This working paper is a report of a study of the meanings 10 children derived from the experience of being taught to read in first grade. The study is based on a series of classroom observations and conversations with the children, their parents and teachers over a 10-month period in two first grade classrooms of a public elementary school in an…

This study reports on an ethnographic investigation of a desegregated high school in Memphis, Tennessee. Processes of interracial education that occur in a desegregated school are examined in a discussion of some principles of educational stratification. The interaction of stratification and schooling in the United States is explained. The…

Argues for an ethnographic reorientation to needs analysis and syllabus design in English for specific purposes in advanced postgraduate centers of science and technology. The seven-stage framework (specify learners, analyze needs, specify enabling objectives, select materials, identify teaching/learning activities, evaluate, and revise) used to…

Describes a researcher's subjective experience of fieldwork conducted among other women graduate students. Focuses on interactions between the researcher and her informants, and discusses how these interactions affected the research, the findings, and the researcher. The emotional stresses and ethical dilemmas encountered by a feminist researcher…

Designed to increase understanding of how schools contribute to the reproduction of the social order, this case study examined the tracking system in a high school English department. Teachers themselves, because of their ambitions and tolerances, created the tracking system and competed for high-status students. The teachers also became tracked.…

Suggests an alternative approach to the variable rule method of accounting for linguistic variability. This alternative approach, which is sensitive to social context and the relevance of meaning, is used to support an analysis of "-ing/in'" variability in some North American industrial workers' speech. (SED)

Data from an ethnographic study of an urban community college are used to describe elements of faculty culture, explore the reasons for the culture's form and characteristics, discuss the ways in which the culture may be linked to institutional outcomes, and offer a framework for viewing faculty-student conflict. (MSE)

Reports on an attempt to relate academic models of urban communities to actual housing and community development for a student population of mixed graduate/advanced undergraduate levels and anthropology/urban studies majors. (CJM)

Three Tzotzil-speaking Mexican sisters were interviewed about their attitudes toward their Indian schooling. They enjoyed school and felt it was important to attend school to learn Spanish, though they had not acquired few linguistic skills. (BW)

Two key stakeholders in enhancing and building Aboriginal children's capacity to learn mathematics are teachers and the Aboriginal children themselves. In Australian schools it is often the case that the two groups come from different cultural backgrounds with very differing life experiences. This paper reports on an ethnographic study and focuses…

Noting that ethnographic records point to gender as an important theme in young children's daily lives, this study examined how Taiwanese children experienced the issue of gender in their play and outside of play in their preschool life. Research methods for this ethnographic study incorporated extensive video recording of naturally occurring…

This article reports on aspects of an ethnographic study carried out in six newly integrated schools in post-apartheid South Africa. It presents evidence that these schools are sites of struggle between competing discourses that construct, maintain, and change social identities in those communities and the wider society. It suggests that South…

This small, qualitative study examined how interactive television educators go about teaching in electronically-mediated environments where students remain separated from them. Three interactive television instructors were interviewed, and 15 hours of field observation was conducted. Although the study's original goal was to yield prescriptions…

This ethnographic study was conducted in order to (1) investigate the forces affecting the literacy practices of first year teachers, (2) examine factors that foster the creativity, innovation and growth of teachers, and (3) describe some exemplary literacy practices of beginning teachers. Three beginning teachers in an urban midwestern school…

This study examined utilization of digital resources at two different Native American tribal schools, one located in the Southwest and another in the Northwest. Ethnographic methods were employed in the study to explore the cultural issues involved in the use of computers in the tribal schools. Site visits were conducted of the two schools.…