Ethnographic Study of Participant Structures in Task Completion: Reinterpretation of “Handicaps” in Mexican Children

Abstract

Ethnographic studies are becoming increasingly popular due to their ability to arrive at the meaning of interactional events through sociocultural and linguistic cues of observed behavior. Using an ethnographic approach, the present study was conducted in an effort to offer an alternative to many teachers' misinterpretation of Mexican children's copying as indicating low academic ability and inappropriate work habits. Through careful observation and recording of the classroom interactions of 7 Mexican students under four different participant structures, copying is shown to be a legitimate activity, based on home socialization patterns that stress collectivity and social cohesiveness. Thus, rather than representing low ability and lack of motivation, copying is considered by Mexican students a constructive approach to intellectual exchanges and the acquisition of new knowledge in a social unit composed of peers. Instructional implications of these findings are drawn.