Noting that grandparents in the parenting role are often overwhelmed by the problems of their children, grandchildren, and the social milieu in which they live, this manual presents a 14-session workshop series designed to empower grandparents who are raising their grandchildren alone. Designed to complement "To Grandmother's House We Go and…

The National Association for Native American Children of Alcoholics (NANACOA) initiated a strategy in 1995 to evaluate their programs and prevention efforts. The design and methodology of the project incorporated a "naturalistic" approach to help preserve cultural integrity and respect multiple perspectives. Data were gathered from…

This paper explores aspects of Indigenous knowledge on several levels and examines the role of Indigenous knowledge in Indigenous empowerment as the number and influence of Native people in academia increases. Indigenous peoples worldwide have a common set of assumptions that forms a context or paradigm--a collective core of interrelated…

If personal writing empowers students to hear their own voices and to "see themselves as writers," then personal writing has value for basic writing students, whose voices have tended to be silenced and who see themselves as anything but writers. From hearing their voices in writing, and from identifying multiple sources and rhetorical…

The challenge facing school finance is how to harness the school-finance system to the fundamental purpose of education: to improve learning for all students. The challenge is posed by political demands for better school performance and accountability, and by court rulings that tie school funding to standards of adequacy. This paper examines four…

Oppression in the United States can be described as a mental/spiritual and social/material domination that is fueled by manipulation and alienation. Manipulation and alienation play a prominent role in the lives of Xicanas/os (a broadening of the term "Chicana/o" to include all indigenous peoples in the United States and Latin America)…

This paper describes a university German teacher's experience using the file transfer capabilities of the Blackboard Internet tool. The introduction highlights some of the features and advantages of Blackboard. The first section discusses teacher empowerment, noting that the Internet empowers the teacher by providing the wealth of the worlds…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on motivation for learning and performance that was conducted as part of a conference on human resource development (HRD). "A Holistic Approach towards Motivation To Learn" (Constantine Kontoghiorghes) reports on a study that identified the following key variables within and outside…

Targeted at special education teachers/special population instructors, work experience coordinators, vocational assessment personnel, and guidance counselors, this guide examines the relationships among career development, transition, and self-determination for students with disabilities. The guide uses a question-and-answer format to identify and…

This report from a 1995 Child Care Action Campaign national audioconference examines approaches to empowering parents through developing support, leadership, advocacy, and activism to better enable low-income parents to become effective change agents. The report describes the experiences of three parent programs, which found that parents typically…

This workshop seeks to enable parents to analyze their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills so they can serve as models for their children. It also seeks to support the ongoing, natural process of their children's emerging literacy through thoughtful reading, writing, speaking, and listening home activities. Some key concepts--language…

This book presents case studies of six "pockets of hope," democratic educational projects in which empowered students and their teachers actively engage with relevant academic and social problems. Although seemingly very different, the projects share a core commitment to democratic pedagogy and demonstrate practices consistent with…

Noting that parents' response to their children is essentially emotional and keyed almost exclusively to inferences about their children's emotions, this program for parents teaches compassionate parenting, an approach that provides a secure emotional base from which children explore and interact with their environment as parents develop the…

This position paper presents the STAIRS model for overcoming barriers to teachers as they implement and integrate instructional technology in science classrooms. There are many barriers for teachers in the integration of this technology which include time to learn how to use the technology, adequate hands-on staff development opportunities,…

This final report discusses the outcomes of the Family Connections Research and Demonstration Project, a project funded by the Oregon Center for Mental Health Services to study the effectiveness of an intervention designed to address the major problems related to services initiation and continuance within the children's mental health system. The…