The author identified books most often selected among a sample of economically disadvantaged Black 8- to 12-year-old participants (N = 293) and investigated reasons participants offered for choosing specific books. Participants self-selected books at a book fair providing 412 books. The most commonly selected books supplied descriptive data.…

This paper looks at recent trends in Government policy and practice around supporting and involving parents of children with disabilities and special educational needs (SEN) in their care, development and education. In particular, the paper examines the opportunities offered in the Children's Plan ( DCSF, 2007) and "Aiming High" (HM TreasuryDfES,…

This article discusses a professional development text by Ruby Payne that claims to inform teachers about the lives and minds of children from poor households. We use Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1995; Gee, 2005; Rogers, Malancharuvil-Berkes, & Mosley, 2005) to examine how the author enlists readers' participation in deficit…

The present study examined whether positive parenting and deviant peer associations mediated the relations between a cumulative risk composite comprising financial strain, neighborhood problems, and maternal psychological distress and subsequent youth adjustment problems. Drawn from the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study, the…

Community and Individual Development Association (CIDA) City Campus is a private business college that provides bachelor's degrees to economically disadvantaged students in South Africa. CIDA's model of management education is in stark contrast to conventional business schools, which are not accessible to or adapted to students from extreme…

Everyone in the United States lives in multiple worlds including work, home, community, school, and social and religious groups. Individuals also have a number of identities and behavioral repertoires that shift among contexts. However, some children and families experience more discontinuities between school and home than others. These gaps are…

This qualitative study investigated the psychological experience of poverty among 2 groups of Filipinos who were interviewed about the effects of being raised poor, 12 who became rich, and 13 who remained poor. Using constructivist and critical theories as research paradigms and grounded theory as methodology, the results of the study illustrated…

Learning about local government seems boring and irrelevant to most young people, particularly to students from high-poverty backgrounds. The authors explore a promising approach for solving this problem, Storypath, which engages students in authentic learning and active citizenship. The Storypath approach is based on a narrative in which students…

This study examines the effects of public preschool expenditures on the math and science scores of 4th graders, holding constant child, family, and school characteristics, other relevant social expenditures, and country and year effects, in 7 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries--Australia, Japan, the…

This report describes a preventively oriented intervention program with 13 inner city toddlers identified as slow in early social and verbal development. Program components featured a committed human relationship, enrichment, modeling and shaping, and also a behavior modification sub-program unit. Program children evidenced significant…

The poor pay more than the non-poor for similar products in many consumer goods markets. This disparity seems not to be addressed by consumer protection regulations like disclosure laws. Several lines of argument suggest that the poor will not benefit from disclosure regulation either because they lack the ability to use information effectively…

LARGE SCALE EMPLOYMENT OF THE UNEMPLOYED POOR AS NONPROFESSIONALS IN THE HUMAN SERVICES IS BEING PROPOSED AS A MAJOR DETERRENT TO POVERTY. SOME PROPONENTS STATE THAT NOT ONLY WILL LARGE NUMBERS OF POOR PEOPLE BE EMPLOYED, BUT THE QUALITY OF SERVICES WILL BE IMPROVED. CRITICS OF THIS APPROACH ARGUE THAT MANY POOR PERSONS ARE TOO DEBILITATED BY THE…

As part of this dissertation a handbook was written for student teachers and beginning teachers working with economically disadvantaged black children. It integrates practical classroom teaching experiences with pertinent research findings, readings, and literature of the black community. It introduces the reader to an understanding of the…

There are two types of poor: the upwardly mobile and the stationary poor. The children of the latter present the greatest challenge to the public school system. Living in crowded quarters, poorly nourished, and given little preparation for the outside world, these children seem destined to fail. Their semiliterate mothers and fathers, if they have…