5: Connections Between Ethnographic Learning and Reading and Writing Education

In previous chapters, we have discussed pupils’ ethnographic inquiries of local communities from several related perspectives. In Chapters 1 and 2, we discussed a historical and philosophical basis for ethnographic teaching and learning and the introduction of pupils to ethnographic inquiry. Chapters 3 and 4 reviewed how pupils’ ethnographic studies of local communities can exert influence upon the formation of an ethic of democracy as well as local efforts for community building. In Chapter 5, we consider ethnographic inquiry as what people of all social classes must do to learn about everyday life and ethnographic learning as universal knowledge building about society, which is available to all people. The accessibility of ethnographic inquiry and knowledge building as well as the social relations of trust and accountability formed through ethnographic inquiry are well-suited for the formation of democratic living and for coping with its inherent tensions.