In this paper, an ethnobotany curriculum is used as a case example of one approach to incorporating the insights and needs of the local community into the curriculum development process. This curriculum development was carried out in the "Kiriwong Community" in Nakornsrithammarat Province, Southern Thailand. The ethnobotany curriculum…

Research literature on students as researchers demonstrates a spectrum of constructive ways in which students are being actively engaged in school and classroom action inquiries. Any identified tensions lie in the degree to which students themselves are genuinely engaged as action researchers. Increasingly, externally driven agendas for change and…

This study explores how social pressure and identity construction patterns interact with the oral performance of secondary and post-secondary learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Data derive from 268 questionnaires probing students' perceptions of Spanish, Spanish speakers, their peers, and their instructors. Ethnographic interviews…

This article aims to develop understanding of the impact of the experiences of the queer learner and teacher upon their need for safe spaces within adult education. From the perspective of learning and teaching within science, I discuss the relations between the perceived relevance of queer issues in the "classroom" and the distance of the…

This article presents the results of an ethnographic case study of an Israeli Arab middle school whose staff and students are Arab Israelis from the Moslem, Druze, and Christian population sectors. Against the Israeli backdrop of multiculturalism, political tensions, and terrorism, this school has created a multi-faceted curriculum for teaching…

This article documents a lifecycle approach to employing user-centered design, covering both qualitative and quantitative data gathering methods in support of using this approach for product design, usability testing, and market research. The author provides specific case studies of usability studies, focus groups, interviews, ethnographic…

Recent work on distributed leadership extends an ongoing critique of conventional "heroic" leader portrayals. This article examines work in this area seeking implications for democratic school governance. With material from case studies of two Texas schools, it considers frameworks presented by Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond and by…

Many conceptualizations of optimal human functioning are based on Western European notions of healthy and unhealthy development and daily living. When applied to people of color in the United States, however, these conceptualizations may prove inapplicable because of their Western culture--bound nature. The authors explore the role that cultural…

Building principals are confronted with a host of challenges, particularly when serving children who live outside of the stereotypical mainstream. This article, drawn from a larger ethnographic study, examines the leadership behavior of one building principal who was the administrator for a program serving deaf and nondeaf children. Although…

This paper represents part of an ethnographic study conducted in a small college town in the northern United States. Based on Fairclough's conceptualization of language as a site of social meaning construction and power struggle, I conduct critical discourse analyses on data collected at broad, mid, and micro level contexts. I demonstrate how…

This naturalistic investigation explored the knowledge, skills, and personal qualities demonstrated by two early childhood resource consultants when preschool children with special needs were included in community-based early childhood settings. This article describes the dilemmas, challenges and barriers faced by the resource consultants as they…

More than any other recent social theorist, constructing a disquisition on Butler's ideas draws the writer into speculating on the formation of their own intellectual grammar, perhaps to confront the disconcerting truth of how often their own cherished analytical rationality is broken up by glimpses into the imagination of more provocative…

Contemporary views of literacy as a wide range of sociocultural practices acknowledge a comprehensive account of adolescents' literate lives, which includes previously unrecognised vernacular literacies. Contrasting descriptors such as official/unofficial and sanctioned/unsanctioned have been used to describe adolescent writing from different…

This booklet provides a practical guide for those interested in contributing material to the Archive of Folk Culture in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The Archive houses one of the largest collections of ethnographic documentation in the world, protects these materials for the future generations, and makes them available…

This bibliography lists books, articles, and journals as well as a selection of sound recordings and videotapes to assist individuals and teachers researching the folklife of Georgia. Print resources are organized under 10 major categories including: (1) "General Folklife Studies"; (2) "Fieldwork Methodology"; (3)…