The multidisciplinary film project focuses attention on what is happening to rural populations of the world, particularly among developing countries. The roles of women, education, social and economic systems, and the effects of modernization on values are themes explored in each of five rural settings--Bolivian highlands, northern Kenya, northern…

This ethnographic study of two kindergarten classes in a racially-mixed "magnet" school investigates three issues: (1) the extent to which teachers' definitions of appropriate behavior in an instructional context are shared by children in free play context, (2) whether or not classroom social structure differs when teachers have contrasting…

This monograph contains papers and workshop summaries from a two-day symposium for ethnographers and drug abuse policymakers. An introductory paper outlines the background and purpose of the symposium, followed by papers that provide a definition of ethnography, present a history of illicit drug ethnographies, and examine state problems and the…

An ethnographic approach was used to examine the development, over 14 months, of a design curriculum for third-year architecture students. Issues concerning methods of curriculum inquiry and the formation of theory from case study data are also addressed. The major conclusion of this case study is that the teacher was the curriculum. He is…

This study investigates how 40 working-class women participate as volunteers in the service, political, and social action arenas of their community--Carondelet, on the South Side of St. Louis. The purpose is to show that working-class women who live in transitional areas are capable of politically addressing the urban problems intruding into their…

The state of the art of bilingual education in the Soviet Union is surveyed. The social context of Soviet bilingualism is discussed with reference to sources of heterogeneity, modernization as a motivating factor, political dimensions, and Soviet bases of research. The sociolinguistic paradigm of Soviet society is viewed as a function of the need…

This issue includes four papers: (1) "Context in Children's Speech," by Jenny Cook-Gumperz and John J. Gumperz, demonstrates how context is used as a framing device for semantic interpretation of messages. It is suggested that context is not simply background information but part of the total message, entering into the information communicated,…

This study of evaluation utilization identified organizational, political, and practical arrangements facilitating the wide use of "The Interim Report Evaluation" in policymaking for California's Early Childhood Education Program. In a program fraught by tensions, where evaluations had been political tools, this evaluation was special.…

In the Parish of Clarendon in Jamaica, about 10 percent of infants are born to teenage mothers. Between 1986 and 1996, over 500 young mothers and their children participated in the Teenage Mothers Programme (TMP). The TMP took an approach that encompassed the development of the young women, stimulation and care for the infants, support in the…

This study considered the sociocultural nature of learning for students in a multicultural classroom setting, specifically investigating student-student and student-teacher relationships in a junior high classroom using a "community of practice" perspective. This framework was chosen to determine what contribution a community of practice…

Based on an ethnographic study in an urban classroom of 7- to 9-year olds, this book examines how young school children use popular culture, especially superhero stories, in the unofficial peer social world and in the official school literary curriculum. In one sense, the book is about children "writing superheroes"--about children…

This book presents research into the ways in which Indigenous peoples of the Andes create, transmit, maintain, and transform their knowledge, and the related processes of teaching and learning. Most chapters are based on papers delivered at a round-table conference at the University of Cambridge (England) in 1996 and include contributions from…

This book was written in an attempt to understand the experiences of young women who struggled and compromised to succeed at school, and in doing so, created new pathways to success. Chapter One introduces the five young women whose stories form the basis of the book. It discusses multiple definitions of success and risk. Chapter Two presents a…

This book examines dramatic interactions between a 3-year-old Inuit girl and the adults in her world. In these playful yet emotionally charged dramas, Inuit adults enact with children the plots that drive Inuit social life; they test, act out problems, entertain themselves, and create children who think and feel like an Inuit. The child, Chubby…

This is a report on a school-wide ethnographic study of intervention strategies for at-risk students in kindergarten through second grade. A group of 5 teachers from an elementary school of approximately 250 students in a Midwest community of about 18,000 people (2 first-grade teachers, 2 second-grade teachers, and 1 music teacher) comprised the…