Alternative methods of data collection among homeless people are compared to traditional shelter and street surveys. The alternatives allow for more people to be reached, achieve greater depth, put researcher and subject on a more equal footing, and appear to produce a more accurate picture of homeless people in their diversity. (CJS)

Describes a method of teaching fieldwork in cultural anthropology classes by having students do an ethnosemantic exercise on a card game of their choice. Through this experience, students learn how to do simple forms of fieldwork, the emic perspective, and componential analysis. (Author)

Explores how visual (pictorial) and verbal (linguistic) systems work together and influence each other as young children create symbol systems. Finds that, for young children, color plays a key role in communicating messages. Shows how art and writing (especially color and light) influence each other in children's literacy development. (SR)

The first day in secondary school of four groups of Finnish students entering seventh grade in two schools was analyzed in an ethnographic study focusing on initial encounters between students and teachers and how the construction, negotiation, and learning of the "profession" of being a pupil in a secondary school begins. (SLD)

Based on an ethnographic study that focused on the relations of students' in- and out-of-class cultural learning during a five-week study-abroad program in Spain, this article analyzes processes of teaching and learning in a Spanish culture and civilization class, the experiences of the only African-American student in the program, and students'…

Describes a five-year ethnographic study of an African-centered charter school to determine the pedagogical theory undergirding the school's development and maintenance. The analysis reveals an absence of coherence in the community of teachers about the ethos of the school. (SLD)

The National Park Service's applied ethnography program promotes democratic decision making in park planning, resource management, and interpretation by communities with a stake in agency decisions. Ethnographic research has contributed to historical interpretation of slavery in plantation parks, cultural interpretation of traditional Native…

Describes a course about interpretive research methods. Argues that the course is different than many methods courses in that it does not ask students to conduct field research, but rather, to read ethnography and focus on why ethnographers do what they do. Considers a unit about validity in detail. (DSK)

Contributes to cultural-studies scholarship on ethnographic media studies by examining the reception of imported romance novels among women in postcolonial urban India. Shows that romance novels were found pleasurable because they were an extension of Indian women's childhood English-language reading, and they were viewed as resources to improve…

Findings from a study investigating students' reactions to a hypermedia program used to analyze real-life interactions indicated that pragmatic awareness can be developed in virtual culture contact situations. Similar interactive software in combination with ethnographic activities may be more effective in culture teaching and learning.…

Examines, in a five-year ethnographic study in secondary schools, issues of how literature learning shapes thinking. Follows 10 students from their English classes into their academic classes over their high school careers. Analyzes literacy events in their literature and content-area classes, including how literacy events functioned and what they…

Four groups of mostly female students, differing in age, English proficiency, ethnicity, and social class, were surveyed in Australian competency-based technical and further education programs. They appreciated the practical focus and continuous assessment of competency-based training. However, some aspects of it made it unsuitable for certain…

Examines the dynamic relationship between official school structures and forms of student subjectivity through an ethnographic account of student culture at a Mexican secondary (junior high) school with 1,400 students. Students appropriated the official school structure to fashion a culture of equality that accommodated and denied different…

Focuses on different ways participants in a research project may understand the research and use it themselves by describing how 20 adult students and 14 community members, participants in a recent ethnographic study of adult literacy in England, responded to the invitation to collaborate with researchers in interpreting interview data. (SLD)

Argues that current library and information science discourse has drawn definitional boundaries around the word "information" so tightly as to exclude research on reading. Highlights include access to, versus content of, information; literacy studies; print culture history; reader-response theory; ethnography of reading; cultural…