This text firstly attempts to deal with challenges about the validity of qualitative research. Then, after outlining the theory and methodology adopted, seven case studies are presented, covering such topics as multicultural literature, school restructuring, and standardized testing.

National Curricular need to be interpreted in terms of the cultures and experience of learners and adjusted accordingly, for example a literacy and history curriculum needs to include perspectives relevant to the local culture. Teachers, learners, families and communities mediate, appropriate, subvert, and challenge the processes of policy implementation, curriculum engagement and pedagogic practices to make educational experiences more meaningful. These articles exemplify the conflicts, the coping strategies and resolutions adopted by those at the policy implementation interface. Examination...

The prime focus on the social processes of schooling within educational ethnography has tended to marginalise or eschew the importance of other 'informal' educational sites. Other social institutions, such as family, community, media and popular culture, work and prisons are salient arenas in which behaviours and lives are regulated. They all interrelate and are all implicated in the generation, management and development of social identities and the social and cultural reproduction of structures and relations. Individuals, though, are not merely shaped by these social institutions, their...

What counts as ethnography and what counts as good ethnography are both highly contested. This volume brings together chapters presenting a diversity of views on some of the current issues and practices in ethnographic methodology. It does not try to present a single coherent view but, through its heterogeneity, illustrates the strengths and impact of the debate. The collection includes chapters on the ethnographic research process; the use of photographic diaries; the idea of toleration in the research process; and the personal aspects of research. It has chapters that question...

Volume 13 relaunches the book series after a 9-year hiatus and addresses new directions in the field of educational ethnography. The authors in the book share methodological similarities, but their applications, contexts, treatments, and contributions to the field as evidenced here are unique and vary considerably. The diversity of views and perspectives of ethnographic theory and method in educational settings are on full display, from the street to urban and suburban classrooms and to college settings, where gender, race, class, and power dynamics impact learners, teachers, parents, and...

Charter schools continue to grow in influence, as does the push for inclusive education for students with disabilities. What is the value and impact of these schools, especially on the marginalized populations they often serve? Relying on the fields of DisCrit, and Sociology of Special and Inclusive Education, this book answers these questions by focusing on the topics of neoliberalism and inclusive education. Mac focuses on the history of the school choice and privatization movement in the United States with special consideration given to how ideologies such as disaster capitalism and...