Contributing to recent work in the critical sociology of childhood, this article presents an ethnographic and discursive analysis of the multitude of cultural meanings associated with "child-centeredness" in US American early childhood education. Specifically, the article focuses on Waldorf education, a private educational alternative…

Although most people believe that schools exist to help children learn and achieve, some wonder why children's instruction must be hurried and why kindergarten is becoming so academic. Full-day programs, which accommodate parents' work schedules, are now commonplace; they may benefit some disadvantaged kids more than their affluent counterparts.…

This book takes readers into the lives of urban and suburban adolescents for a close-up look at how they navigate the conflicting discourses and disciplinary practices of American cultural crosscurrents that flow through economic, kinship, religious, and political domains of American life. The book is distinctive in how it combines classic…