Private dance studios exist outside the scope of K-12 institutions in the United States and serve students within their local communities. Many of them strive to benefit underrepresented groups through community engagement initiatives. This mixed-method study scrutinizes the various community engagement practices of private dance studios through a…

Children develop within a context, and the nature or dynamics of a child's context can change the trajectory of their development. According to Bronfenbrenner (1979), children are affected and are impacted by individuals within various systems or environments. One of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems is the microsystem, in which children…

A developmentally oriented framework is presented designed to establish or enhance the quality of inclusive community-based early intervention systems. This conceptually and empirically integrated developmental approach supports a comprehensive family-centered model. Outlined is a process that coordinates children's goals with family priorities,…

Although US teenage birth rates substantially decreased over the past two decades, it still remains the highest in the developed world. More innovative, community-wide initiatives are needed to combat the issue. In Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, the Central Oklahoma Teen Pregnancy Prevention Collaboration is utilizing the collective impact model to…

BME HealthReach is an educational outreach program where undergraduate BME students participate in an out-of-class design thinking course to create and teach interactive STEM activities to K-12 students, where children with chronic illnesses are the primary clients. We detail research that seeks to answer the following: (1) what impact does this…

Background: Whole-of-community interventions have been recommended and show promise for preventing obesity; however, research to understand the mechanisms underlying their success or failure is lacking. Complex systems approaches may be useful to address this gap. Purpose: To describe the evolution and utilization of qualitative and quantitative…

This paper contributes to the conceptual and empirical development of 'preparedness pedagogy'. Preparedness involves learning, thus disaster risk reduction (DRR) should be discussed more in the field of education, particularly its sub-discipline of public pedagogy. Disaster risk reduction education should have an element of "a pedagogy in the…

Biopsychosocial consequences of catastrophic events create an ongoing need for research that examines the effects of mass traumas, developing psychosocial interventions, and advocacy to address the needs of affected individuals, systems, and communities. Because it is neither possible nor necessarily desirable to intervene with all touched by…

A growing body of literature on community gardening, watershed restoration, and similar "civic ecology" practices suggests avenues for integrating social and ecological outcomes in urban natural resources management. In this paper, we argue that an environmental education programme in which learning is situated in civic ecology practices…

Rather than viewing an early intervention team in isolation, a systems perspective considers the interrelationships and interdependence of the various elements comprising service delivery for children with disabilities. This article proposes a model, a multilayered framework, that takes into account the larger system of community and organization…

This paper sets forth a community family life education model within the structure-functional framework. Attention is first focused on societal and family needs, followed by the model, its goals, organization, and implementation. Finally, several recommendations and a challenge are given to family educators. (Author)

The ineffectiveness of community-based interventions can often be traced to problems that occur during implementation. In this study, we outline the implementation of a human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevention program in an educational setting in South Africa. An action research approach was used in the…

The Community Transition Team Model guides the process of systematic program change in secondary special education and transition programs in Oregon. The model uses a management-by-objectives paradigm for implementing its principles, which include local control, a developmental perspective on change, a focus on program capacity, and networking…

This article reviews six programs that have applied anthropological concepts, methods, and research to implementing change in American schools, school districts, and communities. The programs are: (1) the West Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Free School, an experimental alternative education program that emphasizes freedom, individualized instruction,…