This book discusses narrative therapy in the context of school counseling. It provides an overview of narrative therapy, guidelines for applying it, and approaches to specific problems. Narrative counseling helps students to explore their own story, externalize elements of it, distinguish the story from the person, and build a new story of their…

This book relates a fictionalized year in the life of an elementary school. Told from the perspective of an elementary school principal, whose school is located in a poor, urban neighborhood, the stories portray the daily struggles of the children, teachers, and principal. Some of the themes explored include chaos and violence, problem students,…

This book was written in an attempt to understand the experiences of young women who struggled and compromised to succeed at school, and in doing so, created new pathways to success. Chapter One introduces the five young women whose stories form the basis of the book. It discusses multiple definitions of success and risk. Chapter Two presents a…

This book examines the conditions for learning from the perspective of those students for whom schools are not productive and satisfying settings. Both current and desired characteristics of school environments are examined from the standpoint of their effect on marginal students. Questions probed include how difficulties begin and why individuals…

Findings from five main projects in the National Center on Effective Secondary Schools, which operated from December 1, 1985 to February 28, 1991, are presented. Projects investigated different aspects of engagement and achievement problems through literature reviews, analyses of existing data sets, and new studies of students and staff in 32…