ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with critical ethnography as a research approach to interrogate and intervene into the practice of schooling. It also deals with the question of why ethnographies of Arab schooling are so rare; and makes a case for the efficacy of ethnographic research to inform educational practitioners, policy makers, and academics. The chapter provides some snapshots of schooling by probing the everyday life of a girls' school in Cairo with emphasis on how the ethnographic ethos can play a part in raising consciousness for a schooling grounded in principles of equity and justice. Schooling plays a vital role in the lives of millions of youths in the Arab states who constitute the most schooled generation in history. The ethnographic method is a means for both studying and engaging in a dialogue with children, teens, teachers, and other groups whose voices may be underrepresented or entirely neglected in mainstream narratives about schooling.
