With an ethnographic approach, this paper focused on the process of students' learning. It examines students' feelings about learning environments and expectations of college education, as well as professors' experiences with college teaching and their views of teachers' role in contemporary society. Unstructured, intensive interviews were…

In responding to multicultural literature, high school students may have difficulty interpreting characters' practices because they are not familiar with the cultures portrayed in these texts. One reason for the challenges in teaching multicultural literature is that high school students have difficulty interpreting the larger cultural or…

Parental involvement has been promoted by politicians and educators as the cure all for academic ills in the American educational system. Programs have been funded and structured to involve all parents in schools in ways valued by middle class parents to the exclusion of language minority families, their language, and their culture. These middle…

This book addresses the need for anthropologists to produce in-depth ethnographies of children's play. In examining the subject from a cross-cultural perspective, the book argues that understanding the way children transform their environment to create make-believe is enhanced by viewing their creations as oral poetry. The result is a richly…

Describes the ethnographic component of a multidisciplinary evaluation, conducted by the RMC Research Corporation, of the Career Intern Program for dropouts. Includes discussion of participant observations, interviewing techniques, triangulation, unobtrusive measures, data recording, and equipment. (Part of a theme issue entitled…

The authors delineate two distinct cultures, those of academics and of students, with differing basic postulates concerning the purpose of education, the process of learning, teacher and student responsibilities, and intellect. They then suggest approaches for maximizing communication across these cultural barriers. (Part of a theme issue on…

Demonstrates that audience members create specific and sometimes elaborate practical actions involving television in order to gratify particular needs in the context of family viewing. Supports a typology of the social uses of television using ethnographic research and current uses and gratifications literature. (JMF)

Uses interviews with residents and ex-residents, ethnographic techniques, and document analysis to examine sexuality and sexual abuse in residential childcare settings, including how their culture and leadership contribute to abuse and the denial and invisibility of sexuality. Discusses issues around researching sexuality, children, and abusive…

Describes an ethnographic study of 126 developmental mathematics students at a 4-year college to determine characteristics related to success in the course and subsequent retention. Reports that student attendance and engagement strongly influenced success. Lists recommendations for improving student engagement. A list of observed student…

Shows how language and subject teachers in London secondary schools are positioned differently through their discursive performance of pedagogues and knowledge and how members of classroom communities view language and subject teachers as unequal. Data analysis dew on ethnography of communication and semiotic functional approaches to explain the…

A study used ethnographic methods to investigate the experience of gay and bisexual male college students from the perspective of subculture. Subjects (32 undergraduate and eight graduate students at a research university) were interviewed by telephone. Four students are profiled, and commonalities in their experiences and points of tension (gay…

Explores communication processes that affect the roles of the online distance learning (OLD) instructor. Notes that many communication skills required of the ODL instructor are similar to those needed for effective classroom teaching. Finds that the online instructor's role does require a paradigm shift regarding instructional time and space,…

Reports on aspects of an ethnographic study carried out in six newly integrated schools in post-aparthied South Africa. Presents evidence that these schools are sites of struggle between competing discourses that construct, maintain, and change social identities in these communities and the wider society. (Author/VWL)

Seeks to understand literacy as sociocultural practice and to understand how beliefs about attitudes towards literacy are constructed in and through classroom discourse. Explores what literacy is valued in one multi-ethnic primary classroom and the ways in which the pupils are coming to know and display the version of literacy that counts.…

Discusses epistemological issues involved in the use of qualitative methods to assess classroom-based microcomputer programs, specifically Apple Computer's "Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow." Six models of qualitative data design and use are examined: anecdotal, structured observations, case study, multisite case study, ethnography, and…