Previous ethnographic pedagogical approaches in basic writing classrooms emphasized students' acculturation into academic discourse; however, teachers' critical reflection should also consider how exposure to students' experiences intervenes in and informs pedagogical practices. In this article, I argue that teachers should listen to their…

As the variety of state education agency (SEA) responses to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 demonstrates, different SEAs interpret the same federal educational policy differently. Nonetheless, little research has depicted how federal policies are changed by SEA-based policy intermediaries. Using an "ethnography of educational policy"…

This article draws from the insights offered by discourse analysis and the study of gesture to examine imagination as a product of, and resource for, social action. Using data collected during ethnographic fieldwork at an architecture firm, the article explores how imagining can emerge from a group of interactants who use many semiotic media,…

Growth in US education abroad has been consistently strong for the past decade, surpassing 9 percent annually. Within the field of education abroad, this growth is both exciting and alarming. Education abroad helps students change learning structures, learn new paradigms and become more complex individuals. If a student's structures are not ready…

Literacy in the home is often judged as an inferior version of school literacy. In multilingual contexts, family literacy practices tend to be characterised as traditional and more reliant on oral than literate practices, with the children being seen as disadvantaged by the lack of parental literacy support. This paper argues that literacy…

This article examines the role of genre in English language syllabus design, with reference to a project in Bahrain secondary schools. It attempts to show how, through a carefully devised and conducted qualitative study in ethnographic mode, a syllabus was developed which placed genre at its centre. It also attempts to illuminate how issues…

This study offers an interpretive exploration of teachers' perceptions of violence, and its links with their decisions to leave urban schools. The study presents the stories of those who began their career in urban districts and then left within five years. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with twelve former urban educators are the main source…

The restructuring of adult education in Goteborg was first initiated experimentally with respect only to SFI education (an education in beginning Swedish for ethnic minorities living in Sweden). This was done on the basis of decisions in the Goteborg Municipal Council in 1999. But restructuring came into full force for all municipal adult…

The working relationship of two novice songwriters is examined in this ethnographic study, which highlights the importance of common goals and values in a songwriting collaboration. Stemming from this core there are a number of sub-themes: the pair saw a popular song as consisting of melody, harmony, and lyrics; they played on the strengths and…

This article argues that traveling and working as a writer in Vietnam yielded metaphors that changed the author's pedagogy as well. The article first describes how the experience of crossing the street taught her to move on the terms dictated by local conditions. The metaphor of "moving in traffic" that grew out of this experience…

I offer an autoethnographic exploration of my experience with the culture of a marriage and family therapist (MFT) in training. As a beginning therapist I assumed that success would be determined primarily by how well I mastered different theoretical models. This belief shifted during an instance in which I was planning to begin differentiating…

This ethnographic study is an investigation of the environment that students create when making music that is meaningful to them. The initial purpose of the study was to describe a developing "rock group", and the factors that contributed to its creation. The significance of the study may be in the discovery of ways to "counter mechanisms of…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to understand the level of discrimination against academic staff in a Turkish and an Azerbaijani university. This research is the last stage of a four-stage study. Design/methodology/approach: In the first part of the study, the areas of discrimination in universities were determined using approaches related to…

Engaging students in a course in the Sociology of Religion can be a challenge, particularly when working with student populations in a homogeneous region of the country who have limited experience with religious diversity. We approached the course from a sociological/anthropological perspective, requiring each student to complete an in-depth…

This article considers the role of language learners in the global society and the extent to which interaction between different language communities can be regarded as possible without intercultural competence. It moves on to review the skills and competencies that can be taught to undergraduates in an attempt to enable them to engage more…