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Background: Previous research identifies organisational culture as one of a number of factors associated with the quality of life outcomes of group home residents' with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This study aims to elaborate on the dimensions of group home culture in settings in England. Method: Participant observations and semi-structured interviews with staff were carried out in two group homes. Field-notes, interview notes and transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis by a researcher naïve to the project and the previous literature. Initial coding was re-examined after sensitisation to theorised models in previous literature to identify the most parsimonious fit. The two settings were rated and compared using a five-point Likert scale for each of the dimensions. Results: The findings describe group home culture across seven dimensions. There were mixed ratings across the different dimensions reflecting inconsistencies in culture that were reflected in staff practice. The challenge in assigning a global rating of culture in group homes, which includes interactions across multiple staff and multiple residents over time, was highlighted. Conclusion: The development of an observational measure of culture is highlighted as potentially helpful in understanding and responding to culture in services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Class phenomena have primary significance for the diagnosis and intervention at both an individual and a whole-class level for school psychologists. Trying to bring undergraduate psychology students closer to class and teaching, a learning experience based on an adaptation of Lesson Study, a professional development method for teachers, was designed and evaluated with a group of undergraduate psychology students attending two preparatory and consecutive courses for professional performance in educational environments. Students made participants observations of classes they attended, participated in collaborative reflection with their teachers, and issued a report. Meetings were transcribed, conforming, altogether with their written reports 12 texts, analyzed using thematic analysis. Four primary themes were generated concerning benefits, difficulties, perceived learning facilitators and this experience's contribution to professionalization. The results stress a favorable self-perceived effect in students' comprehension of the class and the teaching, backed up by an internship experience. Additionally, content expressing empathy toward teachers and an increased perceived self-knowledge as students was reported. Having a previous experience with the method within the first course and a part time internship in the second course, along with the profile of the second course and its emphasis on procedural content, seemed to foster these outcomes.

The notion of the ethnographer as participant observer, as an active agent rather than passive observer, is well established within conversations about method and methodology. Less well explored is the extent to which the inherent curiosity and inquisitiveness of the ethnographer might be reciprocated: how might this be established and how might it contribute to the construction of knowledge? Through a focus on the ways in which one of the most visible aspects of ethnographic field work -- writing field notes -- was made sense of and then interrogated by research respondents during an eight-month ethnography of workplace learning, this article argues that reciprocal field relations characterised by a willingness for the researcher to be interrogated about their work in a manner akin to the ways in which the researched are, here described as relational curiosity, both sustains good ethical engagement in the field and enhances the empirical warrant of the ethnography.

This study demonstrates the value of the field of public theology for cathedral studies. Both of these fields are concerned with the continuing role of religion in public life in contemporary societies, and yet those writing within these fields often do not draw from the work of the other. Therefore, in this study I show some findings of my PhD thesis entitled 'A critical evaluation of the public theology of Manchester Cathedral'. In this project, I conducted research in both of these fields by employing a publicness-ethnographic approach to collect and analyse data from participant observation, analysis of public data, and 14 semi-structured interviews with key actors at the cathedral. This study analyses three key findings from this research: public theologies of inclusion at the cathedral, the location of theology in the public work of the cathedral, and an understanding of cathedrals as hosts of subaltern counter-publics.

Despite the often-crucial roles played by music within theatre-based public health promotion strategies, theoretical explorations regarding music within applied theatre literatures remain largely underdeveloped. This article highlights musicking -- a reconceptualization of music from an object to a participatory act that can profoundly influence relationships and spaces -- as an approach to understanding the various roles that music can play within applied theatre programmes. The article draws from ethnographic accounts of an HIV/AIDS applied theatre group in South Africa to advocate for increased recognition of musicking as a robust theoretical and methodological component within applied theatre praxis.

Community-based participant-observation purposefully combines participant-observation and community-based participatory research. While participant-observation is the core method of ethnography and foundational to cultural anthropology, community-based participatory research initially emerged from health and related applied sciences to align researchers' and communities' agendas through focused collaboration. Participant-observation and community-based participatory research have different scholarly origins and norms but are united in centering communities' understandings on their terms. Combining the strengths of both, we provide a step-by-step explanation of community-based participant-observation, with examples from a study of water insecurity in colonias north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Using community-based participant-observation, researchers can facilitate the co-production of knowledge and community benefit by analyzing high-quality data that inform theory building and basic research. [The authors acknowledge the co-authorship of the Action for Water Equity Consortium.]

Background: Learning to use software using screencast videos with worked examples in the corresponding practice files presents a classic split-attention problem that requires learners to mentally integrate information from the video with a target application. While there is evidence that splitting attention either temporally or spatially adversely impacts learning, it is unclear if there is a meaningful difference in the load imposed by splitting attention in different ways. Furthermore, while much is known about effective screencast design, little is known about how learning environment features, such as the monitor configuration, influence learning from this form of instruction. Objective: An experiment was conducted with 42 novice learners to compare the effects of two common monitor configurations that divided attention differently on three physiological measures of cognitive load. Methods: Effects due to the monitor setup were assessed using a 2 × 2 study design that controlled for task order and working memory capacity. In one condition, subjects split attention temporally by toggling back and forth between the video and target application on one monitor. In contrast, the other condition required subjects to split attention spatially by shifting their gaze between the video and target application displayed on two side-by-side monitors. Results and Conclusions: Results indicated that cognitive load as measured through task-evoked pupil response was significantly higher, p < 0.05, for groups with two monitors during both instruction and testing, even after controlling for working memory capacity.

