Qualitative methods were used to examine the dynamics underlying reported benefits and outcomes of parent education. Findings suggest that the program can lead to significant, transformative learning and enhanced personal empowerment. Group format can provide social support to isolated parents. Overall experience can result in deeper understanding…

The co-founders of the Sudbury Valley School (Massachusetts) discuss how the school's philosophy is based on giving children respect, freedom, and support to find their own self-motivation; how play is one of the best learning tools; and the sustained public relations effort that has been required to establish and maintain the school's…

A study examining postsecondary transition experiences interviewed 22 Navajos who were recent high school graduates. Prominent themes included family influence and pressures, discrepancy between high school and college learning environments, student-faculty relationships, vague educational and career plans, misconceptions about postsecondary…

This article examines the experiences of 19 women who self-identify as lesbian or bisexual as they pursue degrees in accredited master of social work educational programs located within the Southern United States. The pervasive discomfort and silence surrounding lesbian and bisexual issues, as well as the privileging of heterosexuality experienced…

In Nicaragua the rise of urban youth gangs has led the government to adopt a crime-control approach that focuses on containing adolescent violence. Yet efforts to foil youth gangs have been ineffectual, largely because the nature of gang membership is little understood. This article presents the results of a qualitative study of youth gang…

Many recent efforts in the field of community psychology have been dedicated to moving from values to action in incorporating diversity into our work. An essential aspect of this goal is designing research that provides opportunities for underrepresented perspectives to be heard. The voices of refugee women, in particular, are not typically…

This study examined the concept of relational aggression and its application to high-risk girls in treatment. Sixteen male practitioners from 9 different agencies serving young people were interviewed about their feelings and perceptions in working with female clients. The survey presents selected examples of manifestations of relational…

Learning what interests college-admissions committees drew this Homestead High School junior and 18 other teenagers to a 10-day College Admission Prep Camp run by Education Unlimited (EU) on the campus of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts last July 2005. The program is among many such camps offered across the country this summer, by both…

Many educators are committed to multicultural education and are constantly seeking an inclusive curriculum voicing the diversity of the many cultural groups in the United States. The influential work of James Banks (1981, 1997, 2001) has encouraged a generation of educators to design a multicultural curriculum. Yet while this task remains an…

This study presents comparative case studies of preservice and first-year teachers' and expert teachers' conceptions of the concept of prior knowledge. Kelly's ("The Psychology of Personal Construct", New York: W. W. Norton, 1955) theory of personal constructs as discussed by Akerson, Flick, and Lederman ("Journal of Research in…

As political mandates in the United States continue to demand increasing levels of literacy by all young children, the importance of identifying factors that influence novice teachers' development over time become more critical. In this article, we explore Phase I of a longitudinal study, which describes the evolving literacy beliefs and practices…

Mathematical humor and insight are creative and pleasurable experiences. Both help students develop a positive attitude toward mathematics and facilitate higher-order thinking. The authors' classroom experience suggests that many middle school students have come to view mathematics as being a superficial and an uncreative activity where they…

We examined third graders' understandings of condensation using an expanded notion of the Emergent Perspective, a reflexive consideration of individual and group meaning-making situated in the culture of the classroom. Data were collected from two small groups of students in an inquiry-based, urban classroom during a unit on the water cycle.…

The relationship between group and individual has been explored within the variationist paradigm. In L1, group patterns of variation are replicated by the individual. Second language acquisition research is concerned with the individual learner, but second language acquisition variationist researchers tend to group learners. Little empirical…

Researchers suggest that key to addressing the needs of vulnerable families is to involve parents in their child's academic life. However, this article argues, it is not simply involvement that matters for the improved functioning of these families but the production of the three dimensions of social capital (bonding, bridging, and linking)…