This anthology of sociolinguistic/anthropologically-oriented articles on ethnic bilingualism and bilingual education seeks to understand bilingual education outside of the methodological-pedagogical issues involved, that is, from a theory and research, rather than classroom, perspective. Bilingual education is seen as the result of societal factors or as an intervening factor rather than as the cause of certain behaviors in children, especially language minority children. Topics covered include theoretical perspectives, the functional (equilibrium) and conflict paradigms, research methodology and the use of quantitative and qualitative data, problems in comparative analysis in bilingual education, biculturalism, and language planning and bilingual education. A case study from Peru illustrates the importance of contextual factors in interpreting bilingual education. Language maintenance is examined as a mechanism of ethnic boundary maintenance, using a case study of the Swedish Sami, and summaries are offered of the research on bilingual education in the United States and comparison of bilingual education. Issues of language planning are addressed, since bilingual education issues are the result of educational language planning. (Each chapter contains references.) (Author/NAV)