DOCUMENT RESUME ED 216 554 FL 012 948 AUTHOR Gilmore
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 216 554 FL 012 948 AUTHOR Gilmore, Perry, Ed.; Glatthorn, Allan A.,Ed. TITLE Children in and out of School: Ethnographyand Education. Language and EthnographySeries, Volume 2. Colloquium on Ethnography and Education (Philadelphia, PA, 1978). INSTITUTION Center for Appliedlinguistics, Washington, D.C.; Research for Better Schools, Inc.,Philadelphia, Pa. SPONS AGENCY National Inst. of Education (ED),Washington, DC. REPORT NO ISBN-0-87281-167-0 PUB DATE 82 NOTE 244p.; For individual articles, see FL012 949-960. Article entitled "What is Ethnography?"is not included because it is already available as ED159 234. AVAILABLE FROMCenter for Applied Linguistics, P.O.Box 4866, Hampden Station, Baltimore, MD 21211($12.95 paperback, $23.95 hard cover). EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Children; *Classroom Research; *CulturalContext; *Educational Anthropology; *Ethnography;Ethnology; Folk Culture: Interaction ProcessAnalysis; Play; *Research Methodology; Schools;Sociocultural Patterns ABSTRACT The following articles onethnography and education are presented: (1) "ARetrospective Discussion of the Stateof the Art in Ethnography inEducation," by P. Gilmore and.D. M.Smith; (2) "Ethnography in Education: Defining theEssentials," by S. B. Heath; (3) "The Structure of ClassroomEvents and Their Consequences for Student Performance," by H. Mehan;(4) "Where's the Floor? Aspects of the Cultural Organization ofSocial Relationships in Communication at Home and in School," by J.Schultz. S. Florio, and F. Erickson;(5) "Combining Ethnographic andQuantitative Approaches: Suggestions and Examples from a Study on PuertoRico," by E. Jacob; (6) "Competing Value Systems in the Inner-CitySchools," by W. Labov; (7) "Ethnography of Children's Folklore,"by R. Bauman; (8) "Play Theory of the Rich and for the Poor,"by B. Sutton-Smith; (9) "Four Comments," by C. Cazden; (10)"An Educator's Perspective:Ethnography in the Educational Community," by R.Scanlon; (11) "Institutionalized Psychology and the Ethnography ofSchooling," by R. Mcrermott and L. Hood; (12) "Anthropologists inSchools: School Ethnography and Ethnology," by P. Sanday. (AMH) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS arethe best that can be made * from the original document. *********************************************************************** CHILDREN IN AND OUT . OF SCHOOL Ethnography and education 'PERMISSION_TO REPRODUCE THIS US. DEPAINMENT Of EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION Center for Applied CENTER (ERIC) The document has Win- doted as Linguistics recoved from the person or organization Mgn ma changes hay. been mace to improve reproduction quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER /ERIC) Pants of %am or opmions sotto, in the docu trent do not necessaily repesent officol ME Edited by Positron or policy PERRY GILMORE AND ALLAN A. GLATTHORN I Language and Ethnography Series, Volume 2 SUSAN U. PHILIPS,Series Editor dal Center for Applied Linguistics Washington, D.C. 1982 2 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry urder title: Children in and out of school. (Language and ethnography series;v. 2) "The articles in this volume were prepared for the Colloquium on Ethnography and Education, hosted by Research for Better Schools, Inc., and the University of Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1978"--Introd. Bibliography: p. 1.Educational anthropology--Congresses. I.Gilmore, Perry.II.Glatthorn, Allan A., 1924- .. III.Research for Better Schools, Inc.IV.Colloquium on Ethnography and Education (1978 :University of Pennsylvania) V. Series. LB 45. C 46 370.19 82-4272 ISBW 0-137281=1-67-3 (PBB)- AACR2 ISBN 0-37281-178-6 (CBB) The work presented resulted from the performance by Researchfor Better Schools Inc. of a contract from the National Institute of Education,U.S. Department of Education.However, the opinion, .xpressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of thr. National Institute ofEduca- tion and no official endorsement thereof shall be inferred. 