Within a university course, a professor and two graduate students explored societal and individual implications of literacy in general and of information and scientific literacies: conceptualizations (or ideologies) of specialized literacies in society, injustices caused by a narrow view of literacy perpetuated by dominant groups, literacy as…

First of a two-part series, examines effects of teen pregnancy and parenthood on adolescents and their children, and describes exemplary program to keep teen parents in high school until graduation. Discusses how to address the issue of teenage pregnancy, how to effectively help teen parents, the importance of teaching teenagers personal…

Participant observation and in-depth interviews explored how 10 New Zealand male secondary students, aged 17-19, made meaning from their outdoor educational experiences. Qualitative methodology was indispensable in revealing how learning through adventure not only improved self-concept (a conventional assessment), but also contributed to…

We analyzed the role that psychosocial empowerment and social support factors play in the employment status of immigrants who participate in job-readiness programs financed by the European Social Funds and the Welfare Services of Andalusia, a region in the south of Spain. The goal of these programs is to find new ways to improve immigrants'…

Virtually every Government programme for children and every Government Department in the UK is expected to involve children and young people in its policy development and service delivery (Children and Young People's Unit, 2001). It is the new orthodoxy. Yet, hard questions are often avoided when reciting the mantra of participation. Why bother?…

Those who are most marginalized, both culturally and economically, in society are concentrated in the nation's largest urban centers and have the least opportunities to be successful in school science or to pursue higher education and career trajectories in science, mathematics, or engineering. This article shares the results of a study in which…

Student teaching may require student teachers to address the demands of two masters that often have very different expectations and philosophies. They are caught in a bind of being expected to implement methods advocated in university coursework while also being expected to fit into the classroom to which they are assigned. This bind is further…

This article explores the challenges facing the South African National Department of Education in its commitment to provide equal educational opportunities for all. "The Story of Nothemba" is central to the theme of this paper. It describes the story of a South African girl born in eQebe, whose physical disability and systematic…

This essay draws from the work of William James and three African American pragmatists, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison and Cornel West, to explore the moral relevance of the self as an empowered agent among African American youth. The focus is on Jamesian agency as a function of the individual's awareness of options in context, the self-empowerment…

Within this book Leadership for Social Justice: Promoting Equity and Excellence Through Inquiry and Reflective Practice the contributors provide a variety of rich perspectives to the social justice phenomenon from the lens of empirical, historical, narrative, and conceptual designs. These designs reiterate the importance of bridging theory and…

"Teachers' Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese Nation-State" is an innovative account of educational and social transformations in politically tumultuous early twentieth-century China. It focuses on the unique nature of Chinese teachers' schools, which bridged Chinese and Western ideals, and the critical role that these schools…

This volume in the Language Teacher Research Series (Thomas S. C. Farrell, series editor) presents research conducted by language teachers at all levels, from high school English teachers to English language teacher educators, reflecting on their practices. The countries represented in this book are Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador,…

Racism is part of the foundation of U.S. society and institutions, yet few studies in community psychology or organizational studies have examined how racism affects organizations. This paper proposes a conceptual framework of institutional racism, which describes how, in spite of professional standards and ethics, racism functions within…

Holistic education lacks a single definition but may be described through a number of recurrent themes that appear in the literature. These themes have been used to develop underlying values that reflect this educational approach and the behaviours associated with these values are described. A person profile is presented from these values and…

This study applied self-efficacy theory to assess empowerment to advocate on behalf of tobacco control policies. The Youth Tobacco Survey with added policy advocacy self-efficacy, attitudes, and outcome expectations scales was given to 9,177 high school students in Texas. Asians showed the lowest prevalence of experimentation and current smoking,…