In this article, I focus on the empowering potential of a participatory practice that frames walking as integral to a performative, self-mapping, and aesthetic process. By discussing my experience as a participant in "Ere Be Dragons" (2007), a work by the artists collective Active Ingredient (Rachel Jacobs and Matt Watkins), I set out some new…

This empirical study explored the impression management techniques and standardized performances college students use on their Facebook profiles to ensure their peers believe they are fully participating in the undergraduate experience. Employing an ethnographic research design and data collected using participant-observation and interview…

Drawn from a longitudinal ethnographic study, this article elaborates the trajectories linking one undergraduate's extracurricular journaling to her school writing and her emerging identity as a journalist. This portrait of literate development highlights how our sense of ourselves as literate persons is forged in the interplay of multiple…

Student protests and occupations are not new phenomena. On February 10, 1355, what came to be known as the St. Scholastica Day riot occurred. Oxford students and townspeople clashed after a dispute in a local tavern and almost one hundred people were killed. But while student protests have occurred throughout history, the 1960s introduced a new…

Self-assertion involves an individual's search for and realization of his own special path in the world, his values and purpose in life in every given moment. It is a process that accompanies a person throughout his life. Self-assertion becomes exceptionally important in adolescence as it marks a turning point in one's attitude toward oneself; one…

A growing interest among educators, families, and students to personalize education and nurture the development of whole child has led to a new movement in elementary education: integral education. This qualitative study reported on the work of one school in that movement, the Integral Elementary School in La Jolla, California, to illuminate what…

Australia holds some of the most unique, diverse and vulnerable ecosystems in the world, ranging from marine, coral reefs, to the arid and semi-arid outback, to tropical rainforests. Young children's perceptions of, and attitudes to their environment carry with them into adulthood, determining their capacity to learn about and interact with their…

Schools are beset with a serious "alienation gap" between teachers and students that is no less a problem than the "achievement gap." Increasing student voice is thought to be one means to fill the gap, for it activates agency and thereby decreases passivity. The extent of agency ranges from attentive adult listening to strong student leadership.…

The integration of expressive activities in play groups with preadolescents encourages them to reach more deeply into their own resources, enabling them to handle future challenges more effectively. Developmental and therapeutic rationale, along with research support, is given for the integration of creative activities into a humanistic play group…

At-risk students who have struggled to find success in school are often not easily motivated, but they are drawn to nontraditional or offbeat art and any opportunity that offers them the chance to speak their mind. Using a somewhat obscure and ancient art form called micrography, the author describes how he uses this art form in his class to…

This study has two central aims. Both are associated with self-expression, which is defined as the ability to fully utilize one's own talents and abilities. The first goal is to see if self-expression reduces depressive symptoms over time whereas the second aim is to see whether close companion friends help older people more fully utilize their…

The research purpose was to investigate kindergarten parents' selection of after-school art education settings in Taiwan. A review of the literature and interviews with parents were conducted to identify several possible factors that would impact on parents' selection of after-school art education settings for their children. Then, the researcher…

The lack of strong literacy skills and practices among students is perhaps the clearest indicator that the education system continues to leave millions of children behind. To advance the reading, writing, and speaking skills of middle and high school students, this study examines a professional development model that brought trained…

This dissertation aims to expand the definition of literacy beyond its usual text and school-based practice. It studies the online diary as a sociocultural and literacy practice that allows people from various languages and cultures to share their personal experiences and values. The participants are five Thai English as foreign language (EFL)…

A series of articles appearing in English-language Jewish newspapers in the United States and the United Kingdom have recently announced the "blogosphere"--the world of discourse propelled by the technological innovation of online interactive diaries known as "weblogs"--as a new liberating arena for Orthodox Jewish women. In…