Identity and agency are key to understanding student learning within classroom contexts. Utilizing figured worlds and local contentious practices as analytical frameworks, identity and agency are theorized as cultural practices that occur as part of the learning process in schools. Specifically, this article discusses self-authorship and the…

A total of 89 black, low-income children between 3 and 5 years of age participated in a study of the relationship between self-concept and general cognitive ability. Subjects attended three state-operated day care programs in the midsouth. The Preschool Self-Concept Pictorial Test and McCarthy Scale of Children's Abilities were administered.…

There is an assumed relationship between a person's self-esteem, speech anxiety, and low cognitive complexity, but further research is needed for support of this premise. An important question to explore is how a child with speech anxiety (lack of confidence in communication situations) perceives others. Based on balance theory, the answer is that…

Considers the importance of shaping the kinds of personal qualities that will serve as the motivating force in all a student's learning activities and also will determine the future fate of the student's overall knowledge. Explores the link between the purposeful shaping of abilities and the shaping of the student's personal qualities. (CMK)