Abstract
This editorial opens a collection of five empirical research papers from four different countries, in which the authors adopt a language-focused ethnographic perspective in their explorations of how ethnolinguistic and institutional forms of "groupness" become intertwined in educational contexts. The papers included herein draw on ethnographic research in Finnish vocational schools, in an urban community education center in Norway, in a Maya pre-school in Mexico, in German-language pre-schools in a trilingual province of Italy, and in public middle schools in Italy. It closes with a commentary which re-examines all five papers in light of how structure and agency interact in the formation of identities.