In this concluding article of the special issue entitled "Identity Formation in Educational Settings", we explicate the notion of identity as an integrative concept, discuss its growing popularity in the social sciences, and point to its special significance to education in contemporary society. Following an Eriksonian psychosocial approach and…

This study investigates the naming process of contextually non-categorical objects in children from 3 to 9 plus 13-year-olds. 112 children participated in the study. Children were asked to narrate a story individually while looking at Mercer Mayer's textless, picture book "Frog, where are you?" The narratives were audio recorded and transcribed.…

This paper examines the ways in which "Palestine" and "Palestinianess" are culturally, socially and symbolically produced and regulated through formal and non-formal institutional sites in Palestinian camps in south Lebanon. It argues that although institutional power, processes and outcomes help to construct shared notions of…

Children in late elementary and middle school tend to form friendships with same-race peers. Yet, given the potential benefits of cross-race friendships, it is important to understand the individual and contextual factors that increase the likelihood of cross-race friendship over time. Guided by contact hypothesis and systems theory, we examine…

Service learning is a methodology that promotes the participation of citizens in their community. This article presents a brief conceptualization of citizen participation, characteristics of service learning methodology, and validation of a programme that promotes service-learning projects. This validation highlights the suitability of this…

Framed by self-determination and identity development theories, this study examined the process through which participating in a community-based service-learning project supported high school students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness, and how these feelings were related to students' intentions for doing more service in the future.…

The purpose of this research was to dissect the connection between childhood homes and leadership. The study forms a part of a larger study on Finnish female leaders and their life paths. The following research question was set for this study: how did Finnish female leaders describe their childhood and home environment? It was studied through two…

Purpose: Identify barriers to career development and employment from both the survivor and parent perspective. Method: Young adult survivors (N = 43) and their parents participated in focus groups to elicit information regarding perceptions regarding career development and employment. Results: Perceptions of both the young adults and parents…

While it is accepted that there are "sensitive" and "critical" periods of life during which certain human capabilities are more readily acquired, and where the multiplied returns on our investment in human capability building are more significant, it is also argued that there are place-based contexts (society, nature, culture,…

The present article describes a two-year longitudinal study of two "at-risk" US teenagers who successfully transformed their unusually challenging high school experiences into motivation to become classroom teachers. Frank's adolescence was characterized by addiction and defiance. He spent his sophomore year in a locked, residential…

Growth, maturation, and development dominate the daily lives of children and adolescents for approximately the first 2 decades of life. Growth and maturation are biological processes, while development is largely a behavioral process. The 3 processes occur simultaneously and interact. They can be influenced by physical activity and also can…

With gap year activities, including expeditions, for young people worth an estimated £2 billion annually, the subject of transfer (or ensuring that outcomes offer positive benefits to participants' general lives) from these experiences is an important topic in outdoor education. This paper argues that many of the claims for a positive behavioural…

The idea of Matthew effects in reading--the widening achievement gap between good and poor reader--has attracted considerable attention in education research in the past 25 years. Despite the popularity of the topic, however, empirical studies that have analyzed the core assumption of Matthew effects in reading have produced inconsistent results.…

Due to the impact of Confucianism on Taiwanese society, Taiwanese married women play multiple family roles including being a daughter-in-law, wife, mother, and working woman. Having to play multiple roles usually brings Taiwanese married women burdens and stress. It is reported that Zen meditation improves people's physical and mental wellbeing.…

Recent years have shown the growth of federal legislation and programs having a profound impact on educational policy and practice, and a decline in reliance on broadly based educational justifications. Paralleling this development has been the emergence of well-endowed and influential private foundations, and an increase in corporate influence in…