Environmental Engineering Reference
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told me about a new teacher in the program who broke all the rules concern-
ing appropriate apparel and tried to teach them about “liberating merchandise”
using a “five-fingered discount.” He said the students rebelled. They went
right to the director to complain about her. “They were here to learn,” he
explained. They had already seen what that type of instruction had done for
them in public schools and in the streets. The new teacher had broken such
basic cultural norms in the program that the student population had her
removed. I cross-checked this information with the director and various other
parties. Although the director was reluctant to discuss it, he confirmed Rerun's
story and provided information that other sources had withheld because of its
politically embarrassing nature.
James was a long-term janitor in the Detroit dropout program. He grew up
in the local community with many of the students and was extraordinarily per-
ceptive about the differences between the serious and less serious students in
the program as well as between the serious and less serious teachers. I asked
him whether he thought the students were obeying the new restrictions against
smoking, wearing hats in the building, and wearing sneakers. He said,
You can tell from the butts on the floor that they are still smokin,' no matter what
dey tell yah. I know, cause I gotta sweep 'em up. ...It's mostly the new ones,
dont's yah know, like Kirk, and Dyan, Tina. You can catch 'em olmost any ol'
time, I seen 'em during class in the hallways, here [in the cafeteria], and afta-
hours [in the cafeteria].
He provided empirical evidence to support his observations—a pile of cig-
arette butts he had swept up while we were talking.
In a study of a gifted and talented education program, my most insightful
and helpful key actor was a school district supervisor. He told me about the
politics of the school district and how to avoid the turf disputes during my
study. He drove me around the community to teach me how to identify each of
the major neighborhoods and pointed out corresponding socioeconomic dif-
ferences that proved to have an important impact on the study (Fetterman,
1986f, 1988a). He also described the cyclical nature of the charges of elitism
raised against the program by certain community members and a former
school board member. He confided that his son (who was eligible to enter the
program) had decided not to enter. This information opened new doors to my
perception of peer pressure in that community.
A key actor who provides concrete descriptions is usually more helpful than
one who becomes tangled in abstraction. In another study, one key actor was
another anthropologist working in an educational program. At first, his help
was invaluable. As the study proceeded, however, his concrete description and