Opinions on the value of self-study in teacher education are fierce. Utilising our relative perspectives as insider and outsider to this methodological approach to researching one's own teaching, the authors promote the value of self-study while simultaneously questioning certain assumptions associated with how it is typically enacted. To engage in this critique, Jason steps back from his understanding of self-study by writing analytical notes on his past, as a novice self-study researcher, and on his present, attempting to teach self-study to others, that together with his regular conversations with Oren yield an autoethnography of discontent. Analysis of this autoethnography highlights certain problematic issues with self-study, and suggests reframing its key tenets of being self-focused, seeking external validation through relationality and critical friendship, and focusing on improvement. Making these broad allowances will contribute to a more robust and inclusive paradigm, enabling self-study practitioners to professionally develop as teacher educators and researchers, and to thrive as certain kinds of fish in the academic waters.

How much should ethnographers involve themselves with the people, places, and processes they study? One answer has become increasingly popular: invert the standard method of participant observation into observant participation. This article draws on an ethnography of ambulance work to consider the trade-offs between these approaches. My fieldwork included "ride-alongs" with labor and management at a private ambulance firm in California (participant observation) and short-term employment as a novice emergency medical technician at the same company (observant participation). Beyond a simplistic distinction in "empirical depth," I identify three issues at stake between participant observation and observant participation: field positioning, analytic gaze, and data assembly. Where participant observation presents more opportunities for mobile positioning, outward gazing, and inscription, observant participation presents more opportunities for fixed positioning, inward gazing, and incarnation. In addition to justifying such contrasts, I consider the advantages of mixing these styles into a hybrid approach when feasible.

Background: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a European innovative interdisciplinary educational convergence that intends to promote multilingual competence among students through the learning of the subjects in a second/foreign language. This approach is considered one of the significant developments in the field of education. Purpose: A research study was designed with the objective of exploring and understanding the nature and method of CLIL practices prevalent in bilingual primary and secondary school classrooms in Castilla La Mancha, Spain. Spain was chosen because it is one of the pioneering countries that steered an exhaustive variety of research and experiments in CLIL practices in its diverse educational contexts. Methods: Adopting qualitative research method Participant Classroom Observations, twenty classes of two bilingual schools--fifteen classes of Natural Science and Social Science in primary school and five classes of Music at Secondary School that used CLIL approach were observed and findings recorded using observation template. Results: The findings provided a myriad view of the bilingual experiences in the classrooms, diversity and range of pedagogical practices used, student teacher interaction dynamics present, positive learning environment provided for the students in the classes to mention a few. Conclusion: The study concludes with the understanding of the 'added value' and the numerous benefits the approach provides for the students. As a fresh and innovative approach, CLIL promotes holistic and meaningful learning catering to the needs of twenty first century education systems.

In this article we combine Boyer's 4 domains of scholarship with Hutchings' 4 types of questions and Ghaye, Melander-Wikman, Kisare, Chambers, Bergmark, Kostenius and Lillyman's (2008) reflective learning framework using a Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR) method to explore the perceived gap in in-service teachers' experience in classroom contexts. Qualitative data were collected in an action learning set (ALS) consisting of distance learning in-service teachers enrolled in a learning support programme through purposeful discussions, reflective diaries, observations, and open-ended reflective learning questionnaires. In the research reported on here we found that collaborative partnerships initiated scholarly thoughts and actions when sharing and evaluating insights during the research process, which resulted in building on learning that has been gained together. The findings point to the need for collaboration between lecturers and students to develop an awareness to not only take knowledge "from" one another to create theories "about" how they should deal with problems but rather to "jointly" become reflective collaborative scholars to address the theory-practice gap.

In this paper, a case is made that campus internationalization and the social integration of both domestic and international students may be fostered through volunteerism. This argument is supported by data from a survey (n = 122) of a performing arts volunteer organization at a large Midwestern public university. The survey examines the national diversity of the organization, its inclusion practices, and student perceptions of their own cross-national interactions. The results are augmented by participant-observation data from an international graduate student volunteer. Discussion includes a consideration of respondent satisfaction with the organization's diversity and inclusion practices, as well as their experience socializing and making friends while volunteering. It is worth identifying successful organizations such as the one described in this paper because the defining factor for success may depend on specific attitudes and practices.

