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Describes Ellsworth and Ames' edited book as an eclectic collection including historical, ethnographic, autobiographical, empirical, and self-reflective texts. Maintains that although the book is an important contribution to the literature by placing current practices into historical and social context, thereby leading to a more critical view of the revered program, the work omits an economic view. (Author/KB)

Studying or finding out about children is exceptionally difficult--intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Physical, social, cognitive, and political distances between adult and the child make their relationship very different from the relationships among adults. This book explains the art and science of doing qualitative research involving children. Six themes run through the book: the importance of finding out in context; the situated nature of the research process; the centrality of social interaction; the social nature of research; the centrality of the children; and the situatedness of the methods. The chapters of the book are: (1) "The Child as Object"; (2) "Interpretive Science"; (3) "Theory as Context"; (4) "Ethics: Being Fair"; (5) "Researcher Role as Context"; (6)"Generating Data"; (7) "Constructing a Data Record"; (8) "Interpretation in Context"; and (9) "Writing as Context." The final chapter discusses issues of institutional and market constraints, and validity. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 7-9 include case studies. Contains 161 references. (HTH)

This book details a study of policy from the perspective of Head Start staff and is written from the perspective of how staff adapted and interpreted program policies. Part 1 of the book describes the focus of the study and background information on Head Start, Hoover Community Action Corporation (study pseudonym), and Wood River Head Start (study pseudonym). The three chapters in this part describe: (1) "Framing the Study"; (2) "The Development of Head Start"; and (3) "Looking at the Hoover Community Action Corporation and Wood River Head Start." Part 2 consists of short stories about the Wood River Head Start program. In between the stories is connecting text discussing how the Head Start staff interpreted and implemented official policies and created policies from practice in relation to the daily activities. The section ends with a reexamination of the research questions raised in chapter 1, and suggests new directions for policy research. The eight chapters in this section include: (4) "The Move to the Early Learning Center"; (5) "Research as Relationship: The Wood River Head Start Families"; (6) "Developing Policies from Practice: The Story of Mark, The Finicky Eater"; (7) "Official Policies and Working Policies"; (8) "Developing Practices and Tiny Tales of Success"; (9) "Establishing Policy Priorities"; (10) "Understanding Policies through Relationships"; and (11) "Conclusion." The book's epilogue describes recent development at Wood River Head Start. (Contains references and an index.) (SD)

Chapter 14 of the book "Resistance & Representation" is presented. It explores the approach used by Wood River Head Start, a program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides assistance to low-income children and their families, in defining and implementing official policies in the community. It provides an overview of the history of Head Start and explains the prescriptive nature of its policies. It also investigates the relationship between policies and program quality.