ABSTRACT
This chapter frames the ethnographic work that is at the heart of this book as well as the spirit of the undergraduate course. Different people can see the same things in divergent ways, shaped by their histories of experiences in the world, the borders that they have lived within and crossed, and the points of contrast and cultural frameworks that they bring to their viewing. Marjorie Faulstich Orellana grapple with the methodological challenges of seeing social worlds in their full complexity. She shows how she uses ethnographic perspectives in this book, and in undergraduate training, to expand her own vision and learn to see in new ways. Understanding other's understandings of the world is the core challenge that every ethnographer faces. In ethnographic research, the main approach to addressing the problems of seeing or not seeing has involved calling on ethnographers to engage in a process of reflexivity.