The purpose of this study is to seek blended learning as an intervention programme in first year's students' English language academic writing. The 21st century's focus on technology presents an ideal opportunity to use the digital platform as a space for students to learn. This is believed to work well particularly with students who might be struggling with academic writing. It may also apply to students who appreciate not being publicly exposed to the stigma of a struggling student. On the digital platform, they can experience the freedom and space to learn at their own pace and convenience. The study is framed theoretically in the Community of Inquiry based on Bourdieu's structural constructivism theory. The study used the stimuli and synergies afforded by the qualitative interpretivist paradigm that involves a population of 36 people. It used a purposive sampling of six first year English Home Language students and three Intermediate Phase Lecturers. The data were collected through participant observations, focus group discussions and interviews. Thematic analysis served as the analytical tool for the data collected. We believe that this study is of paramount value because it informs and assists the teaching of English as the language of teaching and learning in the classroom to hone academic writing practices of students.

Increasingly, the broader public, media and policymakers are looking to qualitative research to provide answers to our most pressing social questions. While an exciting and perhaps overdue moment for qualitative researchers, it is also a time when the method is coming under increasing scrutiny for a lack of reliability and transparency. The question of how to assess the quality of qualitative research is therefore paramount, but the field still lacks clear standards to evaluate qualitative work. In their new book, "Qualitative Literacy," Mario Luis Small and Jessica McCrory Calarco aim to fill this gap. I argue that "Qualitative Literacy" offers a compelling set of standards for consumers to assess whether an in-depth interview or participant observation was of sufficient quality and, to an extent, whether sufficient time was spent in the field. However, by ignoring the vital importance of employing systematic, well-justified, and transparent sampling strategies, the implication is that such essential criteria can be ignored, undermining the potential contribution of qualitative research to a more cumulative creation of scientific knowledge.

Taking a sociological view, we can investigate the empirical consequences of variations in the rhetoric of sociological methodology. The standards advocated in Qualitative Literacy divide communities of qualitative researchers, as they are not explicitly connected to an understanding of social ontology, unlike previous qualitative methodologies; they continue the long-growing segregation of the rhetorical worlds of qualitative and quantitative research methodology; and they draw attention to the personal competencies of the researcher. I compare a rhetoric of qualitative methodology that: derives evaluation criteria from perspectives on social ontology that have been developing progressively since the early twentieth century; applies the discipline-wide evaluation criteria of reactivity, reliability, representativeness, and replicability; and asks evaluators to focus on the adequacy of the textual depiction of research subjects.

In the mid-1990s with the birth of internet-based web technologies, ePortfolios emerged as a powerful tool in the institution of education. They are positioned within the online activities of courses and programs of universities, which are a subset of internet learning spaces. These interactions are located virtually on the internet and foster the development of various subcultures as demonstrated by graduate students completing their ePortfolio projects as a manifestation of internet culture. This paper reports on an ethnographic study conducted in three iterations of a capstone ePortfolio project course in a fully online post-secondary institution in western Canada. It also presents the interconnectedness of ePortfolios with the four constructs that underpinned my four years of online observation as a doctoral student in my role as a participant-observer of master's students in the final course of their program of studies. The findings based on the rich data collected on the perceived experiences of master's students offer stimulating discussion on the implications for future scholarship and research on ePortfolios as disruptive pedagogy for blended and online learning spaces.

Learner-centered blended learning approaches, such as Knowledge Creation, emphasize the self-organizing characteristic of thought and action, and value the students' autonomy and self-regulation during the engagement in collaborative learning tasks. In blended contexts, the students need to organize their learning paths within a complex environment, including multiple online and offline learning spaces. This process of self-organization during courses based on the Knowledge Creation approach is currently an overlooked topic of research. The present case study is aimed at addressing this research gap by providing an in-depth understanding of the collaborative self-organization of a group of five undergraduate students participating in an interdisciplinary media design course. The course was designed according to the Knowledge Creation approach and was carried out before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The dialogical theory of the chronotope and the theory of cultural models constitute the main theoretical tools for the research. We used qualitative methods inspired by ethnography, including participant observation, in addition to the collection and analysis of audio-visual records, stimulated recall interviews, and learning diaries completed by the students. The findings show that the group self-organization changed across different phases of the collaborative task and involved the development of specific practices of self-organization. Cultural models associated with the task contributed to determine the students' choices related to self-organization.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how professionals learn from varying experiences with errors in health-care digitalization and develop and use negative knowledge and digital ignorance in efforts to improve digitalized health care. Design/methodology/approach: A two-year qualitative field study was conducted in the context of a public health-care organization working with digital patient communication. The data consisted of participant observation, semistructured interviews and document data. Inductive coding and a theoretically informed generation of themes were applied. Findings: The findings show that both health-care and digital communication professionals learn through experiences with digital "rule-" and "knowledge-based" errors in patient communication and develop negative knowledge and awareness of digital ignorance. In their joint efforts, they use negative knowledge to "bend the rules" and to explore digital ignorance in efforts to improve patient communication. Originality/value: This study provides insight into the importance of collaboration between professionals with varying experience of errors in digitalizing patient communication. Such collaboration is required to acknowledge own shortcomings and create complementary negative knowledge to improve digital patient communication. This is particularly important when working with innovative digitalization in health care.

