M Eisenhart
Biographic Data
| ID | 25255 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Eisenhart |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Eisenhart |
| SIGNATURE | EISENHART M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Colorado System |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8013-4233 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 219 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The Anthropology of Learning Revisited
Dorothy Holland
Text messaging in the school lives of American high school girls
Digital technologies open new windows for ethnographic explorations of cultural experiences. In this paper, we examine text messaging among academically talented teenage girls of colour at three US urban high schools. Texting introduced a new communication modality into the girls’ lives and created a space for new discourses mediating their participation in school. We draw on the concept of ‘serious play’ to reveal the paradoxical nature of the g…
Hollowed Out: Meaning and Authoring of High School Math and Science Identities in the Context of Neoliberal Reform
Drawing on a 3-year ethnographic study in 2 urban high schools serving majority low-income students of color, we reveal how the meaning and authoring of self in mathematics and science are produced among high-achieving students in contexts profoundly influenced by neoliberal policies. We highlight the institutional practices and cultural imaginaries that students responded to as they developed identities in math and science at the schools. These …
A matter of scale: Multi-scale ethnographic research on education in the United States
In recent years, cultural anthropologists conducting educational ethnographies in the US have pursued some new methodological approaches. These new approaches can be attributed to advances in cultural theory, evolving norms of research practice, and the affordances of new technologies. In this article, I review three such approaches under the rubric ‘multi-scale ethnography’. Each approach responds to the desire to understand cultural forms that …
In the Guise of STEM Education Reform: Opportunity Structures and Outcomes in Inclusive STEM-Focused High Schools
In this article, we present findings from a three-year comparative longitudinal and ethnographic study of how schools in two cities, Buffalo and Denver, have taken up STEM education reform, including the idea of “inclusive STEM-focused schools,” to address weaknesses in urban high schools with majority low-income and minority students. Although introduced with great fanfare, the data indicate that well-meaning efforts toward expanding opportuniti…
Landscapes of Difference and Inequality: Educational Ethnography in the United States
Representing Qualitative Data
Qualitative science in experimental time
This article addresses the ‘state of qualitative inquiry’ in the sense of how that inquiry is being positioned in the current construction of a US national policy agenda for ‘scientifically based’ education research. In the author’s view, qualitative inquiry is being drowned out in the national agenda despite its ability to provide the kinds of answers regarding education that policy‐makers and others want. The drowning out is accomplished in par…
Doctoral Preparation of Scientifically Based Education Researchers
Finding improved ways to train education researchers has taken on new urgency as federal legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 call for “scientifically based research in education.” The authors of this article suggest an approach to socializing doctoral students to a common “culture of science” (a set of norms for scientific inquiry) and preparing them for interdisciplinary studies …
Contestation and Change in National Policy on “Scientifically Based” Education Research
In this article, we examine the definitions of “scientifically based research” in education that have appeared in recent national legislation and policy. These definitions, now written into law in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, and the focus of the National Research Council’s 2002 publication, Scientific Research in Education, are being used to affect decisions about the future of education pro…
Schooling the Symbolic Animal: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Education
Educational Ethnography Past, Present, and Future: Ideas to Think With
This paper addresses an issue that constantly plagues all social science research: How should we adjust our conceptual orientations and methodological priorities to take into account apparently changing human experiences and priorities? I take up this issue in the form of three "muddles," or confusing situations, that confront me as an ethnographer trying to work in today's contentious educational research atmosphere. In my case, the three muddle…
Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins
Reflections on Educational Intervention in Light of Postmodernism
Success in Science
Creating the Conditions for Scientific Literacy: A Re-Examination
This article explores the way in which scientific literacy has been defined, justified, and operationalized in current proposals for science education reform. We argue that, although the vision of scientific literacy reflected in reform proposals is broad, progressive, and inclusive, it is being implemented in narrow and conventional ways. As a consequence, we are not optimistic that current proposals will lead to a significant increase in the sc…
Whither Credibility in Research on Reading? A Response to Anderson and West
Learning as Movement in Networks of Knowledge and Power
Letter
Research news and Comment
The Fax, the Jazz Player, and the Self-Story Teller: How Do People Organize Culture
Theories of how culture affects socialization and the formation of persons have long been of interest to anthropologists of education. In most of these theories, individuals are defined, categorized, shaved, or determined by social practices that reflect cultural priorities. Until recently, few educational anthropologists have given serious consideration to conceptualizing how individuals actively and inventively contribute to cultural continuity…
Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and College Culture
Do Men and Books Mix? Women, College, and Romance
The Role of Social Representations and National Identities in the Development of Territorial Knowledge: A Study of Political Socialization in Argentina and England
We studied schoolboys aged 7, 10, 12, and 17 years from England and Argentina in an attempt to explore the “social representations” attached to an “English” or “Argentine” national identity. In both countries, such social representations were characterized by geographical, demographical, and ideological dimensions, with differential emphasis placed on each dimension by the Argentines relative to their English counterparts. These differences were …
Contestation and Change in National Policy on “Scientifically Based” Education Research
