This paper critiques the methodology used for television audience research by David Morley for his study, "The Nationwide Audience," in which he attempts to systematically determine relationships between the various ways in which different audience groups make sense of television programs and the social relations that define their material…

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Act changed farm life dramatically. The miracle of electricity in rural East Texas is examined in "Electricity Comes to East Texas" (Brandi Anderson and others). Chronicled is a description of life without electricity and how everyday chores were done in its absence. Local citizens…

The purpose of this research was to develop, test, and demonstrate a systematic methodology of triangulation. Triangulation is a technique used to establish credibility of data gathered in qualitative ways. Triangulated conclusions are more stable than any of the individual vantage points from which they were triangulated. Using a previous study…

An observational study examined computer writers' use of hard copy for reading. The study begins with a description, based on interviews, of four kinds of reading problems encountered by writers using word processing; formatting, proofreading, reorganizing, and critical reading ("getting a sense of the text"). Subjects, six freshmen…

Ethnographic interviews with 36 teachers, principals, and supervisors of kindergarten programs in 12 Ohio school districts were conducted for the purpose of investigating the philosophies and practices of kindergarten programs in Ohio public schools. Broad research questions which formed the structure of the interviews focused on (1) informants'…

Opportunities for and limits upon diary writing in one second/third-grade classroom are examined with the purpose of stimulating critical thinking about two issues: (1) the diary's potential within the school writing curriculum, and (2) the classroom as an environment for the teaching and learning of writing. Field notes, teacher journal entries,…

Naturalistic inquiry (based on the ethnographic research paradigm) has the potential to supplement, or possibly to replace, quantitative experimental research in education. For years most reading researchers have used the experimental research design. This design fails to tap self-concept, value systems, purpose of and attitude toward reading,…

Noting the increasing interest in qualitative research in general and ethnographic research in particular, the authors of this report clarify the place of the latter within the former. The authors present six criteria for an ethnographic approach to education, illustrated with examples, and discuss ethnography's advantages and disadvantages. The…

The primary tasks of the ethnographic researcher are to discover, describe, and comparatively analyze different speech communities' ways of speaking. Two general abstractions occurring in ethnographic analyses are normative and cultural. Communicative norms are formulated in analyzing and explaining the "patterned use of speech."…

The purpose of this research project was to identify ethnographers who had used computers in the field to record and analyze qualitative data. To locate such individuals a literature search was conducted, an announcement was placed in the "Anthropology Newsletter," anthropology computer specialists were contacted, a special symposium was…

This paper shows how geographic ideas about women have developed and have been structured through two major "views" or paradigms about the nature of social organization itself. These two fundamentally different interpretations of human labor--livelihood and production--which the author calls the ethnographic paradigm and the economic paradigm,…

Three aspects of the question of ethnography in education are considered: (1) an explanation of how some ethnographic methodology might be applied in ethnographic research in education; (2) some weaknesses and strengths of ethnography; and (3) a proposal for a case study in which essentials of ethnographic research might be carried out in a…

This discussion takes the view that poverty and school failure are not the results of natural disabilities, but rather they are the result of a conflict in our society between two opposed cultures; and that the conflict will not be resolved in any favorable way unless the dominant culture recognizes the values of the dominated culture, and changes…

The essays in this volume are divided into four sections: (1) "Ethnic Diversity and National Language," (2) "Bilingualism: Its Causes and Consequences," (3) "Models and Methods," and (4) "Language Spread: A New Direction," The first part deals with the social conditions that influence acquisition of a second…

This report describes a collaborative research effort to examine the nature, role, and impact of staff development in an unspecified desegregated, urban school district. The report outlines the study which was conducted as a short term focused ethnography in three elementary and three secondary schools employing both interview and observation as…