French elementary school teachers as well as the parents of their pupils remember being quiet students in teacher-dominated classrooms. Yet today both teachers and parents idealize lively classroom participation by their pupils or children. In this study, teachers and parents in an urban school district in Villefleurie, France, watched videotaped…

A study undertaken by the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) and National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) is described. The project was designed to examine the process and results of language study abroad. The first phase of the project was a statistical analysis of the relationship between student characteristics (demographic and…

An ethnographic study is presented, which attempts to gain a better understanding of the gap between California high school students who are at-risk, who eventually drop out, and who are academically successful. Focus is on families, teacher student relationships, peer influence, and social context. A sample of 10 high achieving and 10 low…

To illustrate the theoretical dynamics involved in analysis of the process of "metasensing," this paper investigates the language of 22 elementary school principals and their strategic actions during school improvement programs. The study's grounded theory approach frames the principals'"epistemology of practice"--thereby…

Using ethnographic research design, this study documents educational/social consequences of international migration on children of migrant farmworkers traveling between home bases in Villa Mendoza and Acuitzeramo, Mexico, and French Camp, California. The study reviews conditions faced in school (racial isolation, language minority status,…

Despite enormous political, social, and psychological forces working against them, some inner city black youths defy the odds and succeed academically. This study focuses on a group of successful at-risk minority students in an urban secondary school, and in particular on their student experience, including interactions with school culture,…

A study examined the view of literacy as a socially constructed phenomenon situated within a culturally reproductive milieu. Within the context of one medium-sized comprehensive high school in a small city in the Midwest, the focus was on the daily classroom practice in teaching and learning to read and write. Four separate classes--two low track,…

An ethnographic investigation of interrelationships between teacher efficacy attitudes, teacher behavior, students' performance, and organizational climate in a total school setting was conducted at Chauncey Elementary School in Athens, Ohio. Chauncey was studied because its teachers had begun to implement an open classroom model which promoted a…

The papers comprising this volume discuss research based on an ecobehavioral interaction approach to special education. Six papers are included, which range from a highly conceptual discussion of second language instruction/learning to research concerning interventions to reviews of the research literature. The papers have the following titles and…

The 13 papers are grouped into 2 sections: "General Theoretical and Methodological Issues," and "Microethnographic Studies of Minority Culture Children in the Classroom." Section I includes five papers which cover the following topics: approaches to inquiry in school-community ethnography which are qualitative, yet…

Factors that might influence the acquisition of biliteracy were studied in four schools in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area (an Armenian-English school, a Greek-English school, a Hebrew-English school, and a French-English school). This report, the first of two parts, was written after 2 years of study in which the second year was spent both…

Factors that might influence the acquisition of biliteracy were studied in four schools in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area (an Armenian-English school, a Greek- English school, a Hebrew-English school, and a French- English school). This report is the final part of a two- part report and deals with the tabulation and analysis of…

The Experience-Based Career Education (EBCE) program was designed to provide on-site vocational experiences for high-school youth in order to promote: (1) career development skills and knowledge; (2) self-knowledge--interests, abilities, and values; (3) reading skills; (4) problem solving skills; (5) oral communication; (6) writing skills; (7)…

Ethnographic methods have been proposed as one alternative to research based heavily on statistics and experimental design. Ethnography essentially means "a way of systematically learning reality from the point of view of the participant." Four features distinguish ethnographic research from other research methods: (1) the research is considered…

Written as part of a series of ethnographic studies, this book is a case study of a Catholic boarding high school for Alaskan Eskimos from remote villages undergoing rapid change. Six chapters appraise the bicultural educational principles employed at St. Mary's: (1) a profile of the students as effective bicultural people; (2) the relationship…