How do novice ethnographers learn to become researchers? In this presentation we share data that is part of a larger ethnographic study looking at how doctoral students from two disciplines (education and rhetoric) who are enrolled in an ethnographic research course develop into ethnographic researchers and writers.  We conducted an action research-ethnographic study about the processual experiences of eight doctoral students in a year-long doctoral seminar in which we are the instructor/researchers. Drawing on class assignments, interviews, field notes, and the students’ reflective journals, we describe the various pathways the students take as they become ethnographic researchers.  This presentation will focus on three themes that have emerged from our data collection so far:  Participants learning to see themselves as researchers, participants learning to background theory, and participants practicing participant observation and interviewing.   We pay particular attention to the role that writing plays in motivating self-reflexivity and constructing a research identity.