In September 2006, Professor Edmund W. Gordon convened a study group designed to build on his earlier work on supplementary education (Gordon et al. 2005). Earlier in 2006, he had invited Professor Hervé Varenne to join him. Varenne had been working on a special issue of the Teachers College Record he was guest editing and to which he contributed a foundational article (2007). In that issue he had brought together a group of young anthropologists to explore what a broad view of education might yield. He invited Gordon to write some comments for the issue. This was the beginning of the cooperation between Gordon and Varenne. Together with many others, they initiated or developed several projects introduced on this site.

In his 2005 volume, Gordon had focused on the range of programs designed by any number of non-school based institutions to help directly in the academic achievement of students as measured by schools. In his special issue, Varenne explored the theoretical foundations for a theory of education that directly faced the reality that most personal transformations are the product of familial, communal, and indeed personal, work that mostly proceeds outside direct political controls. A series of ethnographic papers about people in various situations around the world illustrated what can be revealed about education when one refocuses one's attention away from schooling and its problematics.

By the end of this first meeting of the study group a consensus emerged for exploring further all educational activities in which people of all ages and station engage in--whether or not there is direct evidence that these activities help with school success.

On this basis several projects were initiated including now directed by Varenne in close collaboration with Gordon.

STUDY GROUP ON COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION

• Perspective on Comprehensive Education Series (edited by Hervé Varenne and Edmund W. Gordon)
  • Volume One -- Explorations in the theory of education: Anthropological perspectives, a special issue of the Teachers College Record (July 2007) reprinted by The Edwin Mellen Press, 2008. (edited by Hervé Varenne)
  • Volume Two -- Theoretical Perspectives on Comprehensive Education: The Way Forward. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. (edited by Hervé Varenne, Edmund W. Gordon, and Linda Lin)
  • Volume Three -- Educating Comprehensively: Varieties of Educational Experiences. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, forthcoming in 2010 (edited by Linda Lin, Edmund W. Gordon, and Hervé Varenne)
• Commissioned Papersdiscussed at the October 2007 meeting of the Study Group (most of these are included in Volume Two of the Series)

SETTING THE AGENDA

• Supplementary education edited by Edmund W. Gordon, Beatrice L. Bridglall, and Aundra Saa Meroe. Lanham, MD: Rowman Littlefield (2005)
• Draft of the announcement for the initial meeting of the Study Group (by Edmund W. Gordon, Fall 2006)

ETHNOGRAPHIC PROJECT (incomplete)

• Settings for education in the inner city