Few studies have researched career guidance and information policies, particularly at the regional and local level. This article analyses Sweden's national governance of career guidance in schools from 1950 to 2007, and governance at the local level in today's highly decentralised Swedish educational system. The analysis is based on national…

How do people use education to respond to change? How do people learn what is expected of "good citizens" in their communities? These questions have long concerned educational historians, civic educators, and social scientists. In recent years, they have captured national attention through high-profile education reform proposals and…

This paper explores how bilingual learners and teachers challenge the monolingual discourses prescribed in language education policy and models in pursuit of voice and agency in classroom interaction. Through an examination of observation, interview and classroom interaction data in selected coloured primary and secondary schools in Cape Town, the…

Several New England states have been rethinking the system whereby small towns make the key decisions about school budgets and staffing under the banner of local control. Maine already has mandated a reduction in the number of local school districts from 290 to 80, allowing localities to vote on the larger districts. This consolidation, unpopular…

Economic and demographic changes in rural areas continue to introduce big-city problems in small towns. These communities' ability and willingness to respond are likely to be influenced by the geography, culture, and array of organizations in rural places. But how these characteristics of rural places shape local response is hard to predict and as…

The aim of this article is to discuss how learning opportunities can be organized to promote expansive learning in work practice. The discussion draws on results from a case study examining local development work and conditions that facilitate processes of expansive learning in a work team within a public sector organization in a Swedish…

This article presents a critical review of instruments used to evaluate compulsory schools in Sweden and is part of a doctoral programme project investigating the relationship between school architecture and learning. In Sweden, as in many countries, evaluation instruments are used both to improve school quality and as a means to provide…

Based on suggestions made by routine activities theory and data from two surveys, the present study discusses the use of adult guardians as a means to counter drug use among adolescents who seek out unsupervised routine activities with peers. Two surveys with 13- to 15-year-olds were conducted 4 years apart in a Norwegian town (Ns = 1,455 and…

Isolation and lack of services for members of minority groups can be real hurdles for colleges in small towns and rural areas that want to diversify their work forces. The chance to meet people from the same background, worship in a shared faith, or share cultural interests can make or break someone's living experience. This article describes…

This study of Dickinson College represents an unusually complete, detailed, and balanced study of the local and regional economic impact of an academic institution. Among other features, it includes estimates of the college's positive and negative effects on local government, local as well as county wide economic impact estimates, and a relatively…

Communicating about sex is a vital component of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention and influences how HIV educators convey messages to communities and how couples negotiate safer sex practices. However, sexual communication inevitably confronts culturally based behavioral guidelines and linguistic taboos unique to diverse social…

This article discusses preliminary findings of the author's doctoral research on children's educating networks in contemporary cities. The research problem is introduced in the theoretical framework composed by issues of formal, non-formal and informal education, contemporary children's studies, and contributions from the debate around the…

The aim of this study was to validate the Multidimensional Territorial Sense of Community Scale (MTSOCS), a new theory-driven sense of community scale referred to the geographical community. Starting from McMillan and Chavis' theoretical dimensions, five subscales (Membership, Shared Influence, Social Climate and Bonds, Help in Case of Need, and…

Rural gentrification, which is linked in particular to the migration and permanent settlement in the countryside of middle-class or affluent urbanites, is increasingly affecting contemporary rural communities. Despite the significance of this trend, the complex and many-sided phenomenon of rural gentrification has hardly been explored in scholarly…

Once famous mainly for stockyards and steel mills, Chicago now boasts more top-rated five-star restaurants than any other city in the United States and has been voted by various publications as one of the "Top 10 U.S. Destinations," one of the "Best Walking Cities" in the United States, and one of the "Ten Best Places to…