Explores optimal foraging theory, derived from evolutionary ecology, for its potential to clarify and operationalize studies of scholarly communication. Metaphorical parallels between subsistence foragers and scholarly information seekers are drawn. Hypotheses to test the models are recommended. The place of ethnographic and bibliometric…

Examines why art and design educators resist the modularization of degree-level courses. Identifies key characteristics of art education in England through an ethnographic study. Discusses government policy and rationales for modular and integrated courses. Concludes that the holistic approach to education allows students to expound and develop…

Internal institutional auditing can improve effectiveness and efficiency and protect an institution's assets. Many of the concepts and techniques used to analyze higher education institutions are qualitative in nature and suited to institutional research, including fiscal, operational, data-processing, investigative, management consulting,…

Anthropologically informed examination of instructional supervisors and supervision could reveal functions beyond counseling, teaching, and training. A literature review highlights a cultural dimension of supervision. An ethnography of supervision would elucidate the roles of supervisors just as training supervisors in ethnography could help them…

An ethnographic approach with added quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis was used to study the extent and nature of technology-based materials in 15 elementary school mathematics classrooms. The blend of methods provided rich and varied information and gave insights either type of analysis could not provide alone. (SLD)

Outlines a framework for examining children's socialization that combines microlevels and macrolevels. Applies the framework to a case study of student failure in the Solomon Islands. Concludes that children's failure had less to do with home socialization than with larger societal processes that shape schooling in the Solomons. (MM)

Reports an ethnographic research project involving fourth graders and the use of computers. Examines the social context of computer use; the way students relate to computers; and what students learn by interacting with computers. Finds that students can experience powerful emotional reactions to events resulting from their interactions with…

Presents an approach to teaching cultural anthropology that combines an inductive method and ethnographic case studies. From introductory courses to graduate-level seminars, the inductive case study approach combines written materials, films, and other aids to allow students to discover culture. Discusses how audiovisual aids can be used.…

Identifies how teacher discourses influenced the educational policy process by drawing from an ethnographic study of a school-supported integration initiative for pregnant and parenting teens in a high school in a small Canadian city. Conservative and liberal points of view about the program are explored. (SLD)

Presents a notion of small culture as an alternative to what has become the default notion of large culture in applied linguistics, social science, and popular usage. A small-culture view of English-language curriculum settings reveals mismatches between professional-academic and organizational cultures at the mezzo level of the institution. (VWL)

Presents writing and narratives of adolescent females in their senior year at an urban high school used to begin a dialog about the ways schools and communities can support youth to both imagine and plan for their futures. Ethnographic research methods were used to collect narratives and to construct case studies of four young women. (MMU)

Comments on Reba Page's use of the author's work, known as the Brad trilogy, in a lesson on validity in interpretive research methods. Wolcott prefers involving students more immediately with field work than in Page's approach. Discusses his intentions in writing the Brad trilogy and the questions it has raised. (DSK)

Reports the results of research conducted in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) graduate courses on the discourse socialization of students through the process of engaging in oral academic presentations. Data sheds light on the complex process of discourse socialization and are informative for faculty who assign oral academic…

Considers how research in collaborative technologies can inform research and development in library and information science. Topics include computer supported collaborative work; shared drawing; collaborative writing; MUDs; MOOs; workflow; World Wide Web; collaborative learning; computer mediated communication; ethnography; evaluation; remote…

Explores perspectives and methodologies that sociolinguistics brings to ethnographic research in schools. The article identifies the methodological contributions arising from linguistics that interactional sociolinguistics and microethnograpy share, such as the use of naturally occurring language data, the consultation of native intuition, and…