Education in many countries is used to initiate children and young people into publicly accepted forms of knowledge and to further a common identity among members and citizens of the nation-state. This study discusses both an uncritical initiation to such knowledge and the value of criticality as an educational goal in terms of critical thinking,…

Wild parties, late nights, and lots of sex, drugs, and alcohol. Many assume these are the things that define an American teenager's first year after high school. But the reality is really quite different. As Tim Clydesdale reports in "The First Year Out", teenagers generally manage the increased responsibilities of everyday life immediately after…

Raising a gifted child is both a joy and a challenge, yet parents of gifted children have few resources for reliable parenting information. The four authors, who have decades of professional experience with gifted children and their families, provide practical guidance in areas such as: Characteristics of gifted children; Peer relations; Sibling…

The authors offer the image of our nation as a nautical convoy. Some boats are large, well built, and able to ride out the heaviest of turbulent seas. Others are smaller, but still quite sturdy, and able to survive. Many however, are fragile, meagerly equipped, and easily capsized in rough waters. This convoy is in the midst of a perfect storm…

The purpose of this paper is to provide a strength-based discussion of the relationship between parenting values of low-income African Americans and the academic performance of their school-aged children. Using resilience theory as a framework (Seccombe, 2002), the authors suggest that African American parents in low-resourced communities have…

The third volume of "The Soul of Educational Leadership" series offers key concepts and strategies for sustaining the critically important work of professional learning communities. With contributions from Shirley Hord, Maurice Elias, Karen Seashore Louis, Andy Hargreaves, and other nationally known educators, this essential reading for all school…

An example of the use of critical science questions provides insight related to one particular family over a 2 year period. The cultures of providers and recipients are viewed simultaneously to examine the cultural differences.

Despite the intense focus on the achievement gap that exists between African American, Latino, and other students of color and their White counterparts, the achievement gap discourse keeps us locked in the deficit paradigm. This article challenges us to look at the inherent fallacies of the achievement gap discourse and place students' academic…

Effective educational and management programs to improve water quality will require an improved understanding of public perceptions of the relationship between land use and water quality. We analyzed a large database of newspaper articles in the Upper Mississippi River Basin to assess the public discourse about water quality and land use, and…

The School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism at Lakehead University offers a third-year course on ecological literacy. The course evolved from one with a predominant scientific approach to studying the bioregion to one that embraced a broader epistemological stance, giving greater authority, voice, and presence to nearby landscapes. This…

The modern education system aims at promoting the life quality of individuals, and it requires a philosophical perception and curriculum development approach in line with this aim. In this context, the basic philosophy is to teach people how to learn, have democratic attitudes, convene for teamwork, be able to use information, and think in a…

This article reports on the values and moral dilemmas of one Icelandic headteacher. The article draws on doctoral research currently being conducted with educational leaders in Icelandic basic schools. The research explores the values underpinning the work of female and male educational leaders and how values impact upon their actions, in…

There has been little research on intimate partner violence (IPV) in faith-based communities. This qualitative study examines social attitudes and religious values in an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community that affect the incidence of IPV and prevent women survivors from seeking help. Interviews were conducted with 8 Orthodox women and 11 community…

In this article, Eric Freedman examines the extent to which critical pedagogy can be considered a democratic form of education. Comparing Paulo Freire's notion of dialogue to Jurgen Habermas's "ideal speech situation," Freedman argues that such dialogue cannot realistically occur in educational situations where the teacher remains in an…

When immigrating to a new society individuals typically have different behavioural patterns and cultural values than the host country. These differences often lead to acculturation difficulties among immigrants. The purpose of this study was to examine how behavioural and value acculturation affects cultural adjustment problems among Korean…