Investigates the relationship between widespread childhood poverty and the effect of deep parental rootedness in nonaffluence, focusing on middle-class Blacks. As a group, disproportionate numbers of them have experienced poverty. Results indicate attitudinal and behavioral legacies of poverty and suggest interclass similarities in the Black…

Examines background factors of nineteenth-century education, especially the development of systematic training for elementary school mistresses, and social class. Concentrates on Whitelands College's recruitment of future teachers with reference to their social class. (NH)

Analyzes oral narrative told to peers by a Black girl and compares it to one told to an adult female by a White middle-class girl. Proposes that the White girl's style is compatible with school-based values governing speech and writing, while the Black girl's style is compatible with cultures emphasizing verbal mastery but is not compatible with…

Examined the performance of kindergartners from middle- and low-income families on arithmetic calculations presented in a nonverbal format and in three verbal formats. Children from middle-income families performed better than those from low-income families on verbal calculation tasks but not on the nonverbal task. (BC)

A study of 53 8- to 10-year-old children from African-American and white working- to middle-class families in Chattanooga (Tennessee) supports the hypothesis that, compared to white children, African-American children are less stereotyped in their responses to African-American and white infants. Gender differences are evident for Whites but not…

Believes that with the turn of the millennium, the United States should undergo a self-examination of the state of democracy in the country. Addresses various concerns in relation to societal reform movements and idealism, the country's performance on the world stage, inequalities still prevalent in society, and the call for social justice. (CMK)

The economic reforms that are being carried out in Russia have brought to the forefront a number of problems that have to do with the development of the social and structural transformation of society, with changes in the position of particular groups and strata of the population. It is in structures of production that local labor markets are…

The family--via communication (or lack thereof)--is a primary avenue for sexuality education. While most research on family sexuality communication has examined the content of parent-child communication (e.g. topics discussed), relatively few studies have assessed the process, the way in which communication occurs. This paper presents an analysis…

In this paper we examine the discursive resources that year 4 and year 8 students draw on to construct meanings for health. Drawing on students' responses to tasks in the New Zealand National Monitoring Project (Crooks & Flockton, "Health & Physical Education", University of Otago Educational Assessment Research Unit, 1999) we…

This essay describes service learning as a space for civic dialogue. In the project-oriented course discussed below--an oral history of a south-side African-American neighborhood in Chicago--civic dialogue took shape when middle class students from a range of backgrounds at the Illinois Institute of Technology interviewed residents of different…

While economic capital is not synonymous with cultural, social or symbolic capital in either its constitutional or organizational form, it nevertheless remains the more flexible and convertible form of capital. The convertibility of economic capital has particular resonance within "Celtic Tiger" Ireland. The states reluctance to fully…

The last eight years have created radical realignments in Australia's political landscape. The Prime Minister's bitterest enemies are precisely the same people who would once have been Australian Liberalism's stalwarts. The author writes on the legacy of Australia's culture wars. For responses, see EJ848173: "Aussie Battler, or Worldly…

This study examined the idea that toddlers in some communities are accorded a privileged status in which they are allowed what they want, assumed not yet to "understand" how to cooperate. U.S. middle-class and Guatemalan Mayan mothers and 3- to 5-year-old siblings were observed while the siblings and toddlers (14-20 months) both sought…

Timetables for adolescents' behavioural autonomy were examined using a modified version of Feldman and Quatman's (1988) teen timetable measure with 73 middle-class African American middle adolescents (M age = 14.96 years, SD = 1.29) and their parents (73 mothers and 44 fathers), who were followed longitudinally for 3 years. African American…

This report was undertaken to assess the state of civic capacity for education reform in Philadelphia. It challenges community and civic sectors of the city to put aside individual interests and work together to mobilize resources to pursue the collective good of public school improvement. The report demonstrates that many of the elements…