This study investigates an assumption used to legitimate charter school legislation, namely that such schools will reduce regulatory constraint burdening schools and school personnel. Reformers and policymakers have argued that charter schools will increase teacher empowerment and enable teachers to better carry out their education functions.…

This paper highlights perspectives on action research in education, health and social care and was originally presented as a keynote at the International Practitioner Research Conference and Collaborative Action Research Conference in 2005. The paper links with the other conference keynote given by Stephen Kemmis, co-author of "Becoming…

When schools fail to improve, it is because educators do not think innovatively. What they do is largely a reflection of what they grew up with or what they were taught. Rather than do new things, they focus on working harder at the things that have produced limited success. That used to be the case at Holloway High School in Murfreesboro,…

From the author's perspective, self-determination is characteristic of all humans regardless of their capabilities, disabilities, or idiosyncrasies. It is evident when they act on their circumstances to get what they need or want and when they persist in those pursuits until situations change in the right direction for them. It is accurately…

Service learning involves learning a variety of skills through the act of service. It is a powerful teaching strategy that can enrich student learning, enhance teaching, and revitalize communities. This increasingly popular strategy offers a framework in which students can recall and apply more of what they learn than in traditional content-based…

Participation has become very popular as a new strategy and approach in research, in policy, in private and public affairs. As an alternative to top-down approaches participation promises to empower people, to acknowledge and to build competence and (local) knowledge, to recognise and to be responsive to people's different and differentiated needs…

Adopting policies of decentralization has become more or less a universal fashion among governments. Institutional redesigning as regard to affirmative state is favored by the political left and right in capitalist democracies. However, their arguments revolve around the decision-making powers of ordinary citizens. Some academics argue that the…

In this article, the author contends that including the arts in one's teaching repertoire may lead to increased student achievement. Four ideas are presented that are intended to engage student interest in the arts, increase student achievement, and empower those who are less successful academically.

Children and adolescents, up to approximately age 20, are more susceptible than adults to potential health risks from chemicals and environmental hazards. Hazardous chemicals can interrupt or alter the normal development of a child's body, leading to lasting damage. Since children are smaller than adults, similar levels of exposure to toxic…

This study suggests equity of access goes beyond technological availability. Based on a larger exploratory study of the initial implementation stage of the Mexican government's community technology centers, CTCs ("plazas comunitarias"), adult education instructors' perceptions and diffusion practices are described as a mediating factor…

This book brings together the wisdom and experience from over 50 schools that have been categorized as "high performing, high minority, high poverty." It shows the reader how the leaders of those schools succeeded--in their own words. The book shows how one can be a turnaround specialist. Included are actual examples and real life stories which…

This paper describes the challenges and benefits of an action-research project with a Nashville-based nonprofit human service organization. In our view, outmoded human service organizations are in serious need of innovation to promote psychological and physical wellness, prevention of social problems, empowerment, and social justice. This project…

Multiculturally congruent classroom learning environments have remained elusive in United States higher education as colleges strive to recruit, retain, and educate an increasingly diverse population. Frustrations run high amongst domestic and international students of color who find collegiate classrooms in the United States difficult to…

This paper reports on the Reading Kiosks English literacy project carried out in Opa-settlement, Ile-Ife in Nigeria. In all, 46 girls between the ages of 7 and 22 years took part in activities such as journal writing, shared reading, uninterrupted sustained silent reading, world literacy day celebration, story telling, retelling and writing, a…

Argues that democratisation, localization, and national identity are indivisible in Taiwan. Explains that social pressure groups, teachers, and parents are empowered in policy making processes, while the power of school officials to respond to these groups is limited. Discusses the role of school curriculum in promoting ethnic cultures and…