Research into the effectiveness of cooperative learning for students who encounter barriers to participation and learning, and for those who show resistance to cooperative learning, produces poor results because learning strategies do not always incorporate the essential elements of cooperative learning. For this reason, in this study we intend to…

Black girls face the challenge of developing a healthy sense of self because of racism and sexism in school settings. Building on extant literature, this study examines a sample of socioeconomically diverse Black girls' in predominately White, Black, and racially and ethnically diverse school settings. Data collection included focus groups with…

This small study reveals the value of story writing as a pedagogical technique in environmental education. The qualitative research conducted in 2020 examines 14 Indian children's place-ecological meaning as expressed in the story books they authored. Thematic analysis of the story books, interviews, journals, creative writing assignments &…

Somali girls who veil are often misrepresented as being oppressed by a patriarchal culture. Research gathered from a critical ethnographic study with sixth grade Somali girls sheds light on their understanding of the hijab and their experiences with anti-Muslim discrimination. Findings reveal that the hijab provided a source of strength from which…

Student-teacher relationships have been largely explored in literature from the perspective of successful relationships, i.e., what constitutes a successful relationship and how teachers build them. However, in moments of student defiance, resistance or pushback, how do teachers react? When teachers recount such moments, is the narrative one…

Pedagogies employing critical traditions have increasingly been used to ameliorate achievement disparities and centralize issues of power in the education of Students of Color. In this study, I trace a teacher's journey--new to critical pedagogies--as she learned about community cultural wealth and incorporated family histories as…

Drawing from the concepts of social constructionism, the article provides insights on how six purposively sampled Grade 6 vulnerable children, aged between 11-15, from poverty-stricken families, child-headed households and those allegedly orphaned by AIDS, resiliently navigated their schooling spaces and places in one rural, primary school in…

Middle school students struggle to explain thermodynamics concepts. In this study, to help students succeed, we use a natural language processing program to analyze their essays explaining the aspects of thermodynamics and provide guidance based on the automated score. The 346 sixth-grade students were assigned to either the critique condition…

Recent studies have identified multiple forms of capital that Latino students acquire in their homes and communities. Influenced by these studies, this article examines how transnational students of Mexican origin use various forms of their community's cultural wealth as tools to survive situations of violence in Mexico. In this article, we…

Many schools are adopting a Response to Intervention (RTI) model to support and evaluate learning (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006). Universal screening and progress monitoring are two essential components of RTI that generally support improved student outcomes (Shinn, 2007). In many schools, teachers collect and use a tool called oral reading fluency for…

This paper was delivered as a response to a presentation by Jan Kronberg MLC, Chair of the Education and Training Committee, Parliament of Victoria that published a report of the "Inquiry into the Extent, Benefits and Potential of Music Education in Victorian Schools." Her presentation and this response were part of a forum conducted by…

This exploratory study examines the use of explanations for refusal as a drug-resistance strategy for rural Native Hawaiian youths. Fourteen gender-specific focus groups were conducted within seven middle or intermediate schools on the Island of Hawai'i (N = 64). Participants were asked to describe drug-resistance strategies in response to 15…

Using primary socialization theory and theory of planned behavior, this study examined how targeted parent-child communication against substance use and parents' references to the negative consequences of their own past substance use (from the youth's perspective) directly and indirectly relate to Latino and European American youth's external…

Adolescents differ in the extent to which they believe that parents have legitimate authority to impose rules restricting adolescents' behavior. The purpose of the current study was to test predictors of individual differences in legitimacy beliefs during the middle school years. Annually, during the summers following Grades 5, 6, and 7, early…

Existing evidence suggests that high stakes exams result in little increased learning among students. Yet, given the federal mandates for greater accountability, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and Race to the Top policies, and the "pervasive testing culture," the use of high-stakes tests is presently an accepted…