Juan Carlos Tedesco, a prominent Argentinean sociologist argues that qualitative studies of education in Latin America represent a major challenge to current research. Latin American qualitative researchers are producing interpretive studies that focus on the realities of current developmental and educational reforms. Indigenous communities, women, students, and teachers are given voice in these studies, which represent the state of Latin American ethnographic, qualitative, and participatory research. This is the first book in English to offer a state-of-the-art collection of educational qualitative research studies in Latin America. The first three chapters present an overview of qualitative research, while the remaining seven chapters provide studies that explore various aspects of education from public schools to informal educational programs.

Eleven historical-ethnographic case studies examine the social and cultural projects of modern schools, and the contestations, dramatic and not, that emerge in and around and against them. These case studies, ranging from Taiwan to South Texas, build upon an original joining of anthropology, critical education theory, and cultural studies. The studies advance the concept of cultural production as a way of understanding the dynamics of power and identity formation underlying different forms of "education." Using the concept of the "educated person" as a culture-specific construct, the authors examine conflicts and points of convergence between cultural practices and knowledges that are produced in and out of schools.