Structuring School Structure

In this article Hugh Mehan calls for a new approach to the study of schooling. He notes that the research methods that dominated the study of school effects in the last two decades—large-scale surveys and field observation—have failed to examine the processes by which school participants create school structures. The approach Mehan advocates, "constitutive ethnography," would give equal attention to the processes as well as the outcomes of structuring activities. He outlines the method of constitutive ethnography and illustrates its application in studies of classroom organization, testing encounters, and counseling sessions. Mehan concludes by calling for "constitutive career studies" of individuals as they participate in a range of school events.

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