This article starts with a personal introduction from a peace researcher who has not only been inspired by the works of Elise Boulding but who over the years had developed a personal relationship to her. It describes how Elise Boulding made it her concern to raise up the voices of the powerless and also to show the importance of the…

Food safety and quality assurance systems have emerged as a key mechanism of food governance in recent years and are also popular among alternative agrofood movements, such as the organic and fair trade movements. Rural sociologists have identified many problems with existing systems, including corporate cooptation, the marginalization of small…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are post-secondary institutions which, at one time, were considered to be particularly affected by the digital divide. Research study results have suggested the need for HBCUs to continuously increase campus technology. Guided by four research questions, this study examines the current state of…

In a sample of urban youth (N = 1,070), we examined the links between primary caregiver affect (i.e., warmth and hostility) and two measures of sexual behavior in adolescence--early sexual initiation and sex with multiple partners. We also examined the extent to which neighborhood disadvantage moderated associations between caregiver affect and…

Public schools around the world have been hijacked and deformed beyond recognition by the forces of the economy over the past three decades. This paper provides an analysis and a way out of this miasma around the notion of the socially just school. While not another prescription, this orientation is argued to be the most hopeful possibility for…

A rich history of scholarship has demonstrated the ways in which popular stereotypes of disenfranchised communities, including people living in poverty, affect individual biases and preconceptions. Less attention has been paid to the ways in which such stereotypes help frame policy and practice responses regarding social problems, such as the…

This exploratory study examined the Morning Message, an activity that is widely practiced in many early childhood curricula but has almost no empirical data to support its effectiveness. In total, 7 Head Start teachers and the 59 four-year-old children in their classrooms participated in this study. Using a qualitative observation system, we…

Almost two decades after the demise of apartheid, rural communities in South Africa are still plagued by seemingly insurmountable challenges, with no change in sight for those who need it most. In spite of the many interventions that have been implemented, real transformation remains elusive. This position paper is premised on the notion that this…

Investment in human capital is an important tool for reducing poverty. However, the poor may lack the capacity to aspire, which often results in underinvestment in their children's education. This paper studies the effect of a social program on the educational aspirations poor parents have for their children, and explores the role of exposure to…

Little is known about what predicts the budding sense of self-competence in preschoolers. This is particularly true of cognitive competence, which may have implications for later schooling. Based on previous research with older children, it was expected that feelings of self-competence would be influenced by attitudes of significant others as well…

This study examines whether high school relationship and marriage education can affect students' relationship skills and if effects vary between sites having mandated and self-selected course participation. Based on an original data set (n = 222), results show that course exposure can result in a significant, positive change in students'…

Background: Exposure to community violence compromises teacher effectiveness, student learning, and socioemotional well-being. This study examined the challenges, strategies, and support needs of teachers in urban schools affected by high levels of community violence. Methods: Twenty teachers from 3 urban middle schools with predominantly…

Improving the long-term life outcomes of disadvantaged youth remains a top policy priority in the United States, although identifying successful interventions for adolescents--particularly males--has proven challenging. This paper reports results from a large randomized controlled trial of an intervention for disadvantaged male youth grades 7-10…

Transformative learning, and its processes as proposed by Mezirow, has been the subject of much debate. This study contributes to the literature about these debates by examining transformative experiences within a foreign service-learning context. Canadian post-secondary students lived and worked to build a school in solidarity with a community in…

Introduction: Community health assessment (CHA) is a useful tool for identifying health status disparities at the community level. Developing the skills of master's level public health students to conduct CHA addresses a number of the Association of Schools of Public Health Core competencies for graduate public health education. Teaching…