Some Observations Concerning Ethnography and the Improvement of Research in Social Education.

The cogency and applicability of ethnography as it pertains to the improvement of research on the social studies classroom are the focus of this paper. The evaluation asks how close the relationship is between ethnography as defined in anthropology and the classroom ethnographic approach presented by Shaver and Larkins, and how viable the need is to generate field theory to advance the cause of social studies research. The domain of ethnography, its relationship with theory, the level of insight it is designed to achieve, and the problem of cultural perspective are areas discussed in relation to the study of the social studies classroom. Two of the major premises of the Shaver and Larkins proposal on classroom ethnography are examined to see how much is known about the teaching and learning process in social studies and whether ethnography can generate the kind of theory that is needed. It is concluded that ethnography is not suited to the purpose of formulating middle range theory in the area of psychology of the instructional process, but that researchers might apply it to examine social education within the context of the culture at large. (Author/KSM)