Training firefighters is a difficult process in which emotions and nonverbal behaviors play an important role. The authors have developed a mixed reality environment for training a small group of firefighters, which takes into account these aspects. The assessment of the environment was made up of three phases: assessing the virtual agents to…

This paper reports on a longitudinal, ethnomethodological case study of the development towards flexible delivery of the Botswana Technical Education Programme (BTEP), offered by Francistown College of Technical & Vocational Education (FCTVE). Data collection methods included documentary analysis, naturalistic participant observation, and…

Ethnography, the preferred method of inquiry of the cultural anthropologist, is currently the most widely recognized qualitative method for research. Defined as the "art and science of describing a group or culture," it provides a means of studying and understanding other groups, their values and culture. This study documents the use of…

An ethnographic study examined school-community relationship and its effect on program implementation in six rural South Dakota towns serving as sites for the South Dakota Head Start/Public School Transition Demonstration Project (SDTP). SDTP is part of a national project to test whether providing continuous comprehensive services to Head Start…

An ethnographic study examined the nature of social and cultural contexts as they shaped literary practices in a combined fifth/sixth-grade classroom. Research questions focused on the meanings given to the reading and discussion of literature within the embedded contexts of classroom and community. The five focal students for the study differed…

A study examined the effects of a reader response approach to literature in which literature is viewed as a medium for exploration and the effects of such an approach on a group of young women. Subjects of the study were four female middle school students, with the adult female researcher as participant observer. Books chosen for…

A study explored how small groups of student readers interacted in a classroom over time to interpret short stories assigned by a teacher who functioned as participant/observer. The study focused on multiple readers in actual classroom situations to consider the relationship between the social and academic elements observable during day-to-day…

This study explores continuities and discontinuities between patterns of question use during lessons in a bilingual classroom and in the homes of two Spanish-dominant Puerto Rican kindergartners. Ethnographic techniques, including participant observation, audiotaping, and interviews were used to collect data in the classroom and the homes over the…

This collection explores the way in which critical theory and practice can unite in a common vision of democratic hope. Separate viewpoints are drawn together to constitute a democratic platform for an enlightened critical education agenda. Case studies from narrative and critical ethnography explore the multicultural and power struggles of…

This study presents findings from an ongoing study of urban childhood on public assistance. The study used interviews with aldermen, social workers, police, public housing and ghetto neighborhood residents, and medical personnel as well as the collection of field study data from local institutions and their representatives. The results appear in…

The training of researchers in the educational technology field has continued in the traditional vein of the experimental paradigm. This document describes a workshop presented to balance that training and to prepare students to undertake research in a non-traditional way. The workshop aimed to acquaint students with non-causal naturalistic…

This collection of four papers focuses on the Lancaster and Sussex Projects (England) that place an emphasis on writing outside of school and outside of work by "ordinary" people in their everyday lives. The papers refer to each other; the first is an introduction for the others. "Introduction: Making Writing Visible on the…

Two African American teachers teach English in the same inner-city high school. One teacher is successful--her students read, interact, and strive for success. The other teacher's students are frequently disruptive or are asleep. This book probes deep into the causes of classroom success and failure, as well as other issues that affect American…

This paper describes a technique for English-as-a-Second-Language teaching that has students and teachers sharing personal narratives, developed using ethnographic research techniques, as a classroom exercise. The technique, used in a higher education institution in Japan, is presented as a work-in-progress to those who are interested in…

A study was done to examine the lived experience of conflict among students in a transitional class for returning long-term absentees in Walker Hill High School (a pseudonym), an inner city New York City high school. The project was a substudy of the New York City Dropout Prevention Evaluation Project. The theoretical framework of the study began…