The book "Nature's Playground: Activities, Crafts, and Games to Encourage Children to Get Outdoors" encourages children to venture into the world of the outdoors. Hours of inventive, exciting and safe outdoor activities for children are included, organized by season--or to do all year round. The natural world is a perfect place for children to…

While school choice may be one of the most polarizing issues in education today, a new volume of research papers makes the case that innovations aimed at giving families more say in where their children go to school can be whatever their architects make of them. Programs such as magnet schools, charters, tuition tax credits, or open-enrollment…

Negotiating stance and carrying on social interaction in writing in educational contexts has been characterized by the choice of linguistic means away from explicit expressions of opinion representative of the informal relationship with the addressee towards the language that strives to conceal a subjective viewpoint and construes a formal…

In today's knowledge-based society universities and firms must learn to engage more effectively. Universities focus on generating new knowledge, while firms are increasingly drawing on external collaborations to add value to their offerings. This book shows managers how to work with universities to boost their competitive position and revenue.…

Charles Dickens is arguably the greatest storyteller in English Literature and his novels have been loved and respected for nearly two hundred years. As accurate reflections of Victorian society they are unparalleled. Vivid characters and realistic settings are created in the mind of the reader, all laced with Dickens inimitable humour, wit and…

First I would like to thank Clarence Joldersma for his review of our "Poststructuralism, Philosophy, Pedagogy" (Marshall, 2004-PPP). In particular, I would thank him for his opening sentence: "[t]his book is a response to a lack." It is the notion of a lack, noted again later in his review, which I wish to take up mainly in this response. Rather…

The three books reviewed in this essay all have a similar theme: the role that schools and other institutions can play in improving the life-chances of young people and breaking the cycle of socio-economic disadvantage and low educational attainment that is characteristic of school systems around the world. Through an evaluation of the Academies…

In this review essay, Clarence Joldersma argues for a novel role for science in developing an affirmative answer to his title question, "How can science help us care for nature?" He does so in dialogue with Clare Palmer's edited volume, "Teaching Environmental Ethics," Dirk Postma's "Why Care for Nature?" and Michael Bonnett's "Retrieving Nature."…

"Breaking Ranks II" and "Breaking Ranks in the Middle" both call for students to master "academically rigorous essential learnings" that have been established by the school, and students need a strong foundation in reading and writing if this is to happen. There is no doubt that literacy instruction in the early grades is an essential beginning,…

This study examines the changing roles for women in academia from 1991 to 2001 through a content analysis of quality characteristics in 626 "American Political Science Review" book reviews. Results revealed increases for women over men in quantity of books and reviews published, as well as quality appraisals of books written. (Contains 2 tables…

Susan Goldin-Meadow's "Hearing Gestures: How Our Hands Help Us to Think" synthesizes findings from various domains to demonstrate that gestures convey meaning and comprise a critical and fundamental form of communication. She also argues convincingly for the cognitive utility of gesture for the gesturer. Goldin-Meadow presents an airtight case…

This paper addresses key themes in a new book of posthumously published writings by Paulo Freire, "Daring to Dream: Toward a Pedagogy of the Unfinished" (Paradigm Publishers, 2007). The paper comments on the structure and content of the book and places it in the context of Freire's wider corpus of published works. Particular attention is paid to…

This article reports on the College Art Association's decision to settle with a scholar who felt defamed by an article in one of its scholarly journals which shines a spotlight on so-called "libel tourism." When the College Art Association decided recently to settle rather than fight a possible libel action in Britain over a book review…

For the author, the 1960s was a tumultuous era which he associates with a feeling of freedom from old pieties and a sense of fresh possibilities. It was a time of self-indulgence coupled with flamboyance that annoyed many of those in authority, including parents, professors, and politicians. In this article, the author discusses how a new book by…

This article offers an annotated bibliographical review of the preceding year's publications in the field of social justice education. In this Year in Review for 2008 (YIR '08), the authors present the work of two Social Justice Education doctoral students and the editors of "Equity & Excellence in Education (EEE)," who together have…