The role of schools in developing values is internationally recognised, with many systems grappling to identify and embed values in schools. Within an Irish context, the Education Act (1998) frames values from the perspective of 'characteristic spirit', giving responsibility to boards of management to uphold the characteristic spirit as…

In recent years, investment in youth services has been contingent on the measurement of predefined outcomes as 'proof' of effectiveness. However, this approach to impact measurement has been criticised for distorting practice and reinforcing inequalities. As youth work emerges from a decade of spending cuts, there is an urgent need for new…

What is one value that grounds you in your civic engagement work? How are you walking the talk of that value in your assessment work? Or, how might you? And, what both helps and gets in the way of your doing that? These questions were posed to service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) faculty and staff gathered for an assessment institute…

This paper examines an account of a practitioner-initiated transformation of workplace-based social relationship within a grassroots adult education institution. This tripartite relationship among adult students, staff and teachers, abbreviated as AST, is a major driving force for activities and missionary functioning of the XinZhuang Community…

In this society where ethical misconduct is prevalent, faculty and staff can do a better job of providing training and encouragement to help students make ethical decisions. At the University of North Carolina Wilmington, a task force was created to develop a workshop for student leaders to enhance their awareness of ethical issues and the…

Drama is often used as a tool to investigate experience and to assist people to rehearse for change. Dramatic portrayals, however, can reinforce rather than challenge limiting stereotypes, and there is the potential for a positivist approach to research through drama to contribute to a pathologising of the subject and to limit the possibility of…

The SEPA (Science Education Partnership Award) is a NIH (National Institutes of Health) program to provide science education to children K-12. In 2009, the NIH provided a supplement to develop a curriculum to inform students about factors that affect the mental health of native Americans. The goal of the current project was to develop a behavioral…

This paper presents a guide for persons interested in conducting a workshop designed to introduce a process or strategy to help adolescents self-generate strokes to foster positive self-esteem. The steps in the process include: (1) introduction to the notion that each person has the power to take control of and direct his or her own life; (2) an…

Binge drinking is a matter of current social, media and political concern. Within the current debates binge drinking is sometimes portrayed as a recent phenomenon, but in fact it has a history and concern about binge drinking is not new. This paper sets the phenomenon in its historical context by examining how the nature and definition of binge…

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse an initiative to provide learners on "career-based" programmes with opportunities to reflect upon their values within the context of sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: An international literature review relating values and behaviour to the sustainability agenda led to the development of…

In this publication ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) has taken the opportunity to bring together two distinct but related reports. Part 1 examines the language of European quality assurance. It grew out of the debates and discussions at an ENQA workshop in Warwick in June 2006. The success of the workshop…

Student empowerment, joining rights with responsibilities, can only be achieved through participating in an activity whose success depends on a whole-group effort. This article describes a teacher's experience working with students to develop the UNIS/UN Student Conference, held annually at the United Nations and organized and run by and for…

This module presents the range of benefits youths receive from their participation in Community Science Workshops (CSWs)--from personal, to social, to academic and how these benefits reveal the core values of the CSWs in action. The multi-year evaluation of the CSW program included site visits to multiple Community Science Workshop sites around…

During 1989-90, the teachers of a failing innercity Ohio elementary school embarked on a year-long inservice training workshop. They identified character traits associated with a positive outlook toward life, developed course guides in character education for each grade level, and designed activities and strategies to challenge and motivate…

Some enlightened approaches to encouraging staff participation and ownership culled from Oregonian school executives include 4 C's (comments, criticisms, complaints, and compliments) advisory committee, 5-minute stand-up staff meetings, potlatches (monthly dinner workshops), "5/10" (short-answer) reports eliciting teacher comments,…