Social work's traditional emphasis on the individual in the context of social environments has resulted in a neglect of the person in the context of physical environments. This conceptual article addresses this oversight by presenting three subconcepts of place--place attachment, place identity, and territoriality--and draws on research examples…

This study provides insight in the variety of urban-related challenges that beginning teachers experience in urban schools. Literature on urban teaching focuses on teaching children from low socio-economic status (SES) and/or culturally diverse backgrounds. In many European cities, however, schools are populated by both children from relatively…

This case study focuses on a Native American family's experience on a walk in an urban forest preserve. Drawing on interaction analysis traditions, we analyze video data and transcript data to characterize how learning unfolds in place, in this case an urban forest. We build on this analysis, as well as the work of Indigenous scholars, to…

Research is just beginning to describe with precision determinants of racial and ethnic achievement gaps. Work by Reardon, Kalogrides, and Shores found that factors such as parental income, parental education, and segregation are the strongest predictors of achievement gaps. In this study we expand this line of inquiry to examine the role of…

Child development for a cohort of urban Aboriginal children was assessed at three time points: 12 months, 3 years and 4.5 years. This paper reports developmental findings and explores the impact of child, family, home and community variables over time. Overall, child development at 4.5 years was significantly below the standardised mean. Female…

This article offers the transcript of Robyn Archer's address at the Australian Society for Music Education (ASME) Conference in Canberra in September 2013. Archer is a singer, writer, director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts, mainly in Australia though her reach is global. This lecture is the second of six addresses Archer gave…

This paper explores the treatment of London by two authors who are profoundly influenced by the concept of the power of place and the nature of urban space. The works of Peter Ackroyd, whose writings embody, according to Onega (1997, p. 208) "[a] yearning for mythical closure" where London is "a mystic centre of…

This paper describes the practices employed by middle school girls in New York City to negotiate their postfeminist school environment and considers the contested notion of girls' agency. Based on an exploratory ethnographic study, the data reveal that girls--to varying degrees of success--enacted a range of practices to gain power over the…

In disadvantaged neighborhoods African American girls are at elevated risk for exposure to violence and sexualization (Miller, 2008; Salazar, Wingood, DiClemente, Lan, & Harrington, 2004). Preventive interventions can promote resilience by supporting capacities such as social decision making and self-understanding (Masten, 2001). We report on…

In this article we explore the dynamic between the pedagogical and the urban, attending to 'agentive urban learning'. By this we mean processes by which young people build agency in the urban context, in using the resources of the city to develop their own agency, and of developing agency to act within the city. By agency, we refer to the capacity…

This article discusses theory and methods of researching the everyday experiences of children in the city environment combined with the question of giving a voice to children. The article is organised into three parts. Part one provides a conceptual background, theorising the relational as well as intergenerational character of the concept of…

Students enrolled in a graduate seminar benefited in multiple ways from an intensive 3-day field trip to Washington, DC. Constructed around the theme of environmental justice, the trip gave students a chance to learn about street tree distribution, park quality, and racial segregation "up close." Working with personnel from the United…

This study investigates the capacity of children to develop map-based skills in spatial orientation in an urban environment unknown to them. In this quantitative study, a total of 328 pupils of grades 3-5 had to achieve specific skills with regard to map-based skills in spatial orientation (such as turning-off skills, transformation from map to…

The paper is based on the results and data gathered from a heritage education project offered by Adnan Menderes University for sixth and eighth grade students (164 children aged 12-14) in the primary schools (25) in Aydin. The programme was applied to 164 children over five periods of eight days each, and data were gathered over the summer of…

After thirty-three years of exile in Mexico, Ernestina de Champourcin returned to Madrid in 1972, in time to witness the profound political changes in Spain prompted by the death of Franco and by the cultural revolution originating in the capital known as the "movida madrileña." Between 1979 and 1980, she responded to the explosion of…