This collection of six papers consists of works in progress undertaken by students and faculty of the University of Pennsylvania's Language in Education Division of the Graduate School of Education. The papers are: (1) "Language Planning and Identity Planning: An Emergent Understanding" (Rebecca Freeman); (2) "Communicative…

A small-scale ethnographic study investigated: (1) the instructional role of the paraprofessional/teacher aide in dealing with the educational needs of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students; (2) to what extent the paraprofessional is aware of those needs; (3) whether ethnic or linguistic differences between paraprofessionals yield distinctive…

Readings on language and literacy within their social context include: "The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages" (Bronislaw Malinowski); "Toward Ethnographies of Communication" (Dell Hymes); "Language as Social Semiotic" (M. A. K. Halliday); "Language and Ideology" (V. N. Volosinov); "Family…

With the rapid increase of ethnic minorities entering industrial societies and interacting with mainstream cultures, issues of cultural and linguistic differences must be addressed. Particularly relevant to educators is understanding the process of acculturation and socialization of uprooted ethnic or low-income minority children. Such children…

The Kosrae (Micronesia) Department of Education operated a Title VII transitional bilingual education program from 1986-89, targeting the 1986-87 cohort of seventh graders. During the first 2 years, the students attended five village elementary schools, and during the third year attended the high school. This cohort had been targeted in previous…

A research strategy is presented which enables the development of science and mathematics curriculums for American Indian and Alaska Native children of diverse cultures based on existing subsistence knowledge and skills. This strategy assumes that American Indian and Alaska Native adults implicitly make use of many formal science and mathematics…

Designed for presentation in three two-hour class periods, this five-unit module presents both a conceptual framework for the study and analysis of Indian communities and a guide to instructors in schools of social work for presentation of this framework to students in a classroom setting. Primary focus is upon federally recognized tribal…

Describes how Oyster Bilingual School's (Washington, DC) two-way Spanish-English language plan functions in its sociopolitical context. It is noted that this plan is part of a larger identity plan aiming to promote social change by socializing children differently from the way they are socialized in mainstream US educational discourse. (46…

The school lives of culturally diverse young adolescents identified as potential dropouts were studied ethnographically. Data collected across two years indicated that teachers who students considered most successful in helping them learn used practices based on knowledge about students' home cultures and knowledge about the impact of students'…

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to explore the development of belief systems as related to racial and ethnic identities of preservice teachers as they crossed cultural borders into science teaching. Data were collected throughout a yearlong teacher preparation program to learn how early life experiences and racial and ethnic identities…

"Discovering Successful Pathways in Children's Development" provides a new perspective on the study of childhood and family life. Successful development is enhanced when communities provide meaningful life pathways that children can seek out and engage. Successful pathways include both a culturally valued direction for development and competence…

Gossip has mainly been investigated as an oral discourse practice, one that serves as a mechanism to reaffirm relationships and to construct, monitor and maintain social norms and values within communities. This study investigates how a group of Aboriginal English speaking teenage girls constructed norms, values and identities in their email…

A 5-year study, conducted in two schools on the Texas-Mexico border, is investigating the effectiveness of peer coaching as a professional development strategy for teachers in two-way bilingual education programs. A group of 24 teachers, half bilingual and Hispanic and half monolingual and Anglo participated in the study. For each, classroom…

A critical ethnographic study followed six preservice teachers throughout their teacher education program at a medium sized state university in West Virginia. This segment of the study situates their student teaching experience within a broader social context and addresses the ways, as well as the extent to which, the student teachers' experiences…

This final volume of a six-volume study of an elementary school called "Kensington" in a school district code-named "Milford," examines its own assumptions and procedures. After the brief, introductory chapter, which presents the methodological appendixes of the preceding volumes as a serial, chapter 2 discusses exploratory and…