Describes a 10-week unit in an eighth-grade English class focusing on social-action writing. Describes how the process involved convincing students of their ability to make a difference, studying persuasive writing, reading and discussing to wake up their social consciences, using various strategies to choose topics, and finally culminating in…

Since 1973, the Heritage Centre and its precursors on Walpole Island First Nations Reserve (Ontario) have countered environmental threats through research, creation of environmental management plans, and youth education and employment in environmental projects. A study of four critical environmental events shows how community support was mobilized…

Interest in women's issues in India has grown since 1975, when a report on the status of women raised concern about women's equality. Women's studies entered India's university curriculum only in 1986 but with little encouragement from the emerging women's movement. In India, women's studies looks to the West for research methods and ideas and is…

John Trudell, Indian activist orator and poet, discusses the "Spirit Eater," authoritarian systems that siphon off human energy to fuel a materialistic, technological reality. This illusion has dominated European cultures for thousands of years but contrasts sharply with indigenous knowledge and spirituality. He also discusses protecting…

Examines how composition courses help students to change and effect change through writing about themselves and issues immediately relevant to their lives, whether that be the college campus, or, in the case of inmates, low socioeconomic living. Argues for a student-centered activism through language and ethnographic, hands-on research. (TB)

Offers an account of a group of high school students who translated critical thinking into action, through their Riverside High Social Justice and Equity Group. Illustrates the degree of discomfort that may be engendered when students offer other "readings" of their schools and attempt to rewrite power relations in active constructions…

A Gathering of Waters is a community-based art and activism project to raise awareness that the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo is a desperately endangered river, connect communities dependent on the river, and galvanize those communities into action. Activities provided actual and symbolic experiences of river water for American Indian, Hispanic, Anglo, and…

Describes an elementary school counselor, a "major player" who helped transform her school into a problem-solving culture. If school counselors have a driving vision, secure identity, solid counseling capabilities, and believe themselves to be educational leaders, they can help equally courageous principals transform learning…

Explores the emergence and evolution of nongovernmental organizational forms and actors engaged in transnational advocacy in the field of education. Focuses on the genesis of a nongovernmentally sponsored Global Campaign for Education and its efforts to shape the World Forum on Education in Dakar and the future of Education for All activities of…

This case study demonstrates the process of exerting political influence in faculty's systematic efforts to save the outdoor recreation program at Seneca College (Ontario). A chart and explanatory list present a seven-stage plan for influencing political decision-making. (SAS)

Absent from discussions of Malcolm X's contribution to the modern black freedom movement is his critique of black education, which was based on his life experiences. Explicates his critique of major educational issues facing blacks during the height of his leadership in the 1950-60s. Illuminates the importance of situating Malcolm X within the…

Reports findings of a 1999 survey of 261,217 college freshmen at 462 two-year and four-year institutions concerning lifestyle and stress. Finds increasing numbers of students, especially women, report feeling overwhelmed and under stress. Also reports declines in drinking and smoking, more students planning to work full-time, more students…

In 1969 after an intense political campaign, three Mexican Americans won seats on the board of trustees of the Cucamonga (California) School District--the Chicano Movement's first successful effort at community control of a school board. Political organizing strategies, community-initiated self-help projects, the new board's educational reforms,…

Conservative critiques of higher education rely on liberal doses of cash. Behind the conservative critique of U.S. higher education is a fervent commitment to ideals, to be sure--but there's also a sizable amount of conservative cash. The Bradley, Earhart, Castle Rock, and John M. Olin foundations have contributed lavishly to guidebooks aimed at…

Much of the scholarship on urban children and families has focused on ways to increase the involvement of parents of colour in the education of their children. However, these suggestions for increasing parental involvement ignore the long tradition of activism in the courts as families have fought through the legal system for equal educational…