Third in the series Sociocultural Studies of Educational Policy Formation and Appropriation, this volume brings together scholars from North America, South America, and Europe to examine the relationship between ethnographic research and educational policy. The product of papers and discussions originally taking place at the Interamerican Symposium on Ethnographic Educational Research, the book presents both original empirical research reports and theoretical-methodological proposals for using ethnography to study and influence educational policy. After an introduction and opening chapter that highlight the different ways of conceptualizing education, education policy, and diversity across American borders, five full chapters address the relationship between ethnography and educational policy through sustained empirical attention to specific research sites and projects.

The next section of the book presents shorter position statements that relate specific research or policymaking experiences and reflect on the ways that ethnography can be involved in a project of formulating or revising policy. In this section, edited transcriptions of workshop discussions give the reader a vibrant sense of the challenging issues facing educational ethnographers attempting to address policy. The book closes with a commentary by a veteran educational ethnographer. Of interest to educators, researchers, and policymakers across the Americas, this volume contributes to an ongoing dialogue about how ethnographic research can intersect advantageously with the policymaking enterprise.

Education in Mexico, Central America and the Latin Caribbean examines the development and practice of education in Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. The chapters, written by local experts, provide an overview of the structure, aims and purposes of education in each of these ten countries with very different socio-economic backgrounds. The authors present curriculum standards, pedagogy, evaluation, accountability and delivery, discussing both how the formal systems are structured and how they actually function. The volume explores the origins of proposed reforms and their implementation, emphasising the distinctiveness of each country and attempting to locate new practices that could lead to better education. Including a comparative introduction to the issues facing education in the region as a whole and guides to available online datasets, this book is an essential reference for researchers, scholars, international agencies and policy-makers.

Education in Mexico, Central America and the Latin Caribbean examines the development and practice of education in Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. The chapters, written by local experts, provide an overview of the structure, aims and purposes of education in each of these ten countries with very different socio-economic backgrounds. The authors present curriculum standards, pedagogy, evaluation, accountability and delivery, discussing both how the formal systems are structured and how they actually function. The volume explores the origins of proposed reforms and their implementation, emphasising the distinctiveness of each country and attempting to locate new practices that could lead to better education. Including a comparative introduction to the issues facing education in the region as a whole and guides to available online datasets, this book is an essential reference for researchers, scholars, international agencies and policy-makers.