Voices and Visions : Refiguring Ethnography in Composition

"Essential reading for anyone engaged currently in ethnographic research." - College Composition and Communication Ethnographic inquiry has become the methodology of choice among composition scholars, with publications more than tripling since 1987.

However, despite this growing interest, resource books on ethnographic theory and practice remain scarce, making it difficult for scholars to research and write authoritatively. "Voices and Visions" provides that resource. Representing some of our finest established and emerging scholars on the subject of ethnographic research, this collection tackles the different issues and questions today's ethnographers face: Should ethnographies be about the ethnographer, the research community, or the surrounding community?

What is unique about how compositionists conduct and write ethnography?

Should an ethnographer be a cultural worker or an objective scientist? "Voices and Visions" grapples with an ethnographer's situatedness within an increasingly diverse postmodern world.

Through analysis of their own research, contributors self-reflexively explore why we, as graduate students and faculty members, select particular ethnographic approaches in writing up and about ethnographies.

This important work will give future researchers both direction and inspiration.