Examines the relationship between anthropology and educational research, characterizing the Council on Anthropology and Education as a "crossroad community" and discussing conversations in this crossroad community (e.g., studies oriented toward contributing to anthropological theory or to educational practice). Calls for a horizontal synthesis…

Discusses the development of the concept of context within the field of culture and cognition, focusing on work in the cultural-historical tradition. Some of the failure of educational innovations in everyday classrooms can be attributed to the separation of context and cognition in educational innovations. (SLD)

Presents experiences of teaching anthropology as opportunities to apply anthropology as well as to perform research. Collaborating with K-12 teachers to improve the education of all students would move the field into the mainstream and provide a forum for obtaining detailed descriptions and analyses of the teaching. (MMU)

There are discrepancies between the school performance of mainstream students and ethnic minority students. In educational anthropology there have been two explanations, cultural difference and cultural discontinuity. The articles in this special issue explore the relationships between these two schools of thought. (VM)

Reviews other articles in this special issue. The two traditional explanations of school failure by minority children do not conflict, yet neither is a complete explanation by itself. A more holistic picture of school success and failure is emerging as educators and social scientists view schools, children, and the community in a more complex and…