A burgeoning set of education-related organizations join networks each year, reflecting a shared belief that problems in education are too complex for any one educator or organization to solve on their own and that collaboration can support educational improvement. The goal of this paper is to describe how networked improvement communities (NICs)…

Since the term twice-exceptional has been entered to the field of gifted education, many studies have investigated the population of students who possess both giftedness and disabilities. It has been shown that there are some challenges to recognizing twice-exceptional children due to current screening and identification process. For this reason,…

The overarching goal of this special issue is to consider peer victimization involvement and corresponding interventions for youth with disabilities from a social dynamics perspective that situates risks for being a victim, perpetrator, or both within a person-in-context framework. The focus here is not on a specific age range or type of…

Traditional empirical studies on developmental processes in school tend to view contributions of teachers, peers, and the classrooms' social structure (and even parent effects) as if all were independent of one another. As this Special Issue demonstrates, however, these processes are more complex. When classroom interactions are seen as the…

At the current historical juncture in which differences and inequalities are surfacing greater than ever in the world, societies, and schools, the main goal of this essay is to revisit the aspects of structuralism that can potentially contribute productively to understanding the invisible structures and forces that everyone carries (mostly…

Can adult educational research on learning and identity counter the individualising of neoliberal government policy that seeks to constrain educational "choices" to those that contribute to government economic agendas? This article notes the recent move within post-compulsory education research towards an engagement with Bourdieu because…

Uses a quasi-experimental design in a case study outlining the application of specific techniques to implement a service-learning component in an introductory sociology college course. Reports that results supported the study's claims that service learning may be an efficient method of improving efficacy of these courses. (Author/KDR)

The naturalistic perspective is concerned with the "micro" world of the school and classroom interaction and neglects the material determination of the phenomenological world. Advances in understanding the social world are more likely to occur if social research adopts the methodological apparatus of scientific Marxism. (JN)

States that individualistic orientation of most U.S. college students presents a persistent problem for teaching sociology. Provides an empirical evaluation using an active-learning exercise. Focuses on whether mate selection increases student understanding of social structure's impact on marital choice. Indicates that the exercise participants…

Explores the utility of focus group methodology as a tool for community service and student community-based learning through a service learning college course. Concludes with a discussion of how the group's focus aids student comprehension of sociology. (Author/KDR)

Discusses a study using non-participant observations, survey, and interview techniques to examine student participation in a mixed age, small, midwestern university classroom. States that once student responsibilities were identified, comparisons and contrasts were made among students who accepted the participation responsibility and those who…

This paper describes an experimental teacher education program organized in terms of the "social process model," a theory of educational interaction that stresses: 1) the ecology of social environments; 2) the rules and roles involved in given social episodes; and 3) the status of social episodes as interpersonal games. Classrooms are…

Emphasizes four points of entry that history provides for historical analysis: (1) doing of history as the capacity to explore origins and ideas; (2) history as a vehicle for social choices and alternative possibilities; (3) biography as a window to view social change; and (4) exploration of intersections between human aging and social structure.…

A case study of a Togolese secondary school provides the focus for an examination of the impact of Western notions of gender-based role expectations in Third World education. Work on the reproduction of inequality in education suggests that in-school processes direct different knowledge to different groups. However, in the case of Third World…

Explores the dilemmas posed by the analysis of working class issues in education by professional sociologists. Questions whether the inequalities experienced in the educational system by working class people have been "colonized" by middle class academics for their own professional purposes. (CFR)