This article examines the processes of educational ethnography and questions the traditional use of the field notebook and research relationships. It forms part of an ongoing collaborative study analyzing university students' learning trajectories. Guided by inclusive ethics, the study proposes that researcher-participant collaboration is…

This paper analyzes how knowledge is reproduced as "universal" in contemporary higher education and how this production of universality influences the application of knowledge. Using a case study of clinical psychology, it describes the results of over two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a university and professional settings in…

In this article, we describe a longitudinal inquiry into what it means to be a person in our contemporary world. Our method constitutes a dynamic, non-objectifying fusion of empirical and philosophical anthropology. Field-based anthropology examines actualities: how people lead their lives and talk about them. Philosophical anthropology addresses…

"Convivencia", or conviviality/coexistence, represents a pivotal node in Spanish ideologies of multiculturalism. Touted as the legacy of interreligious harmony in Al-Andalus (A.D. 711-1492), contemporary pedagogical "convivencia" involves policies, curricula, and activities which idealize distinct ways of communicating and…

Ever since the first ethnographic studies, the question about how people learn in different contexts was an essential element of research. Studies in anthropology of education have increasingly focused on schooling. Nowadays, however, the traditional topic of learning in out-of-school contexts recovers its relevance because the development of…

Questions the use of a large mainframe computer and special software to assist with data analysis. Raises the following three cautions: (1) labor and expense; (2) access and control; and (3) reductionism. (LHW)

Education in schools that serve nationalities consisting of comparatively small populations is currently a focal topic in relation to academia and international organizations. The issue of cultural choice in the schools--whether the function of education in these schools is ultimately dissemination of modern mainstream culture or transmission of…

The nearly 100 citations here refer to material cited in the 11 preceding articles. Together they make up this special issue, entitled "Teaching Fieldwork to Educational Researchers: A Symposium." (GC)

A respected method of studying comparative education is that of analyzing national character and assessing its impact on methods and systems of education. Like anthropologists, comparative educators must immerse themselves in a society in order to study its educational system. This analogy raises the issue of methodology, and many studies have…

The growing interest in the anthropological approach to educational research raises some issues about the nature of educational anthropology and traditional educational research. The nature of these two methods of inquiry is different in that anthropology demands that the researcher use the field as the bases for theoretical, methodological, and…

Argues that ethnography, because of its holistic, cross-cultural perspective, provides an inquiry process by which open-ended questions can be asked that will result in new insights about American schooling. Discusses why traditional ethnography is inadequate to the study of schools and sketches first steps of the field work inquiry process. (CMG)

Ethnography as an inquiry process guided by a point of view rather than as a reporting process guided by a standard technique or set of techniques is the main point of this essay which suggests the application of Malinowski's theories and methods to an ethnology of the school, indicates reasons why traditional ethnography is inadequate to the…

Describes how an educational anthropologist's study objectives developed during fieldwork conducted in a fundamentalist Christian school and community. Asserts that this narrative reflects the strong relation of problem finding to problem solving in the practice of naturalistic inquiry. (KH)

Describes the demands on the student of education and anthropology posed by the U. S. graduate education system. Points out that the best and most insightful fieldwork comes from the contrast between what was observed and described in the past and what the student currently encounters. (SLD)

Anthropological fieldwork is characterized as the most human methodology of the social sciences. Fieldwork brings the researcher into intimate relationships with the host people and facilitates perception of the unexpected activity of general social processes and understanding the initially perplexing conduct of the hosts. Fieldwork also has…