Botswana's national literacy program and its role in both democracy building and national development efforts is discussed in this paper. Literacy groups can be found in villages and towns throughout the country. The proportion of literate adults has increased from 34% in 1966 to 68.9% in 1993. Yet the absence of 81% of the eligible population…

In a course entitled "Field Methods for the Study of Education," three themes dominate: professionalism, Darwinian methodology, and application. Unifying these are the notions that the proper use of theory is critical to good ethnography and the natural history/Darwinian paradigm is the central core of the anthropological, ethnological…

Describes a course in ethnographic research methods offered to selected educational researchers pursuing doctorates at the State University of New York, Albany. The course requires each student to conduct a disciplined research project and to keep a personal journal in the process. (GC)

Reviews research and presents case studies discussing aspects of suicide, death, and grief among the people of New Guinea, Vanuatu (a Canadian Hutterite colony), rural Tennessee, Ireland, and among American Indians. Rituals, myths, and legends are described in the eight articles of this special issue. (JAC)

The oral history and ethnographic interview are two techniques for providing depth and direction for fieldwork experiences. Students use these techniques to enhance interaction with others they encounter in the field, and the methods occasionally change the students' perspectives and enliven later research efforts. (MSE)

Discusses a diagnostic technique called the Collaborative Analysis and Action Planning Process (CAP), which focuses on patterns of behaviors that are produced, interpreted, and responded to by college teachers and students during a lesson. The steps involved in the CAP process are described, and a 16-item reference list is included. (Author/JL)

Recounts the year-long interaction between teachers and teacher consultants during efforts to evaluate student writing, to survey teacher practices, and to survey student attitudes toward writing. (RL)

Describes and explains the classroom group process and group leadership of a sixth-grade teacher in an urban classroom. Discusses the importance of classroom grouping and its implications for teachers. (MLF)

The components of effective urban school desegregation are familiar to researchers. These are examined and explained. They include racial ratios, assignment policies, long term effects, school preparation, age to begin, faculty and staff desegregation, implementation, allocation of resources, and government policies. Social scientists can provide…

A middle-class adolescent peer group was examined, using ethnographic techniques, to describe the group's relationship to adults and to uncover the adult reference group after which the group modeled itself. Although this group was organized to help poor people, it modeled itself after middle-class adult managers. (Author/GDC)

Qualitative anthropological research on formal and informal child care arrangements is lacking. Research topics should include: informal arrangements such as babysitting and sibling care; comparative ethnographies of different types of centers; centers' effects on children's experiences; staff-parent interaction; and the effects of government…

Suggests that naturalistic inquiry is a subset of empirical research that is highly appropriate to social science and reading research. Proposes that colleges offer opportunities for students to learn and participate in naturalistic research methods and that research journals promote and accept more naturalistic research. (MKM)

Describes an ethnographic research study of collective student activities that occur during instruction in basic subjects. Intensive observation was made of a first-grade and a fifth-grade classroom. Observations were recorded every day for five months. In addition, students were formally interviewed to get their interpretations of lessons. (SS)

Examines why and how one elementary teacher--a veteran third-grade teacher in Arizona--uses drama in the classroom. Discusses how the teacher uses drama as a means for personal and professional growth, focuses on students achieving an understanding of self and others, and defines the drama curriculum as an "expressive orientation" within…

Evaluates the past performance of the tradition of language planning, in view of a theoretical, conceptual, and methodological improvement of future language planning studies. Sketches the historical development of these studies, discusses ideological features present in much traditional language planning work, and raises various issues related to…