Ethnographies of Thought in Varied Settings: The Acquisition of Rich Understandings of Context and Cognition in Education.

Two studies (from 1989 and 1990) are reviewed to illustrate the effectiveness and versatility of "ethnographies of thought" (as described by C. Geertz, 1983) for gaining significant understanding of the meaning perspectives of research participants and the contexts of a variety of educational settings. The methodological implications of the two studies are discussed. Although they focused on different research questions and settings, both studies used a naturalistic design and involved the collection of three sources of verbatim data. The first study focused on the assessment of a preservice teacher's professional learning during a practicum semester, and the second examined the salient issues of a school and business partnership. In-depth data collection for the first study utilized one student teacher. Data were also collected from the cooperating teacher. In the second study, data were collected from members of a single partnership and resonance sought in a second partnership. Experiences with both studies indicate that if participants are to be "understood," a significant investment of time in the ethnography is mandatory to give the researcher adequate insight. Two figures and a 20-item list of references are included. (SLD)