GSE to host ethnography forum

The forum is the world's largest on quantitative research in education. While many University students will be making their way to sunny beaches and warm waters this weekend, the Graduate School of Education will be busy hosting the world's largest conference on qualitative research in education -- the 18th annual "Ethnography in Education Research Forum." "We are very excited to bring together people from all different parts of the field to compare research and learn from one another," said Forum Coordinator Marcene Pickron-Davis, an Education doctoral student. The participants -- who will present topics ranging from pre-school development to higher education -- were chosen from a pool of over 200 proposals. "The decision process is really becoming competitive," Pickron-Davis said. "Last year, we received only 130 applications." A proposal committee headed by Education Professor Frederick Erickson selected a "presenting body" with representatives from both national and foreign schools and organizations. The proposals cover various topics related to ethnography, which Erickson defined as "the narrative reporting on the everyday lives of people in a particular setting -- descriptive reporting that takes into account the point of view of those who are being observed." Erickson, who has incorporated the study into his career as director of the University's Center for Urban Ethnography, added that an ethnographer can be described as a "participant observer." He explained that the committee looked for proposals reflecting the theme of this year's conference, "multiculturalism and inter-ethnic issues, feminist ethnography and language issues in education." "We are very interested, as is the field in general, in issues affecting urban education," Erickson said. Such emphasis is evident from the wide array of topics ranging from titles like "Invisible to the Naked Eye: Gender, Race, Class and Schooling: Inquiry into the Education of Young Adolescent Black Girls" to "Deconstruction Work Ahead: Bi/Multi-Racial College Students Give Meaning to Race, Identity and Community." While most of the conference participants hail from universities, there will also be presentations from teachers and principals, including some from the West Philadelphia area. "We really wanted people who not only study ways to educate but apply them," Pickron-Davis said. In addition to finished projects, some participants will submit works-in-progress for analysis by educational ethnographers from around the area. Such unusual presentations lend a casual air to the conference. "We are known for having an informal atmosphere, and year after year people come back and tell us how welcome they feel," Erickson said. The informality might also be due to the forum's acceptance of less experienced presenters, including assistant professors and graduate students. "We like to have people with a variety of expertise levels," Erickson said. "And such diversity insures that there will be little competitiveness. You won't find any academic grandstanding here." The conference, which runs today through Sunday, will open with a keynote address by Stanford Professor Shirley Brice Heath, who studies literacy acquisition.