This article presents comments on "Definitions and Omissions of Heroism" by Jeffery W. Martens which is a comment on the original article "The Heroism of Women and Men" by Selwyn W. Becker and Alice H. Eagly. Becker and Eagly welcome the opportunity to discuss the questions about defining heroism that Martens raised in his comment on their…

Effects of mentoring on Mexican American high school students' career aspirations were examined. Results indicated most students had a mentor, and mentors were most helpful through role modeling, verbal encouragement, personal support, and providing career guidance. Gender differences were found on several outcome variables but were not detected…

The athlete role model has emerged as the new pastor invested with the task of leading young people classed "at-risk" from entering into self-destructive pathways. The logic invested in the athlete role model is that young people identify with their sporting heroes and in the process try to emulate them. This holds for the major sporting…

A group (n = 170) of inner-city, predominantly African American, health clinic patients were asked to identify the characteristics they desired in a new clinic health educator. A plurality (44%) of the patients perceived a bachelor's degree would be a sufficient level of education. The vast majority of patients claimed the sex of the health…

What exactly is perfect? Students describe perfection as a combination of characteristics valued by their peer culture: intelligence, thin and fit physical appearance, social poise. As students chug through their daily lives--morning classes, organization meetings, club sports practice or the gym, dinner, another class, more meetings, library,…

To examine how school characteristics are tied to science and engineering views and aspirations of students who are underrepresented in science and engineering fields, this mixed-methods study explores relationships between aspects of students' science identities, and the representation of women among high school science teachers. Quantitative…

This study focused on examining the roles that leaders, in particular college presidents, may play in creating organizational learning that helps move diversity agendas forward. This study highlights under-examined information sources (students own stories and experiences) for creating organizational learning that can advance a diversity agenda.…

In this article, the authors describe the Reading Buddies program. In this program, children of varied ages experience cooperation and mutual respect, have fun together, and share themselves with others. When Reading Buddies meet, reading and learning to read are the activities, yet another real benefit appears to be the enhancement of the…

Civic responsibility as an ideal of higher education is rarely considered through a cultural and theoretical lens. Swidler's (1986, "American Sociological Review", 51: 273-286) framework linking ideology, culture and action was used in this ethnographic study of a research university (a) to understand dominant institutional beliefs about civic…

Purpose: The success of schools fundamentally depends on teachers' willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty, namely, to exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Attempts to understand the causes of OCB frequently focus on individual characteristics; only recently have researchers begun to direct their attention to more…

The objective of this qualitative study was to establish the existing positive factors in the lives of 18 juvenile males living in a low-security correctional facility in order to determine approaches which foster resiliency. Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, an approach to understanding human development within the context of the…

This study examined two pilot mentoring programs which were designed to provide information on the feasibility of integrating mentoring relationships into the juvenile justice system. Each program, one in St. Louis, Missouri and one in Atlanta, Georgia, sought to recruit, train, and match 100 adult volunteers (half over the age of 55) with 100…

New educational programs are attempting to meet the needs of male African American students. The new programs vary widely in approach, scope, content, and targeted age group. However, they all focus on helping African American male youth develop productive behaviors and values by bringing them into contact with African American male adults. The…

This study investigates the efficacy of symbolic modeling and role-playing therapy in the reduction of avoidance behaviors. After treatment, role-playing subjects demonstrated significantly less avoidance behavior and lower subjective fear ratings than the modeling or control group subjects. (Author/SJL)