Describes a longitudinal ethnographic research in a grade one classroom with second-language (L2) learners and Anglophones. Using a community-of-practice perspective, three classroom practices are delineated that served to differentiate participants and contribute to community stratification in which some learners were defined as deficient. The…

Participant observers conducting research among other cultures must use what is learned without betraying the confidence of those with whom they interact. Two Native American examples illustrate how current protocols are insufficient in cross-cultural situations. Recommendations include negotiating responsibilities before seeking consent,…

Reports findings of ethnographic research into second-language lectures conducted at a university in Hong Kong. Six sociocultural features of second-language lectures are discussed: purposes of lectures, roles of lecturers, styles of lecturing, simplification, listener behavior, and humor. (31 references) (Author/CK)

Uses participatory ethnography to interview lay persons about the role of religion and the church in personal meaning-making. Probes the motives that call people to theology, the theological methods people use, how people engage in religious knowing, and how the church helps these efforts. Suggests shortcomings in present religious education. (DSK)

In this paper, we take up and advance the project of rethinking "scientific literacy" by Eisenhart, Finkel, and Marion (American Educational Research Journal, 1996, 33, 261-295). As part of a project of rethinking science education, we advance three propositions. First, because society is built on division of labor, not everybody needs to know the…

This paper is based on an observational study concerning the effectiveness of elementary education. It was conducted in a rural area near Alotau, the provincial capital of the Milne Bay Province, with a special focus on the Maiwala Elementary School. In this paper, the author first briefly describes what elementary education is and how it has been…

This article describes a model of participatory action research and service-learning conducted with urban, high school African American, West Indian/Caribbean, and Puerto Rican/Latino youth and adult facilitators, in a nonclassroom setting, in a mid-sized northeastern city. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) integrates critical theory,…

This qualitative study, employing an ethnographic research method, investigates how dialogue journal writing, which allows teachers and learners to engage in "written conversation", may provide an opportunity to bring critical pedagogy and foreign language education together in a productive way in the context of a critical literacy…

In this study we investigated the lives and academic histories of eight students enrolled in an alternative-school program in a mid-sized Midwestern city. Through the triangulation of interviews, fieldnotes, local newspaper articles, artifacts such as student work and information provided in cumulative folders, and a battery of measures of…

Using Chicana/Latina/Queer Feminist Thought and Raza Womyn grounded theory as theoretical frameworks, this research utilizes the methods of ethnography, participant observation, and narrative analysis to explore the contributions of Chicana/Latina student activists to social justice education. The study focuses on the members of an undergraduate…

Based on ethnographic research conducted in five schools in Durban, this article addresses three issues that are widely perceived as major problems in the transformation of education in post-apartheid South Africa: 1) the rapid and unplanned integration of state-funded schools that has led to overcrowding of classrooms, 2) the class and domestic…

The present learning discourse and terms such as "learning in practice", "situated learning", "project and problem based learning" are like variations on a recurrent theme: learning by doing--the striking maxims of progressivism. The newest reforms confirm that the maxim is still alive as a standpoint with…

The results of a qualitative study funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation indicate that a promising path to improving the lives of disadvantaged families is through more holistic, comprehensive approaches to family support. These approaches combine traditional family support activities with the development of human and economic capital. The…

Introduction: The strategies that people use to browse Websites are difficult to analyse and understand: quantitative data can lack information about what a user actually intends to do, while qualitative data tends to be localised and is impractical to gather for large samples. Method: This paper describes a novel approach that combines data from…

"Dimension" is the annual volume containing the selected, refereed, edited Proceedings of each year's conference. The theme chosen for the joint conference of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT) and the Florida Foreign Language Association (FFLA) in Orlando, Florida, February 16-18, 2006, was "Languages for Today's…