Students as Ethnographers

The idea of engaging my fifth grade, bilingual class of Mexican American students as ethnographers developed out of my participation with other teacher-researchers in the Funds of Knowledge for Teaching Project. As part of that project I carried out a series of interviews with students' families about their history, skills, social interactions, language use, attitudes, and values. During interviews in the home, the students were frequently present, often adding to or "correcting" parental responses, all the while becoming accustomed to the interview process. As more students became familiar with interviewing, it occurred to me to invite the students to interview me in the classroom. And so I embarked on the idea of students as ethnographers.