As populations in contemporary Western societies grow increasingly diverse, preparing predominantly White middle-class pre-service teachers to better understand and work with difference productively has become increasingly critical. Historically, however, teacher education programs have aimed to address diversity with add-on or piecemeal…

On Christmas Day 1975, Marcia Marie Summers was born to Charlene Summers, a member and resident of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North Dakota. A few months later, a white couple from Indiana approached the young mother and offered to care for her infant while Summers attended school. Summers realized that the couple intended to permanently…

Self-harming and suicide amongst adolescents are reported to be increasing in Europe and internationally. For young people in state care, this aspect of mental well-being is of particular concern. The aim of this study was to establish the incidence of suicidal ideation and behaviour amongst young people (age 16-21 years) leaving state care in one…

The status of school placement in the Republic of Ireland has recently been elevated in importance within a reconceptualisation of initial teacher education (ITE). This paper shares the findings from one case study of a school--university partnership enacted in this regard. The partnership involved a researcher-in-residence at the school…

The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative has spent 14 years working with young people with foster care experience, engaging them to help identify what they need to transition successfully to adulthood. Consistently, young people have emphasized that their foster care experiences are far from normal. What they need--but too often do not…

Classroom readiness and the attendant theory-practice disjunction remains a key concern of policy makers, stakeholders and graduate teachers themselves. Links between the theoretical knowledge that preservice teachers gain during initial teacher education (ITE) courses and the practical learning of their school placements need to be strengthened…

This study uses a national sample of 1,215 children, ages 6-17, who spent some time in formal kinship or nonrelative foster care to identify the effect of placement type on academic achievement, behavior, and health. Several identification strategies are used to reduce selection bias, including ordinary least squares, change score models,…

Background: Physical inactivity is a primary contributor to decreasing functional physical fitness and increasing chronic disease in older adults. Purpose: This study assessed the health-related benefits of ExerStart for Lay Leaders, a 20-week, community based, peer-led, low-impact exercise program for older adults. ExerStart focuses on aerobic…

Utilizing grounded theory qualitative research methods, a model was developed for describing parental adaptation after voluntary placement of a child with severe or profound developmental disabilities in out-of-home care. Interviews of parents from 20 families were analyzed. Parents' cognitive appraisals of placement outcomes were classified…

Background: Concern has been expressed repeatedly about the cost and quality of residential placements for adults with learning disabilities and additional needs. This study sought to identify characteristics of the highest cost placements in the South-East of England. Method: Lead learning disability commissioners in the South-East of England…

"Curricula-in-action" generally differ from "official" curricula. That is particularly true of clerkship curricula because the practising doctors who supervise medical students' clinical activities are only secondarily educators. Clerkship education is evaluated, however, according to benchmarks set by official curricula.…

This article reports on an exploratory qualitative investigation of an initiative to use an electronic teaching portfolio at a teacher education institution in Hong Kong. Using in-depth interviews, this initiative is examined from the perspective of preservice teachers themselves. Interviews sought to gain an understanding of how the construction…

This paper identifies and analyzes intercultural problems through surveys of homestay programs with Japanese students and American host mothers. Given that participants need to go beyond their cognitive knowledge to interact effectively with people from other cultures, a relational approach may be more effective than traditional intercultural…

"Academy of READING"® is an online program that aims to improve students' reading skills using a structured and sequential approach to learning in five core areas--phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) identified 38 studies of "Academy of READING"® for adolescent…

Little comparative research examines which community-based preschool intervention placements produce the best outcomes for which children with autism spectrum disorders. Autism-specific placements can provide intensive evidence-based care; however, inclusion settings provide interaction with typically developing peers, the importance of which is…