Federal support for answers to the question "What is really going on out there?" has increased interest in the use of ethnography as a research method for evaluation of educational programs. Pros and cons of the use of ethnography for educational research are discussed. (PR)

Describes a two-semester course in fieldwork taught by the author in several universities. The first semester is entirely classroom-based, with students required to read heavily on all aspects of research design, methods, analysis, and problems. The second semester is a structured, qualitative fieldwork study. (GC)

Concludes that if we do find ourselves in a situation of multiple paradigmatic perspectives on educational research, then it is not appropriate to think in the near future of there being a 'ground synthesis' of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. If the two major paradigms do exist as outlined here, and neither finds its present framework…

This book describes what has happened to one group of young black children in an urban school inside a black community persistently and doggedly contained by surrounding whites. Even beyond the realities of racism, their education was influenced by the pervasive impact of schools in perpetuating the existing inequalities of American society. This…