The Multi-Ethnic School Environments Study evolved in response to the need for a research base for identifying special teacher training needs in newly desegregated school districts. The ultimate goal of this five year project is to generate teacher training processes and materials to aid teachers in coping with the realities of desegregation. The first phase (1978-1979) was a year of ethnographic research which examined teachers' efforts to organize their classrooms and to encourage the integration of students in newly desegregated classes. This volume of the research report begins with a discussion of critical concerns related to school desegregation. The next section addresses the issues surrounding methodology: the appropriateness of applying educational ethnography to research on desegregation. After noting the problems faced in establishing a site for the research, the next section describes data collection procedures. The final section describes the format, scope, and strategies of data analysis procedures. (Author/MK)