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Third in the series Sociocultural Studies of Educational Policy Formation and Appropriation, this volume brings together scholars from North America, South America, and Europe to examine the relationship between ethnographic research and educational policy. The product of papers and discussions originally taking place at the Interamerican Symposium on Ethnographic Educational Research, the book presents both original empirical research reports and theoretical-methodological proposals for using ethnography to study and influence educational policy. After an introduction and opening chapter that highlight the different ways of conceptualizing education, education policy, and diversity across American borders, five full chapters address the relationship between ethnography and educational policy through sustained empirical attention to specific research sites and projects.
The next section of the book presents shorter position statements that relate specific research or policymaking experiences and reflect on the ways that ethnography can be involved in a project of formulating or revising policy. In this section, edited transcriptions of workshop discussions give the reader a vibrant sense of the challenging issues facing educational ethnographers attempting to address policy. The book closes with a commentary by a veteran educational ethnographer. Of interest to educators, researchers, and policymakers across the Americas, this volume contributes to an ongoing dialogue about how ethnographic research can intersect advantageously with the policymaking enterprise.
List of contents
Introduction by Bradley A.U. Levinson and Sandra L. Cade
Looking Across BordersConstructing Diversity and Civility in the United States and Latin America by Elsie Rockwell
Research Projects and InterpretationWhen Policy Moves Fast, How Long Can Ethnography Take? by Geoffrey Walford
Contradictory Logics in the Social Construction of Teaching in Argentina: An Ethnography of the Notebook of Professional Performance by Gracia Batallán
Spatiotemporal Fluidity and Culturaly Relevant Pedagogy in the Latino Diaspora by Stanton Wortham and Margaret Contreras
The Role of Institutional Education Projects in the Reconstruction of the School Labyrinth by Rafael Avila Peñagos and Marina Camargo Abello
Alternative Educational Projects: Technical Developments and Political Debate in the Everyday Workings of "Nongraded" Schools in Argentina by Ana Padawer
Position Statements and DiscussionsThe Role of Ethnographic Research in Education Policy: A Trail to Blaze by Etelvina Sandoval Flores
Education Policy and Ethnography: Problems, Prospects, Directions by Patricia Medina Melgarejo
Perspective-Taking in the Practice-Research Gap: Using Ethnography to Help Schools See Themselves by Peter Demerath
Workshop Discussion: Ethnography and Policy: The State of the Art by Participants in the 8th Interamerican Symposium
A Teacher in Transition: Coming to Terms with Prior Beliefs by Barbara Greyback
Teaching the Ethnographic Vision as a Way into Policy?: A Brazilian Perspective on Ethnography as a Social Control Practice by Isabela Cabral Félix de Sousa
Commentary by Frederick Erickson
About the author
BRADLEY A.U. LEVINSON is Associate Professor of Education and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University.
SANDRA L. CADE is Assistant Professor of Education, Olivet College, Michigan.
ANA PADAWER is an instructor and researcher with the Program of Anthropology and Education, School of Philosophy and Letters, University of Buenos Aires. She is also as a researcher in the Ministry of Education of the city of Buenos Aires.
ANA PATRICIA ELVIR is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