In this article, we examine the definitions of “scientifically based research” in education that have appeared in recent national legislation and policy. These definitions, now written into law in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, and the focus of the National Research Council’s 2002 publication, Scientific Research in Education, are being used to affect decisions about the future of education pro…
Standards for Qualitative (and Quantitative) Research: A Prolegomenon
The proliferation of qualitative methods in educational research has led to considerable controversy about standards for the design and conduct of research. This controversy has been playing itself out over the last several decades largely in terms of the quantitative-qualitative debate. In this paper we argue that framing the issue of standards in terms of quantitative-qualitative debate is misguided. We argue instead that the problem of standar…
Educational Ethnography Past, Present, and Future: Ideas to Think With
This paper addresses an issue that constantly plagues all social science research: How should we adjust our conceptual orientations and methodological priorities to take into account apparently changing human experiences and priorities? I take up this issue in the form of three "muddles," or confusing situations, that confront me as an ethnographer trying to work in today's contentious educational research atmosphere. In my case, the three muddle…
Doctoral Preparation of Scientifically Based Education Researchers
Finding improved ways to train education researchers has taken on new urgency as federal legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 call for “scientifically based research in education.” The authors of this article suggest an approach to socializing doctoral students to a common “culture of science” (a set of norms for scientific inquiry) and preparing them for interdisciplinary studies …
The Fax, the Jazz Player, and the Self-Story Teller: How Do People Organize Culture
Theories of how culture affects socialization and the formation of persons have long been of interest to anthropologists of education. In most of these theories, individuals are defined, categorized, shaved, or determined by social practices that reflect cultural priorities. Until recently, few educational anthropologists have given serious consideration to conceptualizing how individuals actively and inventively contribute to cultural continuity…
Learning Gender from Peers: The Role of Peer Groups in the Cultural Transmission of Gender
Finding that previous research has led to conflicting conclusions about the significance of peer groups in cultural transmission, we investigated the presentation of gender-related information in the fifth and sixth grades of one elementary school. The findings suggest that in some respects student peer groups complement the efforts of adults to socialize children to a set of gender-related norms and values. In other respects the peer groups oppo…
Qualitative science in experimental time
This article addresses the ‘state of qualitative inquiry’ in the sense of how that inquiry is being positioned in the current construction of a US national policy agenda for ‘scientifically based’ education research. In the author’s view, qualitative inquiry is being drowned out in the national agenda despite its ability to provide the kinds of answers regarding education that policy‐makers and others want. The drowning out is accomplished in par…
Creating the Conditions for Scientific Literacy: A Re-Examination
This article explores the way in which scientific literacy has been defined, justified, and operationalized in current proposals for science education reform. We argue that, although the vision of scientific literacy reflected in reform proposals is broad, progressive, and inclusive, it is being implemented in narrow and conventional ways. As a consequence, we are not optimistic that current proposals will lead to a significant increase in the sc…
A matter of scale: Multi-scale ethnographic research on education in the United States
In recent years, cultural anthropologists conducting educational ethnographies in the US have pursued some new methodological approaches. These new approaches can be attributed to advances in cultural theory, evolving norms of research practice, and the affordances of new technologies. In this article, I review three such approaches under the rubric ‘multi-scale ethnography’. Each approach responds to the desire to understand cultural forms that …
In the Guise of STEM Education Reform: Opportunity Structures and Outcomes in Inclusive STEM-Focused High Schools
In this article, we present findings from a three-year comparative longitudinal and ethnographic study of how schools in two cities, Buffalo and Denver, have taken up STEM education reform, including the idea of “inclusive STEM-focused schools,” to address weaknesses in urban high schools with majority low-income and minority students. Although introduced with great fanfare, the data indicate that well-meaning efforts toward expanding opportuniti…
Learning to Romance: Cultural Acquisition in College
This article addresses the topic of cultural acquisition in terms of the question: What is the process by which individuals "take meaning" (Heath) from culture and make it a part of who they are? Relying on the work of Dreyfus, Holland, and materials from an ethnographic and interview study of a small group of college women, cultural acquisition is described as stages of increasing individual expertise and identification with a given cultural sys…
Teacher beliefs about their work activities: Policy implications
1988). Teacher beliefs about their work activities: Policy implications. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 27, Research, Policy, Practice: Where are we Headed?, pp. 137-144
The Anthropology of Learning Revisited
The Role of Social Representations and National Identities in the Development of Territorial Knowledge: A Study of Political Socialization in Argentina and England
We studied schoolboys aged 7, 10, 12, and 17 years from England and Argentina in an attempt to explore the “social representations” attached to an “English” or “Argentine” national identity. In both countries, such social representations were characterized by geographical, demographical, and ideological dimensions, with differential emphasis placed on each dimension by the Argentines relative to their English counterparts. These differences were …
In search of an interdisciplinary collaborative design for studying teacher education
Reflections on Educational Intervention in Light of Postmodernism
The "Boy Problem" and the "Woman Question
Moments of Discontent: University Women and the Gender Status Quo
