Answer ONE of these questions in no less than five pages (or more than ten pages)

(note that you must discuss at least three of the required readings to answer any of the questions)
  1. Lareau (and Heath) write about the relationship between language socialization and social differentiation. Summarize the main argument and then, using any one (or two) of the other authors we have read (i.e. Lave, Rancière, Varenne) outline possible critiques of their interpretation of this relationship. Frame all this with an argument from your own position on these issues. (Hint: you do not have to agree with the critiques)
  2. How can one say that "families and communities educate"? (Hint: compare and contrast Gilmore, Kalmar, and Rancière)
  3. Given a major interest of yours relating to educational policy, what might be the use of the kinds of ethnographies we have read? (Hint: your opinion can only be a starting point. I expect you to make an argument in support of your opinion using several of the ethnographies as examples)
  4. Given a major interest of yours relating to educational policy, what might be the use of the kinds of disputes about education and learning that have concerned ethnographers of education? (Hint: same as for question 4)

  5. This sketch should end with the kind of questions you would investigate: no need to mention any methodology

    "The increasing numbers of poor and immigrant families in the U.S. who already navigate the unequal quality of the public education, will be faced with identifying and piecing together the supplementary forms of education that often allow children to acquire the forms of human capital that allow formal instruction to take hold, or that fuel learning when formal schooling fails" (my emphasis. Wolf, 2009:321) On the basis of the literature we have reviewed, sketch a proposal to study immigrants educating themselves about "education" (In Wolf's quote, "supplementary education" are all programs not part of the regular school day, e.g. programs in community centers, churches, etc.)
  6. Assuming the essential correctness of Mehan's analysis of the distinctive properties of "learning lessons" in schools, how would one relate this to "education"? (Hint: summarize Mehan's argument, discuss it in terms of any of the theoretical arguments we have reviewed, including the learning theories in the works of people like Lareau or Heath. If you chose this question it would also be most helpful to look at one or two of McDermott's papers listed as "recommended" on the syllabus)