| Traditionally, the ethnographer's task was simply, or rather not so simply, to provide a description of the way of life of a people; that is, a description unified through the notion of culture.;This dissertation argues that the reincorporation of an earlier sense of culture, that of cultivation of, or tending to something, (i.e., culture as process), which if present at all in contemporary notions of culture exists only in attenuated form, permits an approach to the complex relations between culture and education which is at once broader and more powerful.;But by breaking through the notion of culture as reified and determining to one which emphasizes creative activity, we have taken only the initial step toward constituting an ethnography capable not only of understanding education but of changing it. A necessary further step is to discover the process of ethnography itself as quintessentially educative. Research which reduces ethnography to a set of techniques precludes investigation into the nature of ethnography itself thus preventing the recognition of ethnography as education. Through ethnography one not only uncovers meaning but creates it in reciprocal relations with others; that is, the socio-cultural nature of education is recapitulated in the research process understood as practical activity (praxis).;While the culture concept in recent years has become increasingly problematic, yet it still remains essential for ethnographic studies. Researchers in the field of education, however, have too often seen ethnography as a collection of techniques, as a novel tool, and their studies suffer to the degree that the concept of culture is absent or neglected. Additionally, those who do recognize culture as central, notably anthropologists, tend to construe it so narrowly as to seriously challenge the potential of ethnography for education. |