Discussions on the educational potential of school football range from its social acceptance to the pedagogically desirable lessons that can be drawn from it. The aim is to understand the process of institutionalisation in school football and the main formative challenges it entails. An ethnographic multiple case study is presented. The sample consists of 101 schoolchildren of ages six and seven in the autonomous community of La Rioja, Spain. Participant observation, over the course of one academic year, is supplemented by images, interviews and digital social networks to incorporate 21 teachers, 10 coaches and families. The results reveal the construction of an allegorical field among children as they embark upon their path of institutionalisation, with the naivety of their spontaneous play giving way to a form of regulated execution. Institutionalised play exceeds children's developmental resources. The study promotes an effective adaptation of the game, as well as the prioritisation of pedagogical actions that are complementary to school.

This paper critically analyses and aims to denaturalise models of identity that circulate in discourse about vocational education in the Netherlands. It is argued that discourse about the vocational track is characterised by a pervasive focus on deficits, framing vocational education as unprestigious, and its students as unintelligent and insubordinate. The analysis focuses on three levels at which this model of identity circulates and is reproduced: it is rooted in the historical emergence of tracks in the Netherlands, is re-enforced throughout the educational trajectories of students in the vocational track, and is reproduced on the event level in routine interactions among students and teachers. The paper contributes to existing scholarship on the sociocultural and personal dimensions of tracking, which predominantly comes from studies based on survey and interview-based data, by building on data from ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation.

In the context of the distinction between normative and descriptive approaches to the relationship between science and religion, this article discusses the recent work of the sociologist Elaine Ecklund. It reviews four of her published outputs, summarising her data concerning the views of religious people and professional scientists, including their positions on the relationship between science and religion and on cognate issues, and discusses her attempt to show the relevance of these data in a particular formational context. It seeks to evaluate and extend her work from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The main objective of this research is to present and analyse the collaboration process established between the ethnographers and a school that faces the challenge of promoting change towards a more inclusive and social justice model. The methods used to carry out this four-year process were, in essence, participatory observation in multiple contexts, individual interviews and discussion groups and, finally, informal conversations with all the participants of the process. The results demonstrate the conditions and advantages that come out of the collaboration process between all those involved and the ethnographers; the importance of learning and knowing how to listen to the students' voices; and the changes made to the education process that bolster the introduction of a more inclusive and social justice model in schooling.

Background: In comparison to adult-centred research in physical activity, there are far fewer studies which concentrate on hearing children's voices in physical activity research. Additionally, despite a number of studies which utilise a child-centred approach, the number of papers which concentrate on the complexities when conducting research with young people are extremely limited. Purpose: To consider power relationships between adult researchers and young participants. Also, to provide empirical examples of considerations related to an organic research process and the complexities that may arise during research with children. Data collection and analysis: An ethnographic approach is deemed useful when conducting research with children (Davis and Watson 2017), but particular considerations need to be taken into account as an adult conducting research with young people. The data for this paper was drawn from a year-long ethnographic study with junior korfball players (aged 11-13 years of age). The study involved participant observation where the researcher's role was 'coaches' help'. Nine semi-structured interviews took place 10 months into the study, and numerous informal conversations occurred throughout the research. Some of Foucault's ideas related power were utilised to discuss the way relationships were negotiated with children to maintain a child-centred approach to the research. Final thoughts: Adopting an organic approach to research may help reduce young participants' perceptions of adult power. Adopting a Foucauldian lens can also heighten awareness of power divisions and aid the researcher's sensitivity to their own use of techniques of power whilst in the field. Additionally, an organic approach can also help facilitate child-centred research which empowers participants and supports their voices being heard.

Performance ethnography is a form of performed research that creates a theatrical representation of ethnographic inquiry. Walford (2009) proposes that frequently performance ethnographers neglect traditional ethnographic practices such as participant observation and substantial time in the field. This paper draws on research which investigated the practices of a performance ethnographer who adopted a sustained ethnographic orientation throughout the interconnecting phases of fieldwork, analysis, interpretation and representation (Wolcott, 1995). The paper considers how these practices influenced, shaped and enhanced the researcher's theatre making practices. The research revealed that the embodied and tacit knowledge generated through a performative approach to ethnographic inquiry lends itself to a layered and rich style of theatre making that involves more than a transference of verbatim text into a script. This paper documents the performance ethnographer's commitment to sustained ethnographic processes as she synthesizes detailed and complex insights into an action-based, artistic theatrical representation.

Teachers are effective agents who can introduce and support students' self-regulated learning (SRL) in classrooms. This qualitative study presents an integrative, ecological model of SRL-in-context from the teachers' perspectives. Data were obtained from in-depth interviews, participant observations and informal conversations gathered from the classrooms of six teachers working in three different state primary schools located in Queensland, Australia. The model builds on teachers' beliefs and understandings about SRL, the different ways through which they adopt SRL-supportive practices and the enactment of SRL in classrooms. It represents a complex structure of nested and mutually dependent systems with teachers having a central position, thereby forming the microsystem. However, teachers' efforts to support students' SRL are influenced by the exosystem (e.g., school, curriculum) and macrosystem (e.g., home, community) in a reciprocal fashion. The SRL-in-context model has implications for both theory and practice.

