This article will briefly review resources in youth ministry--two groundbreaking classics and a recent surge of good work--that can guide the footsteps of those who work with teens within faith communities. The best resources for ministry with teens engage mind, body, and spirit--always moving toward the practical step of inviting new action in…

Reviews Corsaro's work on the shift toward sociological approaches to research on children. Notes that the book fills a need for textbook on the sociology of childhood; documents the need for concern about children's well-being; presents a new analytical framework for the sociological study of children and of childhood; and challenges traditional…

The viewpoints of contributors to the forum are reviewed. Many of the disagreements represent fundamental differences in what constitutes evaluation. All four authors agree that the formative/summative distinction is useful and will continue to be an important concept in program evaluation, although the distinction needs greater clarification.…

Maintains that Rogoff's work has implications for supporting the development of a well-designed "Practical Life" environment in Montessori schools. Questions the appropriateness of the concept of proximal development for the Montessori approach. Concludes that the book reaffirms one's commitment to the Montessori perspective. (KB)

Reviews Jessor, Colby, and Shweder's "Ethnography and Human Development: Context and Meaning in Social Inquiry." Maintains that the book invites reflection on the appropriate epistemology of contemporary social sciences, and significantly advances the integration of ethnography and developmental psychology research. Argues that concerns…

"Forbidden Signs" explores the debate between manualists and oralists in deaf education into political, pedagogical, scientific, philosophical, historical, racial, sexual, economic, and linguistic contexts. The biggest weakness of the book is that it is a history only of the attitudes of hearing people toward oralism and manualism. (SLD)

Summarizes 11 themes of Deloria's "Indian Education in America," including Native versus Western worldview; history of Indian education; Indian versus professional identity; community as key to survival; destructive aspects of American education; necessity of tribal context for education and knowledge; and reconciliation of science and…

Explores relationship between text and context in pragmatism that is related to differences between pragmatism and scientific realism, as identified by Ernest R. House (1992) and repeated by Jim Garrison, and considers association between pragmatism and aesthetics. Comments concerning pragmatism and educational reform are made by suggesting how…

Reviews volume on social contexts' influence on individual adolescent development. Describes book's four sections: (1) pathways in adolescence and processes that enhance or inhibit developmental continuity; (2) how social contexts specifically affect African American adolescents; (3) effects of interrelations among contexts; and (4) intervention…

Maintains that the studies presented in this collection combine cultural with political analyses to illuminate educational processes. Elaborates on the key constructs, including contextualization with agency, sociopolitical dynamics in designing school practices, and personal self-definition in relation to sociocultural context. (Author/KB)

Discusses the failure of filmmaker Spike Lee to grapple with the real politics of Malcolm X before and after he left the Nation of Islam. Acknowledging the complexity of the man and his context would avoid creating a mythical figure similar to Oliver Stone's movie "JFK." (SLD)

Reviews three books with the common theme that the way language operates in connection with juridical processes of various kinds gives ground for complaint. A subsidiary theme is that academic language studies might, in some cases, provide the appropriate theoretical underpinnings for the examination of the problems in question, and perhaps lead…