A Rapid Ethnography of Itinerant Teachers of the Deaf

A rapid ethnographic study of 10 itinerant teachers in two school districts and 21 other professionals working with the itinerants was conducted. Rapid ethnography starts with the same assumptions about culture as conventional ethnography. However, it is not constrained by the assumption of cultural ignorance on the investigator's part. Thus, it enables better-directed data collection. Interviews with the itinerants and other professionals, direct observation of itinerants at work, and archival data permitted the authors to generate a list of themes reflecting results of other studies which focused on specific skills for itinerant teaching. While knowledge of specific skills cannot be ignored, the study shows that effective itinerants are ones who, through a personality trait, extensive experience, or a specific value system, can generate a positive composite image of their role as itinerants and are then able to interact on the basis of that image.