This ethnographic research project examines a five-month diversity training program that 16 faculty participated in voluntarily at a university in the western United States. In addition to reviewing diversity issues and challenges in higher education, this article provides information about the program, describes my participant-observer experience, and provides evidence that assesses the program's effects on teaching practices. This annual program includes learning, reflection and application and helps the participants develop new inclusive teaching strategies for the courses they teach. A post-program survey of the participants indicates that the majority felt that the program had a lasting beneficial effect on their teaching practices, and the results include specific inclusive teaching strategies that faculty can use in the classroom.

To understand how the digitalization of higher education influences the inter-relationship between students, teachers, and their broader contexts, research must account for the social, cultural, political, and embodied aspects of teaching and learning in digital environments. "Digital ethnography" is a research method that can generate rich contextual knowledge of online experiences. However, how this methodology translates to higher education is less clear. In order to explore the opportunities that digital ethnography can provide in higher education research, this paper presents a methodological review of previous research, and discusses the implications for future practice. Through a systematic search of five research databases, we found 20 papers that report using digital ethnographies to explore teaching and learning in higher education. The review synthesizes and discusses how data collection, rigour, and ethics are handled in this body of research, with a focus on the specific methodological challenges that emerge when doing digital ethnographic research in a higher education setting. The review also identifies opportunities for improvement--especially related to participant observation from the student perspective, researcher reflexivity in relation to the dual teacher-researcher role, and increased diversity of data types. This leads us to conclude that higher education research, tasked with understanding an explosion of new digital practices, could benefit from a more rigorous and expanded use of digital ethnography.

Observational research has a long history in many disciplines, such as education and organizational studies, yet has had slow uptake in the scholarship of work-integrated learning (WIL). Observational research enables the researcher to journey inside workplace or community sites where actions and conversations unfold, to unpack the complexities of work, learning and practice. This paper looks at observational methodologies and their use in WIL research, highlighting practical methods for accessing and generating data, and discussing criteria for judging the quality of observational research. It introduces WIL researchers to alternative methods to elicit data, to consider making their bodies, thoughts and reflections part of the research itself.

There is synergy between the investigative practices of police detectives and social scientists, including work-based researchers. They both develop lines-of-inquiry and draw on multiple sources of evidence in order to make inferences about people, trends and phenomena. However, the principles associated with lines-of-inquiry and sources of evidence have not so far been examined in relation to work-based research methods, which are often unexplored or ill-defined in the published literature. We explore this gap by examining the various direct and indirect lines-of-inquiry and the main sources of primary and secondary evidence used in work-based research, which is especially relevant because some work-based researchers are also police detectives. Clearer understanding of these intersections will be useful in emerging professional contexts where the work-based researcher, the detective, and the social scientist cohere in the one person and their research project. The case we examined was a Professional Studies programme at a university in Australia, which has many police detectives doing work-based research, and from their experience we conclude there is synergy between work-based research and lines of enquiry. Specifically, in the context of research methods, we identify seven sources of evidence: (1) creative, unstructured, and semi-structured interviews; (2) structured interviews; (3) consensus group methods; (4) surveys; (5) documentation and archives; (6) direct observations and participant observations; and (7) physical or cultural artefacts, and show their methodological features related to data and method type, reliability, validity, and types of analysis, along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. This study thereby unpacks and isolates those characteristics of work-based research which are relevant to a growing body of literature related to the messy, co-produced and wicked problems of private companies, government agencies, and non-government organisations and the research methods used to investigate them.

In this article, we examine the process of conducting community-based research within graduate coursework, discussing and analyzing student reflective narratives on various aspects of the research process as a way of providing insight into the challenges, dilemmas, and joys entailed in conducting community-based qualitative research. In particular, we focus on the process of gaining entry into a research site; negotiating one's role as a researcher, and how researchers can be observant participants rather than just participant observers; and building reciprocal and collaborative relationships with participants. We also explore how our experiences in the community helped us challenge pejorative stereotypes about low-income communities and communities of color and lead to expanded views of the role of researchers within community contexts, as well as more nuanced and critical notions of researcher reflexivity that consider how researchers themselves are implicated in the issues and contexts that they study. We articulate the notion of dialogic reflexivity, which calls attention to how reflexivity involves on-going and collective refection and discussion with research team members and community members.

Drawing on a year of participant observation in an untracked, diversifying middle school, I examine how sixth graders positioned themselves and were positioned by others as "smart" or "not smart." I focus on peer interactions during cooperative small group instruction, identifying the material, relational, and ideational resources students used to navigate academic and racial hierarchies. I explore implications for researchers and practitioners who seek to disrupt racialized academic outcomes in untracked classrooms.

