Teaching literary theory is fascinating for those who love the application of theory to a literary text, difficult for those who are of the opinion that theory destroys the actual beauty and value of the fictional source, and unfortunately often boring for those who are taught. This article, however, provides a popular approach to the introduction…

This study explores how mothers facing similar neighborhood conditions evaluate their neighborhoods as places to raise children. The authors relied upon a triangulation of methods, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, with a sample of 91 low-income mothers. Content analysis of qualitative interviews revealed that mothers often…

The legal source of schools' use of response to intervention (RTI) is a matter of federal and state special education laws, although its implementation is largely a matter of general education practice. The only mention of RTI is in the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and it is limited to identification of students with…

Large research networks naturally form complex communities with overlapping but not identical expertise. To map the distribution of professional competence in field of "technology-enhanced learning", the lexical semantics expressed in research articles published in a representative, large-scale conference (ED-MEDIA) can be investigated and changes…

This basic qualitative study explores preservice teachers' beliefs about what constitutes play. Research for this study focused on 7 preservice teachers enrolled in an early childhood through Grade 4 practicum course at a small private university in south central Texas. The findings of this study indicate that both on an individual and group level…

The preschool facility is a critical element of an effective preschool program. The recent economic downturn in the United States makes it difficult for states and individual school districts to consider developing new preschool programs or enhancing current programs or facilities. Yet many Americans still agree that public investment in preschool…

This study explores the lives of Peruvian adolescents in a low-income human settlement outside of Lima. Twenty 12-17 year olds were asked to narrate their own life stories using the life history narrative research method. Holistic content analysis was coupled with a grounded-theory approach to explore these data. Intergenerational responsibility,…

This study set out to explore the impact of ethnicity, gender, age and subjective well-being on help-seeking attitudes among Arab and Jewish adolescents in Israel. The sample comprised 395 Arab and 360 Jewish 7th- and 11th-grade pupils who were selected from six Arab and six Jewish schools in the north of Israel. The participants completed a…

To best design technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) related instruction for preservice teachers or for practicing teachers, community college librarians must have an accurate assessment of their audience's attitudes towards technology. A summary, analysis, and excerpts from 225 student responses to a course reflection regarding…

Hong Kong popular culture played an important role in the construction and consolidation of Hong Kong identity long before the handover to China. In the past few years leading up to the 10th anniversary of the handover, both Hong Kong and China have undergone numerous changes which seem to be changing their relations. Whilst Hong Kong people had…

The aim of this study is to explore high-school school mathematics teachers' topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge. First, 639 high-school students were asked to give explanations about "a[superscript 0] = 1, 0! = 1" and "a [division] 0" where a [not equal to] 0. Weak explanations by the students led to a detailed…

This article reports on an interview study investigating the experiences of academic acculturation (a process of mutual influence and enrichment with regard to academic practice) of a group of Chinese academic staff in two research-intensive UK universities. Following a systematic content-based analysis, three major themes emerged as salient,…

This article offers a qualitative content analysis of the print news media coverage of Proposal 2, an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative that passed on November 7, 2006. Our purpose was to determine what type of information on the initiative and affirmative action was available to the public. Results indicate that little substantive…

This research identifies the purposes, structure, and content of student-led conferences using a case study approach of three fourth grade classrooms with different demographics located in various counties of a mid-western state. The purposes of student-led conferences are presented from perspectives of teachers, students, and parents. The…

The present study, under the sponsorship of Islamic Azad University of Bandar Abbas, Iran, was designed to examine the manifestation of sexism in three EFL/ESL textbook series ("American Headway", "Interchange (3rd Ed.)", and "Person to Person") currently used in Iranian Language Institutes. A critical content…