This research is based on the question of why prospective teachers should take an educational anthropology course, considering the communication of the teaching profession (understanding the other) and encountering cultural diversity (education continues outside the school, this education aims to reproduce and sustain teaching). Today, it has…

Ethnography is coming to be much discussed in education. A definition of ethnography is, however, an elusive and complicated question. Anthropologists do not themselves have a unified conception of ethnography, especially of ethnography in relation to the study of institutions of our own society, such as education. One difficulty with the notion…

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…

This study examines the socialization and enculturation process by which one becomes a school board member, using adult socialization and small group theory to construct a model of the role personalization process. Thirteen new school board members in seven Arizona school districts were interviewed indepth, from the announcement of their candidacy…

What is the relationship of ethnicity to students' experiences in and responses to schooling? How is success in school related to ethnicity? In this dissertation the schools and community of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, provide the setting for a multi-ethnic comparative case study in educational anthropology which addresses these questions.…

Examples of culture as a determinant of peoples' ability to respond to modernization, for instance, the ability of various Nigerian groups to benefit from Western education as a means of economic improvements, support the author's theory of the preeminence of cultural factors in economic and political modernization. (JH)

Theoretical perspectives on issues of racism, ethnocentrism, and exclusion of targeted groups are examined. It is suggested that anthropologists need to explore the understanding and mediation of these problems. (MMU)

This study applies an "anthropological" approach to science teaching in which language minority families work with mainstream educators in a community of learners in which traditional cultural knowledge and Western scientific knowledge blend in an inter-cultural dialogue about what should be taught. The particular context in this paper…

Reviews social scientific research indicating that it may be wrong to teach the poor to tolerate delayed gratification. (JM)

Describes how anthropological knowledge has been applied in the Kamehameha Elementary Education Program (KEEP), a multidisciplinary educational research and development effort to create a successful language arts program for underachieving native Hawaiian children. Discusses the process of translating anthropological knowledge into effective…

Suggests that researchers in English education look to anthropology for research models. (RB)

Attempts to define the cultural discontinuity (between schools and students) hypothesis by distinguishing between universal, primary, and secondary discontinuities. Suggests that each of these is associated with a distinct type of school problem, and that secondary cultural discontinuities commonly affect minority students in the United States.…

Asserts that clarity about the concept of culture and about the role of cultural competence in the conduct of social interactions are not the key components in the establishment and continuity of multicultural programs in or in connection with school settings. Rather the central factor is the distribution of power to judge competence. (Author/JM)

Discusses the problems of foreign language requirements and foreign language student dropouts from an anthropological viewpoint. Proposes solutions which stress both the intrinsic and extrinsic values of learning a foreign language. (PM)

Reviews selected ethnographic studies of school systems in underdeveloped nations and in the United States to demonstrate the utility and limitations of anthropological concepts and methods for comparative education. (Author/RK)