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…

As part of recent complex transformations, it seems that higher educational organisations are being forced to reorganise, standardise and streamline in order to survive in the new political and economic context. How are ethnographers in general going to approach these contemporary phenomena? By drawing on the conceptual history of anthropology,…

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…

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)

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)

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…

In contrast to Bogdan's approach (outlined in a preceding article), which considers fieldwork to be a research method, this author views ethnographic fieldwork as a paradigm. His graduate course in fieldwork concentrates on interpretation and stresses the quality, quantity, and intimacy of human relationships between observers and their subjects.…

Over 100 entries are compiled in this bibliography which identify sources helpful in contemplating or carrying out a fieldwork approach to research in formal educational settings. The bibliography emphasizes, but is not restricted to, contributions by anthropologists. Thus, there is a preference for using the terminology of that discipline, such…

Differences between ethnographic, phenomenological, or qualitative research techniques are reviewed through an explanation of the rationale behind their use and discussion of some of the processes by which this type of research is conducted. While this article is focused on educational research, the discussion applies equally to social…

The anthropological field study approach is said to provide a means of breaking through the present conceptual framework that purports to understand complex phenomena by breaking them up into separate variables. (AM)

Stresses the importance of theory in fieldwork, and describes a fieldwork course for graduate students in education at Stanford University. (GC)

This report is drawn from an ethnographic study still in progress of the principalship of a comprehensive public senior high school in a suburban community. Following a discussion of the paucity of research offering good descriptions of what principals actually do as opposed to what they should do, the study methodology is outlined, including…

This paper describes the use of the ethnographer's perspective in applying research knowledge to the improvement of educational practice. The Documentation and Technical Assistance Project (DTA) uses ethnographic methods to study problem solving in urban public schools. In the complicated culture of the urban school, social, economic and political…

In reference to a preceding article by Bogdan, outlines an "alternative model" for the teaching of educational fieldwork to graduate students. The course described is an introduction to fieldwork based on the concept of the classroom as the most fundamental unit in contemporary educational systems. (GC)