In this paper, we examine the interactions of mathematical abilities when 6 high achieving Swedish upper-secondary students attempt unfamiliar non-routine mathematical problems. Analyses indicated a repeating cycle in which students typically exploited abilities relating to the ways they orientated themselves with respect to a problem, recalled…

Institutions of higher education have witnessed an influx of nontraditional Black college students generally, and males specifically. However, there is limited research that investigates the academic and social experiences of nontraditional Black males. As universities seek to improve the academic retention and graduation rates of Black males,…

This study was conducted to explore how public school superintendents consider the skills, traits, behaviors, and responsibilities of effective school principals in the hiring and assessment of campus principals at high performing schools in Education Service Center Region 15 (ESC Region 15). The participants of the current study (n=42) were the…

Widely accepted definitions of academic success are neither adequate nor meaningful for many ethnic minority students. Using ethnographic research with high-achieving Latina college students in Oklahoma, student experiences in a collegiate Hispanic beauty pageant were analyzed. These successful Latina students negotiated academic achievement…

Studies based on response processes of individuals can provide information that supports the assessment and increases the validity of the items in the scale or tests. The purpose of this study is to present the extent to which the student response processes are effective in identifying and developing the characteristics of the items in an…

This article shares a study of an interview/writing project for adolescent girls, which was a component of the Girls Writing Science Project at a diverse urban high school in the Southwestern United States. The group of high school girls planned, initiated, conducted, and wrote interview profiles of women scientists from their local community.…

Digital technologies open new windows for ethnographic explorations of cultural experiences. In this paper, we examine text messaging among academically talented teenage girls of colour at three US urban high schools. Texting introduced a new communication modality into the girls' lives and created a space for new discourses mediating their…

China's rural to urban migration is the largest population movement in human history. To unpack the intertwining relationship between migration and education, previous research tended to view migrant children as one universally vulnerable category, while ignoring the potential disparity in family socialization and functioning. This study…

Background: Scholars have argued that far too little research has examined the complex processes that many Black males undertake in constructing identities that function in schools (Howard & Flennaugh, 2011; Howard, Flennaugh, & Terry, 2012; Terry, Flennaugh, Blackmon, & Howard, 2014). Some have highlighted the perpetuation of a false…

Minority suburbanization has been a fast growing demographic shift in the United States during the first decade of the 21st century. This article examines the tapestry of the suburbanization experience of a group of high-achieving Black American students and their families as told by them. Departing from the all too common, deficit orientation…

In this paper, we explore the issue of gender and mathematics participation, focusing on the ways in which "clever girls" self-author within the discourse order of a high ability group, which has particular significance in the Norwegian context in which this study took place. Contrasting the cases of three girls, only one of whom (Anna)…

While much more research has been conducted about African-American college students in recent decades, there still exists a need for further explorations concerning factors related to student success and retention. For example, articles often explore the experiences of African-American students at four-year institutions and often use deficit…

This qualitative study used narrative methodology to investigate what becoming a scientist or engineer entails for Asian and Asian American college students stereotyped as "model minorities." We present the narratives of 23 high-achieving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college students who self-identified as…

The study set out to facilitate tertiary learners' development of oral presentation skills within the self-regulated-learning framework. A published, relatively comprehensive inventory of presentation (delivery) skills was adopted in this mixed methods study, which comprised pre- and post-programme self-evaluation questionnaires, post-programme…

People who exploit their strengths flourish; they are not only engaged with their goals, but also to their well-being and the content of life. In this study, interest focused on the high-achieving students in the Finnish general upper secondary education, in other words, on straight-A graduates' characteristic strengths. This was a narrative study…