Inspired by the work of Paul Willis and John Ogbu, we discuss women's apprehensions of the gender status quo. We look specifically at black and white university women in the American South. We ask how their apprehension of women's social position affects their response to schooling and how schools recreate the gender status quo. Our findings suggest that the school provides an important setting for learning gender, but in distinction to the case …
Text messaging in the school lives of American high school girls
Digital technologies open new windows for ethnographic explorations of cultural experiences. In this paper, we examine text messaging among academically talented teenage girls of colour at three US urban high schools. Texting introduced a new communication modality into the girls’ lives and created a space for new discourses mediating their participation in school. We draw on the concept of ‘serious play’ to reveal the paradoxical nature of the g…
The meaning of doing a good job: Findings from a study of rural and urban mental health centers in the south
This paper describes the development of a conceptual model concerning the relationship between the organization and utilization of staff in mental health centers, job satisfaction, and staff retention. In the rural and urban centers visited during the study, differences were found in the patterns of staff organization and utilization and in the meanings of "doing a good job." It is hypothesized that these meanings provide the framework in which s…
Learning Gender from Peers: The Role of Peer Groups in the Cultural Transmission of Gender
Finding that previous research has led to conflicting conclusions about the significance of peer groups in cultural transmission, we investigated the presentation of gender-related information in the fifth and sixth grades of one elementary school. The findings suggest that in some respects student peer groups complement the efforts of adults to socialize children to a set of gender-related norms and values. In other respects the peer groups oppo…
The University of Papua New Guinea: A Case Study in the Sociology of Higher Education
Teacher beliefs about their work activities: Policy implications
1988). Teacher beliefs about their work activities: Policy implications. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 27, Research, Policy, Practice: Where are we Headed?, pp. 137-144
Moments of Discontent: University Women and the Gender Status Quo
Inspired by the work of Paul Willis and John Ogbu, we discuss women's apprehensions of the gender status quo. We look specifically at black and white university women in the American South. We ask how their apprehension of women's social position affects their response to schooling and how schools recreate the gender status quo. Our findings suggest that the school provides an important setting for learning gender, but in distinction to the case …
Experiences of Gender: Studies of Women and Gender in Schools and Society
Socially constructed readiness for school
Educational researchers, early childhood educators, and parents often think of readiness for school as a measurable child characteristic. This ignores the social process by which readiness is used to group, rank, and compare children and the variability in the term's use from community to community. This study proposes that readiness for school should be conceived as being “socially constructed.” Using a conceptual framework based on Vygotskian t…
Standards for Qualitative (and Quantitative) Research: A Prolegomenon
The proliferation of qualitative methods in educational research has led to considerable controversy about standards for the design and conduct of research. This controversy has been playing itself out over the last several decades largely in terms of the quantitative-qualitative debate. In this paper we argue that framing the issue of standards in terms of quantitative-qualitative debate is misguided. We argue instead that the problem of standar…
Learning to Romance: Cultural Acquisition in College
This article addresses the topic of cultural acquisition in terms of the question: What is the process by which individuals "take meaning" (Heath) from culture and make it a part of who they are? Relying on the work of Dreyfus, Holland, and materials from an ethnographic and interview study of a small group of college women, cultural acquisition is described as stages of increasing individual expertise and identification with a given cultural sys…
In search of an interdisciplinary collaborative design for studying teacher education
The "Boy Problem" and the "Woman Question
Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and College Culture
Do Men and Books Mix? Women, College, and Romance
The Role of Social Representations and National Identities in the Development of Territorial Knowledge: A Study of Political Socialization in Argentina and England
We studied schoolboys aged 7, 10, 12, and 17 years from England and Argentina in an attempt to explore the “social representations” attached to an “English” or “Argentine” national identity. In both countries, such social representations were characterized by geographical, demographical, and ideological dimensions, with differential emphasis placed on each dimension by the Argentines relative to their English counterparts. These differences were …
Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement and College Culture
The First "Real" Job: A Study of Young Workers
Whither Credibility in Research on Reading? A Response to Anderson and West
Learning as Movement in Networks of Knowledge and Power
Letter
Research news and Comment
The Fax, the Jazz Player, and the Self-Story Teller: How Do People Organize Culture
Theories of how culture affects socialization and the formation of persons have long been of interest to anthropologists of education. In most of these theories, individuals are defined, categorized, shaved, or determined by social practices that reflect cultural priorities. Until recently, few educational anthropologists have given serious consideration to conceptualizing how individuals actively and inventively contribute to cultural continuity…
Creating the Conditions for Scientific Literacy: A Re-Examination
This article explores the way in which scientific literacy has been defined, justified, and operationalized in current proposals for science education reform. We argue that, although the vision of scientific literacy reflected in reform proposals is broad, progressive, and inclusive, it is being implemented in narrow and conventional ways. As a consequence, we are not optimistic that current proposals will lead to a significant increase in the sc…
Success in Science
Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins
Reflections on Educational Intervention in Light of Postmodernism
Sociology (30 works) · Psychology (21 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Pedagogy (10 works) · Social science (10 works) · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy (9 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Mathematics education (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works)