This paper presents an overview of anthropological approaches to studying mathematics classrooms, programs, and innovations in schools. Focus is placed on teaching and learning and programs and innovations from an anthropological point of view. An explanation of how the education of cultural groups could be included in these perspectives is also…

Reviews other articles in this special issue. The two traditional explanations of school failure by minority children do not conflict, yet neither is a complete explanation by itself. A more holistic picture of school success and failure is emerging as educators and social scientists view schools, children, and the community in a more complex and…

Describes the Cultural Inquiry Process, a way to broaden teachers' understandings of culturally diverse students and to maximize these students' success, by combining classroom inquiry and principles of educational anthropology. Describes its rationale, experiences using the Cultural Inquiry Process, and how to make the process work. (EV)

There are discrepancies between the school performance of mainstream students and ethnic minority students. In educational anthropology there have been two explanations, cultural difference and cultural discontinuity. The articles in this special issue explore the relationships between these two schools of thought. (VM)