1st Edition

Beyond the Classroom Walls Ethnographic Inquiry as Pedagogy

By June A. Gordon Copyright 2002
    168 Pages
    by Routledge

    164 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book integrates ethnographic research with teacher education strategies, with the aim of preparing teachers to work with urban and low-income youth in schools and other social service agencies. Through various case studies, Gordon provides insight into how educators in diverse settings can engage students-be they preservice or veteran teachers-in the process of discovering the complexity of their students' lives, as well as their own.

    Introduction 1. Students Reengaging Their Home Communities 2. Immigrants and Education: Dialogic Inquiry as Pedagogy 3. Future Teachers Assist in Urban, Low-Income, Multicultural Classrooms 4. Masks of Normality: Teacher Training on a Military Base 5. Confronting the Larger Community of Helping Professionals 6. Home Visits 7. Deconstructing Youth at Risk 8. Adult Educators Inquire into Workplace Stress 9. First Quarter Attrition: Community College Staff and Faculty Ask Why Afterword

    Biography

    June A. Gordon is Assistant Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of The Color of Teaching (RoutledgeFalmer, 2000)

    "The theoretical underpinnings of June Gordon's contribution to pedagogy have been around for a long time but have penetrated practice very little. Her unique contribution is in fusing theory and practice and illustrating that fusion in a range of contexts. It is a pleasure to have a silent conversation with an author who has command of both her material and the language of communicating it." -- John I. Goodlad, president of the Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle and professor emeritus at the University of Washington.
    "Working again off the beaten track, June Gordon shows how ethnographic methods are effective not only for research but also for pedagogy on class and race issues. Reviewing insightful examples of ethnography for educational purposes, Gordon offers keen guidelines on doing transformative research, generating dialogues between researcher and researched, reconnecting students with communities, and informing students early about the hard realities of the teaching worlds. Researching, learning, and teaching are closely linked in Gordon's innovative approach." -- Joe R. Feagin, University of Florida (Author of Racist America, Routledge, 2000)
    "The theoretical underpinnings of June Gordon's contribution to pedagogy have been around for a long time but have penetrated practice very little. Her unique contribution is in fusing theory and practice and illustrating that fusion in a range of contexts. It is a pleasure to have a silent conversation with an author who has command of both her material and the language of communicating it." -- John I. Goodlad, president of the Institute for Educational Inquiry
    "Gordon's approach to teacher education is illuminating and rich...She includes her own transformation as a participant in the communities in which she teaches and lives as part of the larger story. We in teacher education would do well to model our work on hers." -- Anthropology & Education Quarterly