This article proposes a critical theoretical paradigm for the evaluation of university-community-school partnerships. Although numerous models have been posited for assessing these collaborative endeavors, few of them have granted adequate attention to the voices of community partners, and none have centered on systemic issues of power and…

This chapter examines the role of a national network of local and regional intermediary organizations in initiating and sustaining community-based youth worker professional development systems. This approach is instructive for other intermediaries in establishing training standards, assessing impact, providing organizational supports for youth…

Many online classes use synchronous communication--chat--as a way to conduct class discussion. However, chat can quickly disintegrate into nonproductive chaos if allowed to flow unchecked. The tools provided by course management systems such as Blackboard provide one solution to this problem by allowing instructors to grant or deny access to…

This paper centres on the sense of isolation that online study may engender among learners, a factor often ignored by many educators, but one that may make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful online learning environment for many students. The importance of a proper appreciation of the learners' social context is stressed, as is…

This article elaborates a model for understanding pedagogy in online educational forums. The model identifies four key components. Intellectual engagement describes the foreground cognitive processes of collaborative learning. Communication processes operating in the background accumulate an ever richer store of shared understandings that enable…

Foster care in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland has been in crisis throughout the past decade. This is most clearly demonstrated in the shortage of placements for children. The difficulty in recruiting new carers has taken a new significance for most agencies that struggle with more referrals than placements. As it becomes more difficult to…

This study examines a public school administrator network from a qualitative paradigm using network theory and methods. Findings identify and describe four distinct networks emerging from administrators' relationships: the innovation network, the resource network, the social/emotional support network, and the university-school partnership network.…

Helping teachers to change practices by adopting new tools and pedagogical approaches is of interest to a wide range of educational researchers and practitioners. This article describes a teacher, Ms. Hogan, who is an early adopter of a technological innovation: the authoring tool Squeak. We analyze email messages from Ms. Hogan applying Rogers'…

The paper critically reviews the concept of "global flows", beginning with the discussions of flows and networks in Appadurai (1996), Castells (2000) and Held "et al." (1999). Emphasising the need to embed "global flows" in agency and history, and to explore global connectedness in terms of situated cases, the paper…

Training young people in work-related interpersonal skills can be difficult. For them adopting ritualistic tactics such as using an extreme opening statement in a negotiation is a very different approach to communicating than the cryptic and concise technique they use when, for example, they send a text message. This study assesses whether the use…

A study assessed the activities of five state networks that were designed to transfer experience-based career education (EBCE) ownership to appropriate state and local institutions and to develop a state-level support system for continued implementation of EBCE in local districts. Focus of the analysis was on factors contributing to EBCE entry,…

Results from a 1985 survey show female superintendents in only 2.4 percent of United States public school districts. A summary of interviews with women superintendents gives reasons for this underrepresentation, describes external barriers and internal constraints facing women superintendents, and offers advice to other women aspiring to the…

This field study represents a departure from structured, or directed, computer-mediated communication as used in its natural environment, the computer lab. Using observations, interviews, and the computer medium itself, the investigators report how high school students interact with computers and create their own agendas for computer usage and…

A growing number of international relations scholars argue that intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) promote peace. Existing approaches emphasize IGO membership as an important causal attribute of individual states, much like economic development and regime type. The authors use social network analysis to show that IGO memberships also create a…

This paper has analyzed the characteristic features of women's associations and problems inhibiting their effective participation in rural development projects in Osun State, Nigeria. One rural local government area was purposively selected in each of the six administrative zones in Osun State, based on high degrees of ruralness. A list of…