The ethnographic experience is an indelible venture that continuously redefines one's life. Bringing together important cross-currents in the national debate on education, this book introduces the student or practitioner to the challenges, resources, and skills informing ethnographic research today. From the first chapter describing the cultural foundations of ethnographic research, by George Spindler, the book traces both traditional and new approaches to the study of schools and their co...

This volume presents the personal accounts of African American, Asian American, and Latino faculty who use "narratives of struggles" to describe the challenges they faced in order to become bona fide members of the U.S. Academy. These narratives show how survival and success require a sophisticated knowledge of the politics of academia, insider knowledge of the requirements of legitimacy in scholarly efforts, and resourceful approach to facing dilemmas between cultural values, traditional ...