Articles that are concerned with ethnographic studies of schooling and learning in order to discuss the contribution of ethnographic inquiry to teacher education are reviewed. The first section of the paper divides the literature on the ethnography of schooling and learning into three types: (1) articles that address theoretical and methodological…

"Curanderismo," or folk healing is seen as an important part of Mexican and Mexican-American culture, and continues to have significant influence in South Texas. A teaching unit, as well as lectures and various publications on curanderismo have been developed, based on research and interviews with practitioners. The practice of…

The research method used to evaluate a program of instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) reading based on schema theory is discussed. The program is used in public schools in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). In the first section, the research design, procedures, and instruments are presented. An experimental method is used, but is adapted so…

This document describes the process of initiating an ethnographic research project at a non-elite school in England that asked the question: "Why do ordinary youngsters bother to go to school?" The study followed a selected group of students for 2 years of high school before they took the public examinations at age 16. The school was…

An interpretive and ethnographic approach to human communication study, using naturalistic or participant observer techniques, is particularly useful in intercultural contexts. The basic ideas undergirding this approach are (1) that the researcher is the instrument of inquiry, (2) that humane considerations are more important than investigating…

This paper addresses some of the concerns inherent in evaluating feminists' projects and focuses on three topics: (1) a discussion of some objections raised by feminists about traditional forms of assessment; (2) a description of the strengths and weaknesses of illuminative evaluation as an alternative approach to evaluate feminist programs; and…

A volume devoted to aging and the aged in Third World societies focuses on ethnographic case studies from Papua New Guinea, China, India, the Sudan, and Mexico. The first of five articles, "Sweeping Men and Harmless Women: Responsibility and Gender Identity in Later Life" (Dorothy Ayers Counts), examines the perception of gender over the…

A study of communication in a culturally diverse first grade classroom focused on one discourse device, conversational repair, and its use with one kind of conversational difficulty, protest sequences, or arguments. The data collected concerned the children's use of either non-response or conversational engagement following a fellow student's…

This paper describes the process of investigating a teacher's knowledge and pedagogical philosophy through using a biographical rendition of a teacher's knowledge grounded in a construction of present teaching practice, based on ethnographic data. A case study is presented demonstrating how a major component of one teacher's present knowledge of…

This paper addresses questions about the processes involved when viewers "make sense" out of the diverse visual and aural signs of a television program and then render that sense in a spoken account. A pilot study was conducted to explore the manner in which modes of viewing, and talk about viewing, include or exclude recognition of…

Storyteller Monroe Brannon, although a native of Louisiana, was a long time resident of Gary, Texas. Mr. Brannon shared his fantastic memory of events and people which go back to the 1890s when he was two and half years old. He was keen observer of all that he saw and heard and forgot little. And so he was able to provide stories on a wide range…

This 578-entry annotated bibliography is intended for use by people who work with Cambodian refugees in the United States, as well as anyone interested in Cambodian history, politics, and culture. It consists primarily of books and journal articles on Cambodia and Cambodians available in the University of Minnesota library system or that are part…

Using ethnographic research techniques, a study examined the nature of the process whereby a three-member collaborative writing group responded to literature and to each other through a local area network (LAN) and also generated a group composition. The three subjects--of varied educational backgrounds--discussed questions associated with a novel…

A study examined how well existing audience theory fits what really happens when writers write on the job. This ethnographic study focused on the process of revising one chapter from a guide to the DOS computer operating system designed for use by novices as well as intermediate and skilled users. Preliminary findings confirmed much of audience…

Because of their egocentricity, many students have a limited sense of other cultures and are caught up in a web of ethnocentric biases without quite knowing how and why these biases exist. A framework, encompassing the theories of J. Moffett and J. Piaget, may be designed to move students through a series of hierarchical writing exercises that…