Purpose: This paper considers an undergraduate student's coming to, and use of, an ethnographic approach as a particularly appropriate way in which to investigate aspects of life in a British hospital school. Such schools occupy a liminal position with regard to education policy and provision. There is a paucity of research on hospital schools and particularly of the experiences and perceptions of teachers who work in them. This lack of research has implications for policy development. The paper therefore offers some rare insights into one of these schools. It also gives insights into how ethnography can challenge taken for granted assumptions. Design/methodology/approach: An ethnographic participant observer approach was adopted. Findings: This paper gives insights into how ethnography can challenge researchers' taken for granted assumptions as well as offering illustration of some aspects of life in schools. Originality/value: Although there is an extensive literature on uses of ethnography, this approach has rarely been applied to hospital schools. The paper makes a small step towards addressing this lack.

This paper investigates a monolingual approach to the teaching of linguistic minority pupils in an English primary school at Key Stage Two (7-11 years old). The work is based on a longitudinal case study of one Russian-speaking migrant pupil and her schooled experience. The analysis and discussion explicate the prohibition of the first or home language (Russian) in the school, and reveal how denying a seven-year-old migrant child permission to use her L1 is detrimental to her learning experience and her well-being. The focal data derive from participant-observation fieldnotes, visual artefacts and interviews with the child, her mother, and a class teacher over a 7-month period. Through an analysis of the participants' stancetaking, we show how the pupil's voice is inaudible in her struggle against a monolingual attitude towards her bilingualism and multicompetence. Our contribution therefore builds on work in critical migrant language education, to identify the importance of enabling the presence of the L1 in learning for migrant pupils.

This study examines qualitative data collected during an 8-month ethnographic study that explored the emotional experiences of six student-teachers from a university in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States and five Nepali teachers from an upper-middle-class preschool in Kathmandu, Nepal. The study uncovered how emotional experiences of mentors and mentees created emotional borders and borderlands in an intercultural mentoring relationship. We examined the strategies each group used to navigate intercultural differences in the mentoring relationship. Ethnographic methods were used to collect the following types of data: (a) focus groups, (b) individual interviews, (c) classroom observations, and (d) field notes from serving as participant observers. Data were analysed by utilizing cultural humility as an interpretive framework. We propose that cultural humility and the notion of invisible borders/borderlands introduces new ways of theorizing what oppressed groups undergo when interacting with dominant groups. The findings indicated that emotional borderlands arose due to conflicts in ideologies, values, and beliefs between the US student-teachers and Nepali mentor-teachers. However, both mentors and mentees attempted to overcome their emotional discomfort when guided to undergo critical self-reflection through processes associated with cultural humility.

This paper explores the experience and impact of participation in afterschool oral improvisation workshops -- bertso workshops -- for young Basque speakers. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews among young people in the Northern Basque Country, the researcher, a practicing improviser, bertsolari, herself, argues that the bertso workshop is best understood as a community of practice wherein they create relationships of trust and empathy, take the floor in front of their peers and debate and think together, where individual's identities are constructed in mutual influence, and where linguistic identity is built in conjunction with youth identities. Hence, for these young people, the community of practice at the bertso workshop is a place in which to develop their youth identities in Basque and their Basque-speaker identities within youth culture. This case study also explores tensions that arise between the egalitarian ethos of the bertso workshop on the one hand, where all speakers are equal, and the entrenched language ideologies that, on the other, attribute greater authenticity to improvisers from Basque-speaking families.

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of the Social networking site "Facebook" in "recreational leadership course" as an educational tool to facilitate the learning environment for sport management students. In this study qualitative research design and action research approach (emancipating/enhancing/critical science mode) were used. This research was based on the "by doing-experiencing" concept and focused on the usage of a Facebook group (as a closed group between students-lecturer/student-student) and on sharing course related topics inside and outside of the class under the supervision of the lecturer. The research was carried out with a total of 31 university students who participated in a "recreational leadership" elective course during the fall semester of 2015-2016. The data was collected both from the evaluation notes which were kept by the students at the end of the semester, and from observation notes of the researcher. According to the results based on the analysis of the evaluation notes of the students and the observation notes of the lecturer it appeared that "Facebook" as an educational tool in "recreational leadership course" was perceived mostly positive by students and the lecturer. In addition, according to the students' evaluation notes, four themes were established: 1. Personal Development, 2. Emotional Development, 3. Performance Development and 4. Cognitive Development. On the other hand, the analysis of the notes of the lecturer revealed four main themes as gains: 1. Improving the Quality of Class Management, 2. Systematic Application of Technology, 3. Improving the Quality of Education/Students, and 4. Learning by doing.

Organizational commitment is a major determinant of organizational effectiveness and desirable employee attitudes and behaviours. Highly committed academic staff are the backbone of universities since they play an important role in the success of their institutions. This study investigated factors associated with organizational commitment among academic employees of a university in Botswana using a representative sample of 165 respondents. The study also sought to develop a parsimonious model that can predict organizational commitment among academic employees in Botswana. The results show that about 3 out of 5 academic employees sampled showed evidence of commitment to the university, regardless of their socio-demographic or socio-economic background. The study found 11 factors that were associated with commitment to the university. Most of the factors that affected organizational commitment involved decisions and actions that were directly or indirectly at the disposal and control of the management. The single most important factor that predicted commitment to the university was acceptance of the new criteria for the assessment of academic staff, followed by perception of opportunities for research.

