This paper explores the relationship between notions of parent involvement and conceptions of care as they relate to educators' deficit perceptions of African American mothers. Black feminist and womanist interpretations of the ethic of care are used to reframe the biased discourse on parent involvement in schools. Specific consideration is given…

This article reports findings from an international study about dilemmas of difference in relation to special educational needs and disability in education. It was part of a larger study of the perspectives of 132 education practitioners and policy makers in England, the USA and the Netherlands to a range of dilemmas of difference. It also…

We found support for a four-part model of autonomy that links connectedness, separation, detachment, and agency to adjustment during emerging adulthood. Based on self-report surveys of 285 American college students, expected associations among the autonomy variables were found. In addition, agency, as measured by self-reliance, predicted lower…

Since the first postgraduate certificate in higher education teaching and learning was offered in Australia in the late 1970s, similar courses have become a major part of academic development in universities in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This paper describes the outcomes of a survey designed to determine the key higher…

Community colleges are an integral part of the American higher education system, providing open access to postsecondary education to all who have the ability to benefit. These institutions, however, often suffer from negative perceptions regarding their effectiveness and quality of instruction. Community colleges can address these perceptions by…

The purpose of this study was to explore the learning experiences and teachers' behaviors valued by students who attended southern rural segregated schools during the 1940s-1960s, The qualitative data yielded four themes: (a) memories of caring teachers, (b) memories of teachers as professionally, (c) memories of teachers as participants of the…

Diverse perspectives with respect to Christian Education constitute a potential path for misunderstanding and contradictions; this study considers this situation in the context of a Seventh-day Adventist Christian system with students and parents from different religious perspectives in Chile. The parents/sponsors of the eighth graders were…

This paper is based on findings from the first phase of a longitudinal project examining how a group of students from diverse backgrounds succeed in higher education. The concept of perspective transformation is used to explore students' stories about factors that influenced them on their journey to university, including socio-economic background,…

Increasing numbers of Korean sojourner families are moving to an English-speaking country on a short-term basis in the hope of improving educational and linguistic outcomes for their children. This study reports the findings of an ethnographic case study of 10 families in southern England. The motivation for the move to the UK is explored, paying…

Equity in assessment concerns all educational authorities and practitioners. While educators commonly consider issues of equity in terms of accommodations for students with special needs, or addressing cultural difference, equity issues in educational assessment have emerged outside these bases. This paper examines equity assessment issues,…

Given the importance of the upcoming Presidential election, not only to the nation as a whole but to higher education, this article presents a set of letters to the President-elect from a group of higher-education leaders: Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings; Molly Broad, president of the American Council on Education; Sir John Daniel,…

This paper suggests that rather than criminalising or pathologising truancy as a "deviant" behaviour in need of either treatment or punishment, truancy should be considered as a rational enactment of dissatisfaction with State educational provision. It should be of little surprise that attempts to "solve" the truancy…

This article explores the ways in which the neo-liberal impetus toward the privatization of state schooling signalled in the Education Reform Act 1988 (ERA) has become embedded in the English school system. Four main points are made. First, that ERA itself was of huge strategic rather than substantive importance as far as privatization is…

California's public schools have struggled since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, and today face enormous challenges to try to regain lost quality and standing as a national education leader. In light of the current economic crisis, competition for limited resources is fierce and the pressure is on to eliminate all but the basic "Three…

This empirical study examined changes in beginning teachers' pupil control ideologies (PCI). Quantitative analyses were conducted with regard to shifts in PCI that may be associated with internal beliefs about education and with external factors such as mentorship, induction programs, and school leadership style. Follow-up interviews facilitated a…