ABSTRACT
The Bilingual Education Community Study Project performed three major tasks. First, it identified and selected exemplary bilingual programs for study, Second, conducted sociolinguistic studies of the schools and communities, and Last, conducted ethnographic studies of the schools and communities. Ethnographic and sociolinguistic research may be conducted from a wide variety of theoretical frameworks, each with its related questions, particular methods, and special techniques. A symbolic interaction framework enabled the team to study events and interactions within and between the schools and communities with some conceptual direction but without an overly restrictive theoretical bias. In this chapter, the two-site design provides for description and explanation of two bilingual programs with established similarities and distinctive qualities, encouraging a contrasting and comparative analysis of findings and the development of hypotheses to be tested by further research. In some instances, comparative ethnography reveals similarities, and in other instances it reveals distinctions between sites.