The immersion of societies in the digital and networked age has led to an increase of opportunities for young people to learn across countless face-to-face and online contexts. However, youth disaffection towards school remains high and access to opportunities across and within countries is remarkably unequal. This article builds on the results of two ethnographic case studies conducted in Spain and the learning stories narrated by 22 youth about their transitions across home, school, spare time, extracurricular activities, trips and virtual environments. The analysis of the stories show how young people establish connections and feel tensions across their experiences, creating continuities and discontinuities that are key for their learning. It also evidence that secondary school is only one node of the big sociocultural network through which young people learn. Building on the results, the conclusions raise the question: might a better understanding of learning trajectories favor a more inclusive educational system?

The purpose of this study was to examine the features of the peer culture that a group of preschoolers created in their classroom in the province of Kahramanmaras, Turkey. An ethnographic approach was adopted in this study to obtain an in-depth understanding of children's peer interactions. The data were collected through variety of data collection methods such as participant observation, interviews, document analysis, and researcher diary for three months period. Twenty children, the classroom teacher and the other school staff participated in the study. Descriptive and qualitative content analyses were conducted to analyze the data. The results suggest that the children formed a complex culture through symbols and games to negotiate about the features of day to day interactions in the classroom. In addition, the children resisted against the influences of the teacher by turning places like the washroom and the cafeteria into a nesting area for a deeper level of personal interaction.

Purpose: This article explores different strands of educational discourse about sexual diversity in Portuguese schools, from the students' perspectives. Method: The methodological approach consisted in conducting focus groups discussions: 36 with 232 young students (H = 106, M = 126) in 12 public secondary schools. Findings: Students reveal a polyphony of discourses that gravitate between liberal acceptance, conditional acceptance and intolerance. Research implications: Attention is drawn not only to discriminatory processes that question school as a democratic place for LGBT youth, but also to the gap between what is legally decreed and a lack of know-how in the approach to sexual diversity in school.

For many youth, afterschool programs positively fill the time between school and home. Quality out-of-school time (OST) programs clearly can have beneficial social and academic effects on youth (Durlak, Weissberg, & Pachan, 2010; Eccles, Barber, Stone, & Hunt, 2003; Vandell et al., 2005). However, these outcomes are not guaranteed (Chen & Harklau, 2017; Eccles et al., 2003). Realizing the potential for improved social and academic outcomes depends at least in part on the ways in which afterschool programs are structured. At the most basic level, in order to gain the potential benefits of afterschool programming, young people must participate. One common strategy is to structure program activities so that they build, over a semester or a year, to a culminating end product. Larson (2000) and Heath (2001) have referred to this pattern as a "temporal arc." This article is based on a yearlong ethnographic study, consisting of over 240 hours of participant-observations during the 2015-2016 school year.

Inclusion is a fundamental aspect of social studies education in general and democratic education in particular. Inclusion is especially important when we consider the possibilities for transnational civic culture and education. The theoretical framework of this study is based upon concepts of positionality, identity, and belonging as they are related to student understanding of communities. A dual-language, third-grade classroom provided the site for this ethnographic study. Data included participant observations, interviews with the teacher and students, and artifacts of student work. Findings illustrate how the students in the study understood the complexity of their identities at a young age and how the teacher used culturally sustaining pedagogy to foster a third space where this understanding was encouraged.

Computer game play has been criticized for disrupting family life by some who claim digital fantasy play alienates individuals from everyday interactions, even as others hold that such play increases sociability among players and their families. The authors argue that the truth about game play is more complex. They draw on research using participant observations and interviews with players about a well-known massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "World of Warcraft" and examine the struggle within families about time spent playing, family responsibilities, enhanced family dynamics, and the distances created by game playing.

This study examines how students' disruptive behavior occurs while the teacher is carrying out a formal class activity--checking homework. In daily classroom life, it has been common that teachers often follow the most uninspiring teaching method when checking homework (the teacher reads out loud each item in an exercise and then asks students for the answer), which students find boring. In this study, the author looks at the teacher's verbal expressions and embodiments, ones that potentially cause a lack of students' interest in the current class activity, and the students' nonverbal disruptive behavior, constructed by those who do not comply with the classroom's norm of appropriate participation. Using an analysis that combines both talk and the body, the author demonstrates how the students' disruptive behavior occurs alongside the teacher's checking homework activity. The author then discusses how mundane class activities such as checking homework can be boredom for students, and how this boredom can potentially lead to students' disengagement. The author then calls for changes in the checking homework activity to make it more interesting for students.

