This paper argues that the conceptions of "space" (and increasingly "time") in the discussion of "the university" (in its most transcendent sense) have gone through four distinct phases in the UK. Using a Heideggerian conception of "space" where usefulness is more important than proximity, the…

Focusing on parental networks--a central dimension of social capital--this article uses ethnographic data to examine social-class differences in the relations between families and schools. We detail the characteristics of networks across different classes and then explore the ways that networks come into play when parents are confronted by…

Older cities in the United States have long been trying to "bring back" the middle class in order to increase tax base. The poor quality of schools and the presence of public housing often were cited as deterrents for attracting higher income families. When the 2000 Census data revealed improvements in many cities, some elected officials…

To explore meanings attached to children in Mexican society, this article examines two changing aspects of child circulation, a widespread reproductive disruption to the families of Mexico City's working poor. In the late 1890s, a rapid rise in admissions to the public foundling home was matched by a striking increase in retrievals. At the other…

Challenging conventional characterization of teenage girlhood as a wasteland of depression, low self-esteem, and passive victimhood, this book presents accounts of young girls showing how their voices are shaped and constrained by socioeconomic class. Based on a year-long study involving conversations with white adolescent girls from the working…

Both lifelong learning and community are central to the mission of the National Federation of Women's Institutes (WI). Their website, for example, states that the WI aims to educate women to enable them to provide an effective role in the community, to expand their horizons and to develop and pass on important skills--key elements of lifelong…

The goal of closing achievement gaps between students of different socioeconomic status and race has eluded public schools for decades. Facing increased pressure from NCLB to reach this goal, some school districts have turned to a new experiment based on an old-fashioned vision: integrating students by socioeconomic income. Kahlenberg reviews the…

This study examines children's uses of reading resources in neighborhood public libraries that have been transformed to "level the playing field." Through foundation funding (US$20 million), the public library system of Philadelphia converted neighborhood branch libraries into a technologized modern urban library system, hoping to…

Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers and teacher educators recognizing and valuing difference. Too often, in teacher education programs, when markers of identity such as gender, ethnicity, "race", or social class are examined, the focus is on developing student teachers' understandings of how these discourses…

The Preschool Language Assessment Instrument (PLAI) was designed as a diagnostic tool for 3- to 6-year-old children to assess children's abilities to use language to solve thinking problems typically posed by teachers. The PLAI was developed after observing middle-class teachers in preschool classrooms encourage children to use language in…

To gather information on parent preferences regarding the type of information communicated by schools to families, a survey was distributed to 444 middle and upper-middle class parents in Michigan. The survey divided techniques used by schools to communicate with the community into five categories: information about classroom curricula, student…

Children prerated paired-associate nouns for likability and then learned them. The relationship between childrens' self concept and learning of affectively assessed verbal material was examined. Results indicate that learning along an affective dimension of meaningfulness can be influenced by personality-related variables such as self-concept.…

The inquiry determined that the Protestant ministry fits Papahek's model (1973) of the two-person career (the wife's contributions are informally required by the husband's employment) and supported her contention that the two-person career derails women from their own careers, but not her theory that education is the derailing agent. (Author/AJ)

A study was made to determine whether nurses apply scientific theories in rearing their children or whether social class values have more influence on their childrearing practices. Surveyed were 119 registered nurses whose educational levels ranged from a diploma to a doctorate in nursing; 62 percent of the nurses responded. A questionnaire was…

Over a 2-year period, stability of performance on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children of 25 nonhandicapped preschool children was examined. Overall, results indicated a high level of stability for both global scale scores and subtest scores. Less stability was indicated for performance patterns and subtest strengths and weaknesses. (PCB)