An ethnographic case-study of an infant class

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to get the skills of research and. to acquire knowledge about an area of study, specifically that concerning infant education. Ethnographic research was carried out in an infants' class. Observations, structured and unstructured interviews in the natural classroom set-up were recorded throughout a period of a year. Progressive focusing was adopted in the light of the analysis of the data collected. The teacher's perspective and her practices as well as the children's response to her method of teaching were investigated. It was found that there exists a divergence between the educationalist's context and the teacher's context.