Research

My research is in the subfield of educational anthropology. In general, I study patterns of culture, social interaction, and identity formation that affect academic performance, primarily in the U.S. The data I collect and write about are primarily ethnographic; that is, they come from extended periods of first-hand fieldwork in schools and from in-depth interviews with school participants, and they are primarily qualitative (text-based). In my first book, Educated in Romance: Culture, Achievement and College Culture (1990, University of Chicago Press), Dorothy Holland and I documented how college women—even those identified as high achieving and career oriented as freshmen—made day-to-day choices that were guided by a cultural code that ultimately subordinated success in school to romantic identities. In my latest book, Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins (1998, University of Chicago Press), I identified the social and cultural features of school and work settings where women are attracted and succeed in science (or engineering) even if it means lower status and less pay. I have written over 60 articles on these and related topics.

In recent years, education research methodology and the professional training of education researchers have become increasingly important topics in my writing. In my second book, with Hilda Borko, Designing Classroom Research: Themes, Issues, and Struggles (1993, Allyn & Bacon), we argued for the compatibility of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The bookís chapter on standards of validity for qualitative research was used as the basis for the National Science Foundation 2000 report, Guiding Principles for Mathematics and Science Education Research Methods. More recently, I have worked on committees of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Educational Research Association, and the Social Science Research Council to help develop standards for qualitative research in education. Publications such as Scientific Research in Education (National Research Council, 2002) and Advancing Scientific Research in Education (NRC, 2004) bear the stamp of my involvement with these issues at the national level.

Closer to home, I continue to direct an after-school science and technology program for African American and Latina middle-school girls in a low-income Denver community with historically weak schools. The program, entitled Simply the Best!, uses insights and data gained from my previous work on girls and women in science, along with on-going data collection in the local community, to inform development of science and technology activity units that can attract and sustain the interest of girls in this community. In August 2006, I began a new outreach and research project, entitled Potential Recruits to Engineering, that offers workshops designed to stimulate high school girls’ interest in engineering and information technology as careers. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Most of my research is done in collaboration with faculty members and students at CU and beyond. Anyone with a special interest in pursuing any of the topics listed above, please feel free to contact me.