This volume is designed to accomplish three primary purposes: (1) illustrate a variety of qualitative methods that researchers have used to study teaching and teacher education; (2) assess the affordances and constraints of these methods and the ways that they focus and shape explorations of teaching; and (3) illuminate representative questions…

Few of the current major efforts to improve urban schools adequately appreciate the extent to which the problematic social climate of urban schools can undermine the implementation of even very good ideas. As a result, programs often come and go with little lasting impact. This paper uses ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate the ways dysfunctional…

This research employs an ethnographic approach in the examination of the effects that computers in schools have on student learning in the United States. It is argued that emphasis on technology, science, and mathematics is not enough to meet educational needs in America. The enthusiasm fostered by technological innovation often overshadows…

Over the past 20 years, approaches to educational policy analysis have opened up to qualitative research methods and to sociocultural perspectives on schooling. This volume is a collection of studies that view educational policy from a variety of angles and at different levels of social life. It consists of 12 chapters: (1) "Are Pedagogical Ideals…

This three-week high school American Literature lesson plan guides students to show how cultural artifacts from "The Grapes of Wrath" support one of the book's many themes. The teacher's guide describes the five lessons that constitute this lesson plan: (1) ethnography; (2) photo analysis; (3) oral history; (4) material artifacts and…

During the past 20 years, several of Utah's more populous areas have developed large, immigrant, non-Mormon populations. A study examined the effects over these years of the challenges caused by such cultural diversification on Utah's previously closed educational environment. Challenges were identified specifically by examining changes in…

This paper examines a case of educational innovation--the introduction of new methods for teaching reading in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa--as a reality check on the appealing but sweeping theory of John Meyer and his colleagues about the diffusion of educational ideals. The paper focuses on Guinea's official adoption of the…

Based on the view that the first weeks of school lay the foundation for the remainder of the year, this book uses an ethnographic approach to present the story of one teacher and the classroom she constructed during the first weeks of school. The book's introduction explores beliefs about children and teaching and a view of theory and practice…

Botswana's national literacy program and its role in both democracy building and national development efforts is discussed in this paper. Literacy groups can be found in villages and towns throughout the country. The proportion of literate adults has increased from 34% in 1966 to 68.9% in 1993. Yet the absence of 81% of the eligible population…

In a course entitled "Field Methods for the Study of Education," three themes dominate: professionalism, Darwinian methodology, and application. Unifying these are the notions that the proper use of theory is critical to good ethnography and the natural history/Darwinian paradigm is the central core of the anthropological, ethnological…

Describes a course in ethnographic research methods offered to selected educational researchers pursuing doctorates at the State University of New York, Albany. The course requires each student to conduct a disciplined research project and to keep a personal journal in the process. (GC)

Reviews research and presents case studies discussing aspects of suicide, death, and grief among the people of New Guinea, Vanuatu (a Canadian Hutterite colony), rural Tennessee, Ireland, and among American Indians. Rituals, myths, and legends are described in the eight articles of this special issue. (JAC)

The oral history and ethnographic interview are two techniques for providing depth and direction for fieldwork experiences. Students use these techniques to enhance interaction with others they encounter in the field, and the methods occasionally change the students' perspectives and enliven later research efforts. (MSE)

Discusses a diagnostic technique called the Collaborative Analysis and Action Planning Process (CAP), which focuses on patterns of behaviors that are produced, interpreted, and responded to by college teachers and students during a lesson. The steps involved in the CAP process are described, and a 16-item reference list is included. (Author/JL)

Recounts the year-long interaction between teachers and teacher consultants during efforts to evaluate student writing, to survey teacher practices, and to survey student attitudes toward writing. (RL)