This study was designed to evaluate the use of asynchronous discussion in distance education in terms of student perceptions of its value for learning and for affective support. At the end of the third and sixth years of a distance delivered teacher education programme, students completed a survey to determine the extent to which the nature and…

In this article we argue that research into children's drawings should consider the context in which drawing occurs and that it is crucial to investigate the attitudes and practices of teachers, parents and children themselves that shape children's drawing experience and the drawings which they produce. We review the findings of seven empirical…

This study explores the female body ideal and its implications for health and fitness practices in African-American culture. Employing Patricia Hill Collins's (1986) notion of the "outsider-within," we analyze a focus group discussion on women's body ideals, exercise, and fitness. Our group comprises 9 young, college-educated African-American…

Teacher education programs are being encouraged to collaborate with K-12 partners to develop and implement contextually rich field experiences that integrate methods course instruction with public school practices. As a result, we outline four models of integrating methods instruction and field experiences and raise the question "How does the…

Our study investigates the impact of different social contexts (family, peer groups, school) on student outcomes of 5,110 students in Dutch secondary schools. Configuration is used to construct typologies from the intersection of these 3 social contexts of learning. Four empirically based configurations were found. The relative and additional…

Rural education has been routinely neglected as one aspect of diversity teachers may encounter in their career. As teacher educators at a large public university, the authors seek to prepare students for teaching in a variety of environments. In their study, while rural field placements were not feasible, a structured field trip offered students…

This paper describes the development of Spanish-language proficiency in bilingual preservice teachers at a university on the Texas--Mexico border. A survey with open-ended questions was administered to preservice teachers in bilingual and English as a Second Language certification programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the paths…

This paper presents disadvantaged households' "mental models" about low-fee private (LFP) schooling for their daughters in a study in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh. It argues that assumptions in the dominant discourse on girls' schooling in India obscure the complex negotiations and trade-offs disadvantaged families make when…

An important research paradigm applied to the study of adolescent resistance to reading--listening to student voice--has yielded rich information regarding adolescent literacy practices, adolescent agency, and adolescent identity as components of resistance to reading. Instructional perspectives of teachers and researchers also serve to shed light…

The conditions that students, parents, teachers, and administrators experienced are a product of economic, political, and social influences that impact the day-to-day operation of urban schools. One cannot understand the context of urban schools in the United States without considering the economic, political, and social influences that have made…

In this article, the author presents five valuable lessons on how an overseas educational consultant relates to concerns about preparing teachers to work in inner-city ghetto schools. The first lesson is learning to communicate and commune with another culture. Second, is seeing educational problems in a broadened social context. Third, is…

This study identified student and school-level factors associated with student achievement on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), an examination that includes a student questionnaire examining home literacy practices. Linked student and school contextual data enabled the use of hierarchical linear modeling to complete the analyses…

In this article, the author examines the inquiry talk of a small group of bilingual children discussing the text "Oliver Button Is a Sissy". The children raised many questions about the story and about issues of gender. The major focus of this article is on the participants' inquiry talk and the context that mediated their talk. The author uses…

Research has revealed that students' alertness and attentiveness are affected by time of day preferences. A review of relevant literature indicated that preferences are significant in predicting performance levels for school children, and that matching students with peak times is not only beneficial for academic subjects, but also influences…

This collection sheds light on current research on teacher thinking in cultural contexts and identifies promising practices in teacher education that take the most salient contextual variables into account. Teacher cognition as influenced by race, ethnicity, and culture is explored in: (1) "Teacher Thinking in Urban Schools: The Need for a…