This monograph is the outgrowth of a conference that explored research concerns related to multi-cultural and cross-cultural contexts in art education. In the monograph, presentations are organized into three sections. Section 1 deals with basic research methods and methodologies, and introduces new methodological perspectives for consideration.…

This paper identifies the building of community during an ethnographic study of an intergenerational art education program in Harlem, New York City. The study examined intergenerational interactions between seniors and teenagers during their participation in an afterschool art program. Seniors were chosen from a list of 100 persons registered for…

Although much has been written about the effectiveness of book clubs (also known as literature circles) as one approach to reading and discussing literature in the classroom, M.A. George (1998) found that adolescent literature as a genre and book clubs as an instructional approach were being underutilized in a group of New York City middle…

International graduate assistants pose questions for university administration. A study used ethnography of communication to examine the Chinese culture that Chinese graduate assistants bring to the United States classrooms, especially the culture pertaining to communication in the classrooms. Chinese graduate assistants speak from the code of…

This study examined the impact of institutional culture on the change process within colleges and universities. It used an ethnographic approach and two tiered cultural frameworks to investigate comprehensive change at six institutions. The conceptual frameworks of culture used were Berquist's theory of institutional archetypes of culture and…

This study develops a framework for transformational change in institutions of higher education that is both theoretically and empirically grounded and is context based. It reports on six ethnographic case studies of six institutions over a four year period. The six institutions in the study and their change initiatives included one research…

This paper examines specific pedagogical themes, findings, and implications for dance education. The focus is on the topic of educating the student body in dance. The paper draws on a preliminary introduction and analysis from a previous study and accompanying course which pointed out a common dominant focus in dance education (an externalized…

A study examined language socialization in Dominica (West Indies), focusing on the use of a French-based creole, Patwa, in a situation of linguistic and social change. Despite claims that Patwa is integral to Dominican identity, rural caregivers choose to speak English to language-learning children, contributing to rapid attrition of Patwa.…

Stresses the importance of theory in fieldwork, and describes a fieldwork course for graduate students in education at Stanford University. (GC)

Compares the effects of mothers' mode of instruction on their children's memory test performance. Subjects were from the United States and Guatemala. A nongeneral, contextually influenced effect was found only for tests relying on verbal material and for children whose exposure to verbal instruction is not as extreme as in Western culture.…

Ethnographic study of a suburban Jewish afternoon school suggests that students' failure to meet school behavior and learning standards occurred because they did not value or understand the rewards made available to them through the school and because their means of achieving status mobility had shifted away from the Jewish school. (Author/GC)

Four ethical problems arose during the conduct of a fieldwork investigation of the life experience of three student teachers: acquiring permission to begin the study; limits on digging into personal lives; pitfalls of collaborative research; and the endangerment of participant image or position as a result of personal revelation. (Author/GPM)

Analyzes the interrelation of ethnicity, sex role, peer group, and social class, and discusses the effect of these variables on school performance. Drawing upon fieldwork in St. Croix (Virgin Islands), examines the value of a cultural compatibility-incompatibility framework for explaining school success. (Author/GC)

Describes individualized instructional systems as products of the same sociohistorical forces that have redefined work and individualism. Presents an analysis of individualization based on one year's ethnographic observation of an elementary school and points to the specific roles played by schooling in advanced capitalist structures. (Author/MLF)

Describes an ethnographic study of writing in one elementary classroom that identified four functions of writing: writing to participate in community, writing to know oneself and others, writing to occupy free time, and writing to demonstrate academic competence. (HOD)