Introduction. Anthropologies and Ethnographies of Education Worldwide

Abstract

In the 1950s, a branch of educational research known as the anthropology of education first appeared in the United States, and by the 1970s its practitioners were publishing the Anthropology and Education Quarterly. Also in the 1950s, pedagogical anthropology emerged in Germany and more than a dozen books have now appeared with the title Pëdagogische Anthropologie. In the United Kingdom, the ethnography of education has blossomed since the late 1960s, although few of its practitioners identify themselves as anthropologists. Anthropology of education or ethnography of education has also emerged in other European countries, in Latin America, in Israel, in Japan, in India and in China. What is going on here? Do anthropology of education, pedagogical anthropology, and related terms mean the same thing in different parts of the world? What counts as ethnography of education from one nation to another? This book, introduced in this essay, addresses those questions by surveying anthropologies and ethnographies of education around the world. It asks how practices of the disciplines vary, what accounts for their differences or similarities, and why research beyond our own national and linguistic boundaries merits our attention.