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…

This paper provides information about the nature of fieldwork and fieldwork research training. Fieldwork methods are best at answering the following five questions: (1) What's happening in this field setting? (2) What do the happenings mean to the people involved in them? (3) What do people have to know in order to be able to do what they do in a…