America with a specific focus on their experiences in the cultural adaptation process. Subjects were three Chinese nationals (one female and two males) living in the area of a large midwestern university. Subjects were interviewed for about an hour each, with…

Arguing that all language is communication, but very little communication is language, this paper explores questions of method and evidence in the human science practice of communicology. The first part of the paper analyzes the dialectical question of methodology in which method as procedure is implicated with thought (logos) as judgment per se,…

School reform efforts to date have not always resulted in meaningful change. This book presents findings from an ethnographic study that examined the change process in three schools undertaking systemic reform. The schools included the Hull Junior-Senior High School, a primarily white public school in a recession-battered community; the Academy at…

This paper describes how an ethnographer proceeded in a study of group identify, voice, and participation in the greater culture of gay and bisexual college men at a large research university. The researcher, himself a heterosexual man, conceptualized the investigation as a crossing of cultural borders. The investigator initially attended several…

This paper argues for the development of a new type of combined bilingual and bicultural/multicultural program or curriculum based on recent research. Some issues concerning bilingual education are addressed, followed by a short review of the findings of ethnographers concerning cultural differences in the classroom. The applicability of the Whorf…

"Thick descriptions" are descriptions that are layered enough to draw conclusions and uncover the intentions of a given act, event, or process. In a video environment, thick descriptions are images, gestures, or sequences that convey meaning. Neither the quantity nor the resolution of the images makes the descriptions thick. Thickness is…

The struggle in the composition community regarding the place of personal narrative in academic writing became particularly acute for a class of undergraduate Critical Writing students undertaking ethnographic work. By mid-semester, students had read and produced a series of texts about culture and found themselves reading and writing about…

Different types of interviews serve different purposes; however, they all share a common goal of collecting data in different situations. The data may be factual in generating quantitative input for a research project, attitudinal in gauging public acceptance of a proposed educational policy, or used in gaining a better understanding of a certain…

An ethnographic study examined the practice of rituals as the pervasive form of communication at St. Mary's (a pseudonym) Catholic elementary school. Four specific rituals illustrate this communication process: morning assembly, "Pass the Pen,""Sparkles," and "Yes please/No thank-you." Morning assembly begins each…

This articles explores authoritive problems in interpreting art education in research, namely authorization and authorship. Authorization rites and rights are now under institutional surveillance. A researcher should proceed with ethical fairness. The process of authorship is one of the negotiation of conflicting meanings, and at times subject to…

An ethnographic study of a pre-school classroom explored an unconventional triangulated framework using literary theory, cultural and critical theory for communication inquiry into the narrative experiences of multicultural children. Field observations were conducted during 1991 in a pre-kindergarten class in a western United States university…

This paper first addresses assumptions about teaching and scholarly research, drawing from feminist theory in communication and women's studies. Second, the paper discusses one scholar's commitments as ethnographer and teacher to students, research participants, colleagues and others, including ways to enact those commitments in the classroom and…

As part of a major effort towards the documentation of teachers' roles, in a project (Toledo Support Teachers Program) aimed towards their restructuring, one female science teacher was observed using ethnographic techniques while performing her daily work as a teacher, department head, support teacher during the winter and spring of 1989. The…

Ethnographers in composition must consider their work as a set of discursive practices which are materially affected by the institutional and disciplinary practices of the ethnographer. The value of such ethnographic research for a writing program is that it provides a useful critique of disciplinary practices in English, rather than a critique of…

The linkage between policy research and policy formation can be strengthened through the use of qualitative methods. Currently, the linkage between policy research and policy decision making is tenuous; there are differences in philosophy, function, self-definition, and criteria by which success is measured. Although research cannot dictate the…