In this article, I deconstruct the macro-micro dichotomy by arguing that the very same mass-media messages that appear culturally homogenizing (like catchy tunes and phrases) also invite creative recontextualizations (Bauman and Briggs 1990). Moreover, "the more widely circulated and mass-produced a message is, the more highly diverse the…

This article chronicles how the ideas of neo-Weberians, Marxists, feminists, and critical race thinkers have merged to create a new cultural production or class culture paradigm of schooling. Reviews of recent ethnographic work illustrates how the articulations among class, race, gender, and sexual identity practices in schools are studied without…

Two decades ago academics based at the University of Arizona brought the anthropological concept of Funds of Knowledge into the educational realm, providing a new conceptual framework to counter deficit theorizing of Latino students and their families. The growing body of literature evidences the belief and hope of academics in the potential of…

This article reviews advances of interest to multicultural educators and researchers in the complementary disciplines of multicultural education and educational anthropology including the culture concept; biological and sociological conceptions of "race;" postmodern understandings of identity and subjectivity; and ethnographic accounts…

This article argues that the anthropology of education must focus on what people do to educate themselves outside the constraints constituting the problematics of schooling. Anthropologists must do this precisely to fulfill their public role as legitimate participants in the conversations about understanding and transforming schooling. When…

In this article, the focal point of education is simultaneously defined as: i) the place where the most important educational activity is taking place; and ii) the place where the main interest of educational theory (and educational practice) should be located. The article aims to discuss the idea that the focal point is located somewhere between…

Good educational ethnography whether done by sociologists or anthropologists, makes the familiar strange. The history of that proposition is outlined, and five strategies available to all ethnographers focused on teaching and learning, whether sociologists or anthropologists of education or not, are outlined. The vital importance of the working…

Heath takes readers back to Hymes's years as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. She recalls, in particular, his relentless passion for introducing public school administrators to ethnography's potential for seeing what could be done to increase equity and social justice within public education. She contrasts this…

Education reform movements often promise more than they deliver. Why are such promises plausible in light of seemingly perpetual education reform? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork based in a nonprofit education reform organization, this article explores the appeal of popular notions about "using data to close the racial achievement…

Consistent with research conducted by George Spindler 60 years ago, teachers continue to perceive groups of students, typically students that differ from the teacher, as less capable of accomplishing meaningful tasks, belonging and contributing to social groups, and engaging actively in challenging work. The bias is especially great for students…

Ideas of linear progress and predictability are essential to globally circulated ideas of educational planning, but do not necessarily correspond with the realities and priorities of ordinary people whose life trajectories often shape very differently. Thus, shedding light on the contradictory ideas about education and divergent expectations as to…

The article analyzes the Brazilian Indigenous formal educational policies through two ethnographic cases (Karipuna and Mebengokre-Xikrin) that allow us to approach the Indigenous perspective on schooling. We first discuss the possibilities and limitations of past and current legal references and educational policies. In the analysis of the two…

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…

In this commentary, anthropologist Iris Carter Ford reflects on the preceding pieces by Carmen Kynard and Signithia Fordham. She identifies parallels among the two essays and her own life, drawing out themes that emerge from the narratives. Integrating ideas about "talking black" and "talking back," Ford notes that both phenomena have roots in…

This paper on the education of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria in the years of transformation (1989-2007) aims to discuss the perceptions and experiences of minority members in schooling. After a succinct introduction into the historical development of minority education, the article focuses on research conducted among the Turkish communities in…