This paper addresses Lincoln's [2010. "'What a long, strange trip it's been …': Twenty-five years of qualitative and new paradigm research." "Qualitative Inquiry" 16, no. 1: 3-9] call for greater attention to the question of rapport in qualitative research through a reflexive examination of researcher-participant relationships…

While the challenge to retain highly competent teachers affects all schools, the crisis is critical in urban districts, which historically suffer from high teacher turnover (Ingersoll, 2004). This high turnover is especially problematic in the content areas of science (Ingersoll & Perda, 2010). Through ethnographic case studies the first year…

This article provides an opportunity to extend the discussion about teacher communities as part of complex school reform models, specifically centered on those communities whose membership is drawn on a semi-voluntary basis. Through a sixteen-month long ethnography, I document the activities of an urban teacher professional community (TPC) at a…

A case study of the practices of a white teacher working in an urban elementary school with a large majority of African American students shows the problems caused by detached and unreflective teaching practice. The study emerges from a joint ethnographic research and classroom-based educational project at the school. The teacher worked with…

This book examines the maligned students who populate urban schools and finds a talented group of resilient young people who deserve the support of the larger society. The editors and authors explore the ways such students are undermined, in the process developing new ways of teaching based on an understanding and appreciation of them.…