0 1982 by The Center for Applied Linguistics.All rights reserved. Interior design by Magna Ravenswater iv ... To the memory of MARGARET MEAD The keynote speaker and guiding spirit at theconference that culminated in this volume.The tribute to her is by Dell Hymes, and was originally presented to the Council on Anthropology and Education,1978. I saw Margaret twice in the last year.The first time was at these meetings a year ago, when late at night she satin a small hotel room in Houston, elder of the tribe,responding patiently to questioning about the history of her people. anthropologists, as she had known them in the old days, for the benefit of two or three young students.The second time was when she came in April to my universityto be keynote speaker, the drawing card, for a conference attempting tobring education and ethnography successfully together there.Her talk was ranging, reflective, concerned with thefuture.She had known for half a year that she had cancer, but she came to help.So much of what is being remembered abouther seems to have that theme:She came to help. The loss of Margaret Mead will be felt in manyfields, but in none more than in education and its anthropologicalstudy. She was in the finest sense an educator, throughanthropology. of us all.For this she gained great fame--who else among us can expect at our passing to have the headof our government, speak of our use of the insights of culturalanthropology T--and for this she paid for a time a certain price.To be famous was to be not respectable in some quarters.There were those who spoke of her as "having left anthropology."YeP she lived to see her professional and her public rolesjointly respected and honored.She is the great example of the joining of the two roles in our time, end her example is a resource toall of us who struggle to join them and extend them now. v '1 , Contents INTRODUCTION PERRY GILMORE A retrospective discussion k DAVID MARTIN SMITH of the state of the art in ethnography in education At A SEARCH FOR HISTORIC AND THEORETICAL ROOTS DELL HYMES What is ethnography? / 21 SH:RLEY BRICE HEATH Ethnography in education:, . Defining the essentials /33 IN THEEXPLORATIONS PRACTICE OF ETHNOGRAPHY HUGH MEHAN The structure of classroom events and their consequences for student performance / 59 JEFFREY J. SHULTZ, Where's the floor? SUSAN FLORIO, Aspects of the cultural organization & FREDERICK ERICKSON of social relationships in communication at home and in school /88 EVELYN JACOB Combining ethnographic and quantitative approaches: Suggestions and examples from a study on Puerto Rico / 124 WILLIAM LABOV Competing value systems in the inner-city schools / 148 RICHARD BAUMAN Ethnography of children's folklore / 172 BRIAN SUTTON-SMITH Play theory of the rich and for the poor / 187 ON THEREFLECTIONS STATE OF THE ART COURTNEY CAZOEN Four comments /209 ROBERT G. SCANLON An educator's perspective: Ethnography in the educational community / 227 RAY P. McDERMOTT Institutionalized psychology k LOIS HOOD and the ethnography of schooling/232 PEGGY REEVES SANDAY Anthropologists in schools: School ethnography and ethnology / 250 BARBARA KIRSHENBLATT-GIMBLETT Contributions and caveats /254 List of contributors / 257 r o / / INTRODUCTION 9 PERRY GILMORE AND DAVID _MARTIN SMITH A retrospective discussion of the state of the art in ethnography and education The articles in this -volume were prepared forthe Colloquium on Ethnography and Education hosted by Research for BetterSchools, Inc. and the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1978.The date and the occasion are both significant.The date is important because the eth- nography of education enterprise, which has since that timeburgeoned, was then still in infancy; the issues debated atthe colloquium have been foundational to much of this recent growth.On a sadder nqte, the date is memorable r.s one of the last public appearances of Margaret Mead. The conference was conceived to try to resolve a dilemma.On the one hand we believed strongly that ethnography,with its inherent sensi- tivity to people, to culture, and to context offered the promise of valu- able new practical insights that could lead to the improvementof schools. On the other hand, we found ourselves sharing a general apprehension that an easy enthusiasm without careful regard for the nature of the theoretical assumptions of ethnography could dramatically reduce its use- fulness and destine it to becoming simply another passing fad.The ten- sion created by these two impulses, the one to go forward as quickly as possible in exploring new applications of ethnography to education, and the other to hold back, to clarify, to define and to set standards, created a tenor of cautious optimism at the conference. The occasion itself was important for the kinds of people it brought together in intense discussion--staff of the federal Officeof Education, state education officers, school practitioners, university researchers(in- cluding anthropologists, linguists, folklorists, developmental psychologists) , and the staff of the regional educational laboratory--as well asfor the im- pulses giving birth to it.The unusual mix of constituents at the meeting 4 was noted by Margaret Mead in her Keynote Address.Having never r-1 addressed quite such a group, she commented that it was a "nice hot spot 0 to do some thinking."It clearly was. There were two distinct and cignificant contexts