Research in Context: Ethnographic Studies in English Education

As ethnographic studies in English education proliferate, so does discussion of their advantages and limitations. While certain dichotomies like quantitative versus qualitative research are unnecessary and unproductive, ethnographic inquiry has traits which make it uniquely suitable to investigation of language teaching and learning. These are its concerns with hypothesis-generation and the discovery process, specific features of language contexts, thick description of those phenomena, the roles of the participant-observer, and the making of meaning. Recent studies in language, composition, reading, and literature have employed these ethnographic approaches to provide a closer look at what occurs in English classrooms. At the same time, ethnographers must be concerned with issues of reliability and validity, interpretation and description of events, data collection and analysis, relationships with experimental research, and cost-effectiveness. With attention to these issues, ethnographic studies offer the potential of increasing our understanding of language learning processes and effective ways of enhancing those processes within the classroom, school, and larger society.