This article presents two case studies of marginalized youth experimenting with digital music production in flexible education settings. The cases were drawn from a 3-year study of alternative assessment in flexible learning centres for youth who have left formal schooling in Queensland, Australia. The educational issues are framed by reference to…

In this manuscript, the guest editors of the EPAA Special Issue on "Democracy's College: The American Community College in the 21st Century": a) introduce the background, history, and context of community colleges in the larger higher education landscape; b) summarize the three research papers and two video commentaries that were…

Nomadic groups are highly discriminated against in access to education services, and the 2010 Education For All Global Monitoring Report demanded urgent action to address their education deprivation. Mobile pastoralists, particularly, appear to be falling beyond the remit of migration studies in education, although they are among the most mobile…

The purpose of this study was to pilot the Positive Life Changes (PLC) program, a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral intervention for at-risk adolescents that aims to promote social competencies and to prevent aggression. The program was piloted in 4 intervention groups with a sample of 31 self-referred adolescents (M age 15.64) attending an…

This study presents the findings related to the use of homebound instruction as a special education service model and to the practices and perceptions of service providers in the areas of personal effectiveness, model effectiveness, and administrator support. A self-administered survey was distributed to a national sample of 484 educators from two…

Assessing people's understanding of the causal relationships found in large-scale complex systems may be necessary for addressing many critical social concerns, such as environmental sustainability. Existing methods for assessing systems thinking and causal understanding frequently use the technique of cognitive causal mapping. However, the…

The researchers examined the online social networking attitudes of underperforming Latino high school students in an alternative education program that uses technology as the prime venue for learning. A sequential explanatory mixed methods study was used to cross-check multiple sources of data explaining students' levels of comfort with utilizing…

Digital media and open educational resources (OER) are said to redraw the boundaries between learners and teachers, by weakening the centralization of expertise and the distribution of subject-matter authority. This paper presents the findings of an ethnographic study of how the use of OER mediates the relations between self-directed learners and…

This articles describes an occurrence that has been happening during the past two to three decades--a steadily increasing number of educational institutions that provide students with the opportunity to earn degrees without having to conform to the elaborate set of policies, procedures, and regulations long associated with so called traditional…

Strategies for understanding the effect of negative life events on the psychosocial development of youth have focused on the aggregate association between risk factors and poor developmental outcomes. However, there is a strand of research in developmental psychology that has pushed for understanding the contextual nature of negative life events;…

The purpose of the current study was to assess the effects of an alternative to suspension intervention on students' subsequent major referrals. The intervention included activities designed to teach social coping strategies as well as mediation to resolve interpersonal conflicts. The intervention was implemented in a therapeutic high school, and…

This qualitative case-study explores questions about the stratifying role of public alternative schools created for "at-risk" youth by analyzing the school experience of students who attend a single continuation high school and the process of student enrollment and referral to that school. Drawing on the concept of whiteness as property,…

Context: A growing body of work reflects the ways in which gender-creative and transgender students are ill-served by current social climates in the vast majority of public schools. Few studies have explored this topic from an educator's perspective. Purpose: This study was designed to develop a conception of the barriers and supports that exist…

As institutions seek to offer students an educational experience equipped with opportunities to develop as not only active learners but also engaged citizens, service-learning initiatives in the form of alternative spring breaks (ASB) have become prevalent. This study examines the potential of ASBs, as service-learning initiatives, to deliver a…

A mixed methods convergent evaluation informed the redesign of an innovative public school that uses an accelerated model to serve grades 7-9 students who have been retained in grade level and are at risk for dropping out of school. After over 25 years in operation, a shift of practices/policies away from grade retention and toward social…