Abstract
This chapter traces historical and contemporary approaches to conducting ethnographic research on language education. Mangual Figueroa highlights key theoretical concepts and methodological approaches central to the field, focusing on the potential for ethnographic research to inform socially responsible and democratically minded practices in schools and communities. The chapter focuses largely on research conducted in North American contexts, paying close attention to the contributions of the Ethnography of Speaking approach and Linguistic Anthropology. It covers new terrain in global and multi-sited ethnographic work conducted in diasporic communities in the United States while also examining the complex methodological issues that can arise in the field. The chapter closes by discussing recent, ongoing ethnographic research concerned with tracking the influences of power on language and learning with the goal of advocating for racial and economic equality for all language learners.
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Figueroa, A.M. (2017). Ethnography and Language Education. In: King, K., Lai, YJ., May, S. (eds) Research Methods in Language and Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02249-9_20
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