Creating a virtual classroom in which diverse students feel welcome to discuss and experience topics related to social justice, action, and change is a study in the value of connectedness and collaboration. Through a combination of technologies, pedagogies, and on-site experiences, virtual cultures develop that encourage the formation of demanding…

This article describes efforts to introduce students in a first-year studies course to social justice principles with attention to the initial preparation of students for social activism. After describing the coursework and related activities, we share the findings--from observation and survey sources--associated with the initial social activism…

Using the National Standards' 5 C's as a framework, the authors examine student success in Spanish community service-learning at making connections across academic disciplines, to information and viewpoints that they encounter in the community, and to concrete social action. We use data from students, instructors, and community partners involved…

The interest-convergence principle proposes that change benefitting people and communities of color only occurs when those interests also benefit Whites. As newly transplanted Chicano/a residents of a state facing exponential growth of its Latino immigrant population, we have attempted to counter the efforts criminalizing members of our Latino/a…

The Xicana Sacred Space resulted from an effort to develop a framework that would center the complexities of Chicana ontology and epistemology as they relate to social action projects in our communities. Claiming indigenous roots and ways of knowing, the Xicana Sacred Space functions as a decolonizing tool by displacing androcentric and Western…

The significance of both higher education and career counselling is outlined. The predominant matching paradigm for career development service delivery is described. Its implications for reinforcing the status quo in the South African community are identified and questioned. The Chaos Theory of Careers (CTC) is suggested as an alternative…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive list of student-led, campus-based climate change initiatives, and offers details on many specific cases. The paper also documents the roles students have played and considers the larger youth engagement implications. Many of these initiatives can be replicated elsewhere, thereby…

One problem with the literature of correctional education (CE) and prison reform is that the contributions of African Americans have been generally neglected. This is the first of three essays that will begin to fill that gap. Janie Porter Barrett was an important Virginia leader in the period before and after the turn of the 20th century. She…

In this article, the author tells how her students researched every aspect of their own beloved stuffed animals, which led to an interview with a labor leader. When students learned that children in other countries played a role in manufacturing their stuffed animals, sometimes in unhealthy conditions, they decided to take action as citizens. As…

There are many challenges facing those educators who strive to ensure that their pre-service teachers understand the issues surrounding equity and social justice. In response to these challenges, and in response to the interests, questions, and concerns of the faculty in a School of Education, two professors worked collaboratively with…

This article, a critical review of a module on heterosexism and homophobia, sets out the challenges to be overcome if the oppressive conditions for lesbian, gay, and bisexual students and teachers in South Africa are to be changed. It draws on evidence from student assignments, records of participatory discussions and the notes of the authors, who…

The consequences of the neo-liberal societal "speed-up" are lived at the apparently contradictory intersection of mobile lifestyles and obesogenic environments. The focus for public health interventions is the bodies of children. Recent interpretive research into how pre-teenaged children talk about watching television suggests that…

The exploration of poetry as transformative reflects a literary movement attentive to larger struggles over signs and meanings. It is a movement that emphasizes textual play and seeks to alter the social, cultural, and institutional relations in which meanings are generated. Poetry in this sense, then, emphasizes the power of words as a form of…

In this study, the aim was to examine how small-group collaboration is shaped by individuals interacting in a virtual multiplayer game. The data were collected from a design experiment in which six randomly divided groups of four university students played a voice-enhanced game lasting about 1 h. The "eScape" game was a social action adventure…

For the first time in the history of collective action, the offline world has experienced a virtually organized and enacted union strike. While this was the first publicly noticed political action in a virtual world, others have been going on for several years now. As virtual worlds continue to grow in popularity, this type of protest of action…