Background: This paper re-conceptualizes issues related to teacher authority by integrating the constructivist (including social constructivist) and critical perspectives. The traditional perspectives perceive that teacher authority inhibits children's autonomy of learning. This perspective has been largely challenged by two groups of studies--the…

This article offers wisdom to those seeking to better engage young adolescents: children are inherently curious and eager to learn, and will be more so when adults step aside and give them room to stretch. The author describes tools and suggested practices on how to advance student empowerment to learn. Allowing students to make choices about…

School librarians and teachers are working together in a national movement to bring digital and media literacy to all citizens. When people think of the term "literacy," what generally springs to mind is reading and writing, speaking and listening. These are foundational elements of literacy. But because people use so many different types of…

Background/Context: This study examines the tactics that Haitian immigrant parents used to negotiate the boundaries around home and school, presenting the possibility that families play an active and deliberate role in creating distance between the worlds of home and school. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The following…

Teachers use narrative structures, both biographical and fictitious, to examine their teaching philosophies and practices simultaneously. Applying autoethnographic research methods to teaching data can result in cultural criticism, personal reflexivity, and empowerment. Autoethnographic research can have aesthetic and emotional or empathetic…

In an environment of rapid technological change, countries in the developed and developing worlds need to improve the population's skills and competences. Since 1992, education reforms and various education sector documents and policy frameworks have been implemented to improve quality of education by getting more children into school through the…

This article sets out to re-conceptualise gender equality in education quality. Four approaches to conceptualising gender equitable education quality are identified in the literature: human capital theory with a focus on parity and sameness for all; a human rights and power perspective, within which gender equality is viewed as transforming unjust…

Examining Malcolm Browne's photograph of the burning monk as well as appropriations of it by the Ministers' Vietnam Committee, I argue that self-immolation is a powerful rhetorical act that utilizes self-inflicted violence as a means of performing a visual embodiment of violence done by an "other." I assert that the power and resonance…

Social justice counseling, like all humanistic models, recognizes the dignity of each human being, affirms the right of all people to choose and work toward their own goals, and asserts the importance of service to community. The social justice paradigm brings a special emphasis on the role of the environment. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

This study investigates the cross-national institutionalization of English as a regular school subject over the past century and discusses how the rise of English as a global language in today's curricular policy models around the world reflects an expansive conception of supranational citizenship. Our extensive comparative and historical data…

The research reported in this paper follow up a recent study by the authors on perceived control by examining what role working in a union or nonunion college has in influencing faculty job satisfaction. Using data from the 1993, 1999, and 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, this study explored the relative importance of variables,…

Personal narratives can be useful epistemological tools or qualitative study methods that promote alternative ways of knowing in the classroom. Promoting interactive and meaningful classroom experiences involves motivating students in creative and innovative ways. In this essay, the authors discuss the use of personal narration as a pedagogical…

Empowering women to control and change their lives continues to be an important goal for many nations. This article examines the empowering effects of being selected and trained to lead rural schools in Bangladesh, using survey and interview data from 152 village women working with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee education programme.…

Curriculum is constructed with the learner as its central focus. Yet the voice of the learner is largely excluded from the curriculum design and implementation process. The author is both an educator and administrator and the intent of this paper is to provide other educators with a deeper understanding of the potential for increased learning when…

This qualitative study explored the impact of a Midwestern Christian liberal arts university's comprehensive mission outcome through in-depth interviews of several graduated students. The university implemented a refocusing of mission in the late 1990s which integrated intellectual challenge, spiritual growth, and leadership development to enable…