The traditional back-to-school assembly, featuring lengthy readings of student handbook rules and restrictions, counters visions of the positive school environment featured in many mission statements. This year's Colfax (California) High School program, based on graduates' musings about the school's familial behavior toward them, offered a message…

Comments to a previous article focusing on power and method in linguistic research. It is suggested that the method advocated is worthwhile, modifiable for other disciplines, and should be read and discussed by scholars from many fields. (VWL)

Author, who in 1980s lived under care of Catholic Children's Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto as Crown Ward of the Government of Ontario, draws on experiences of consumers within child welfare system. Provides analysis of how being in placement can disempower young people and highlights innovations in making young people partners in their own…

Compared two methods for evaluating youth empowerment programs. One program used a traditional, open-ended style of service planning and program tracking, and the other used precoded measurement procedures that invited the direct participation of youth in goal setting and evaluation. Discusses the relatively greater usefulness of the precoded…

Empowerment is a multidimensional social process that helps people develop power to use in their lives, communities, and society. The Connecticut People Empowering People program builds on the theory of critical adult education to develop skills and supports for empowerment. (SK)

Provides an overview of the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which provide for certain parental procedural safeguards to ensure as fair a resolution process as possible when disagreements occur between parents and school districts regarding a child's special education needs. (Author/GCP)

A literary club formed a community of readers among underserved and nontraditional community college students. Members meet to discuss literature and host authors' visits. The environment enables students to share their perspectives and develop deeper understanding of literature and of themselves. (SK)

Studied the construct validity for scores on a measure of psychological empowerment, the Psychological Empowerment Scale, for parents of children with a disability. Results of correlational analyses and group discrimination analyses of responses of 293 parents in 3 family support programs provide evidence of the convergent and discriminant…

In the discourse of learner self-management, learners must take responsibility for learning and are offered the possibility of individual autonomy and control. A critical perspective reveals that environmental constraints inhibit the success of technical-rational self-management techniques. An alternative view is the entrepreneurial self, a…

The challenge-preparation approach to career counseling attempts to fortify clients' psychological strength to deal with challenges. The empowerment process includes exploration of existing resources, envisioning of upcoming challenges, and enactment of scenarios to develop coping skills. (SK)

Uses classroom excerpts to examine issues of "playfulness" and "gaming" in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Offers theories and historical constructions of literacy and play for instructors to conceptualize the construction of boundaries between productive and nonproductive language behaviors in CMC. Argues that CMC's empowering capabilities…

Describes The Social Development Program, a way to foster social responsibility and in the process reduce unacceptable classroom behavior simply and easily. The strategy is based on several principles: positivity; empowerment by choice; the importance of self-evaluation and self-correction; assumption of social responsibility; and authority…

Psychology offers nurses engaging in health education insight into the motivation behind behavior. It can aid the process of developing patient knowledge, understanding, and empowerment, but not if used to reinforce social control. (SK)

Explores the principles and challenges of implementing a democratic classroom. Suggests real-life activities, offers educational guidelines, and outlines the role of facilitators. (JOW)

Presents definitions and purposes of delegation, accountability, and empowerment as parts of a system aimed at high performance. It explores how advanced program evaluation methods can make delegation and accountability more effective and empowerment less risky. (SLD)