Early encounters with environmental print, words, and other graphic symbols found in children's surroundings are among their first concrete exposures to written language. These experiences: (1) provide an introduction to making meaning of abstract symbols; and (2) offer children their first opportunity to make sense of the world through print. As…

This article presents the argument that combining visual methods with other qualitative research methods enhances the inherent strengths of each methodology and allows new understandings to emerge. These would otherwise remain hidden if only one method were used in isolation. In a qualitative inquiry of an elementary teacher's constructivist…

Studying imagery, irrespective of the kind, must focus equally upon its aesthetic attractiveness, its sensory lures, and its oftentimes dubious social ideology. The terms "aesthetic" and "ideology" are addressed as problematic and are defined in current, ordinary language terms: aesthetics as visual appearances and their effects and ideology as a…

In contemporary life and education, the local is marginalized in favor of large-scale economies of consumption that are indifferent to ecological concerns. The consequences of neglecting local human and natural communities include a degraded habitat, loss of wilderness, alienation, rootlessness, and lack of connection to communities. Critical…

For good citizenship men and women must not only have good will but an abiding interest in the welfare of the community. They must also have a working knowledge of social agencies, good judgment as to methods of social activities, and a more or less comprehensive understanding of fundamental principles of social life and progress. Much can be done…