The aim of this research is to identify and analyse the ubiquitous learning acquired through blending education settings devoted to the "lifelong training of trainers" and how these contribute to the development of a conscious, critic and engaged citizenship. Through active exploration of the learning process, the study analyses the "soft skills" acquired which enhance performance in work and daily life, with the purpose of detecting the process of ubiquitous learning often overlooked in formal education. To this end, the study case presented here draws upon a data triangulation of qualitative and quantitative multisource information (questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, discussion groups, individual and collective diaries) which includes the study of the semantic networks consisting of learners' own utterances. The results obtained indicate that the soft skills related to the capacity of self-development, the use of innovative resources, the enhancement of social cooperation, the ability to meet cognitive and social challenges, and the functional learning as produced though expanded learning, have the potential to pave the way for the empowerment of peoples, communities and social movements. But this form of expanded learning, as open, collaborative, democratic and committed learning, must be actively supported if future generations are not only to be consumers but also cooperative producers in a socially shared world.

This research evinces the value of the multidimensional perceptions of the metaphors towards swimming discipline and its relevant certain contexts according to swimming coach candidates. In this article, we used qualitative research paradigm away from positivist approaches to describe and interpret stories and personal experiences of the participants. Fifty-five undergraduate senior students who studied in the department of coaching education in a large South-eastern university were secured homogenously (aged between 21 and 29). Using a semi-structured interview form, data were generated based on six predetermined contexts: swimming, swimming coach, freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. Each context focused participants' metaphor generation processes. As data generation continued, we also intended to be participant-observer to gain epistemological privilege by participating in and experiencing what is going on. Within the predetermined contexts, thematic analysis conducted through a software package of NVivo 11 Plus emerged seventeen conditions (sub-themes). In the portrait gallery of metaphoric perceptions of coach candidates towards swimming discipline, we found variety in the mental images of each context.

The aim of this study was to explore the degree to which a professional development (PD) program designed using GeoGebra influences a group of Turkish middle school teachers' beliefs in relation to mathematics and role of GeoGebra in mathematics education. In order to collect the required data, the PD course was established to provide six teachers with an opportunity to obtain practical experiences with and necessary knowledge about the use of GeoGebra in mathematics education. In this context, a multiple case study approach was utilized, in which mathematics teachers were observed and interviewed using a variety of procedures to expose qualitative data about their beliefs and the dynamics of their beliefs changes during the course. The main findings illustrated that teachers' beliefs were transformed to some extent in favour of the use of GeoGebra, as well as using constructivist ideas in their mathematics teaching and learning can be attained through the GeoGebra based PD course. In fact, the relationship amongst stated beliefs and intended teaching practice is complex and the social issues were very influential on teachers' pedagogical decisions. This research also introduces some suggestions for researchers who focus on professional development of mathematics teachers relative to their beliefs.

The full day school program is a new model in the education management system in Indonesia. This phenomenon is interesting because there is a paradox in it. Education in Indonesia is often criticized for the learning which is too heavy, but the full day school program gets a positive response from the community although it has longer school hours. This research aims to answer the questions; 1) How is a full day school praxis program in Indonesia? Second, how is the implementation of humanizing the classroom learning program in schools that implement the full day school program? This research is a qualitative research with locus at Islam Terpadu Salsabila Elementary School (SDIT Salsabila), Yogyakarta. Research subject is determined by purposive sampling. Method of data collections are: 1) participant observation, 2) in-depth interview, 3) questionnaire, and 4) document analysis. Data analysis technique is inductive-qualitative. The results are; First, the full day school program in Indonesia is growing as a result of the increasing number of busy working parents. They do not have the opportunity to accompany their children at home because they are busy working from morning to evening. The full day school program is an educative solution for them. Secondly, humanizing the classroom is implemented through students' active involvement in the classroom and the learning process is democratic and fun. This approach is a solution so that students do not feel boredom in learning although they spent their time throughout the day at school.

This reflective essay uncovers ways in which critical race theory and caring are key to crossing racial, cultural, and linguistic borders between professors and their students. Many scholars have noted how critical reflection relates to effective teaching, especially when taking into account student learning. Reflecting upon archival data and participant observation, the author describes, through various stories, how she uses critical race theory and caring to connect with her students in spite of their differences. The author also provides examples of how her students reciprocate her care in extravagant ways.

Parents' involvement in their children's education is widely understood as a key component of educational success. However, schools typically expect parents to engage with the school system in ways consistent with White, middle-class parenting and behavioral norms and in ways that are deferential to the school's agenda. In this article, we report on findings from a community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) project--the Parent Mentor Program--in a racially and economically diverse small city in Central New York. The project uses a race- and class-conscious framework to (1) understand barriers to the involvement of parents of color, and (2) reframe parents' role in the school system as advocates whose primary purpose is to bridge cultural disconnects between White teachers and students of color. Drawing upon ethnographic methods of focus groups, interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, we argue that the Parent Mentor Program, in which marginalized parents of color assist in high school classrooms, increases the engagement of parents of color in the school system, produces a close-knit community that reduces parental isolation and that fosters a collective understanding of shared experiences of injustice, and positions parents of color as empowered advocates who work collaboratively with White teachers to promote educational equity for children of color.