Ontario, Canada's new character education policy is analyzed to determine how it supports and undermines critical democratic commitments to diversity, dialogue, equity, critical mindedness, and social justice. While policies are always open to interpretation, recent reform policies requiring evidence of continual improvement in students' academic…

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of social capital assessed in early adulthood in linking self-control in childhood with psychological and social functioning in middle age. Data collected at ages 8, 27, and 42 years were based on the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (159 females, 177 males).…

Between 2000 and 2007, six western states conducted individual impact studies using public school youth in grades five, seven, and nine. Common areas of study included: risk behaviors, leadership positions held, helping others, close relationships with adults, self-identity, character, self-confidence, and empowerment. The purpose of the study was…

The overgrowth of sports in our society has resulted in a host of potential problems for the young athletes who associate with the sport culture found in schools. Although the positive elements of sports are routinely touted, the negative aspects are oftentimes overlooked or trivialized. Most of the positive personal and social aspects attributed…

How leadership is done in higher education is analysed through a longitudinal interview study among the heads of department at a Swedish university. The focus is directed towards the construction and reconstruction of leader identity from the time when the heads were novices up until four years later when they were more experienced. The main…

In this article, we present vignettes from two projects--one in Cyprus and the other in South Africa--to show how some classrooms enact "heterotopic" affective spaces that oppose normal/ized identities, that is, identities grounded in polarized trauma narratives. The notion of heterotopia is a spatial concept developed by Foucault to…

As a cultural and university historian focusing on Europe and the United States, Sheldon Rothblatt is more interested in understanding the multiple bearings of liberal arts education as it has developed across the ages. The American high school, from its origins in the 19th century to the contemporary period, represents only a fraction of the…

This paper is based on qualitative interviews undertaken with immigrant youth of African descent in Windsor, Ontario; it describes their sojourner lives across geographic borders and their final settlement in Windsor. The paper also offers narrations of the activities that enabled them to formulate friendships and the barriers and facilitators to…

Professional development of generic black academic staff in South African higher education is viewed against the background of increased emphasis on open dialogue and concern for upward mobility in academe. Open dialogue and liberation create new expectations and challenges for staff. This article describes professional development of academics…

The stress and anxiety of new teachers is a pervasive problem that impacts upon teacher preparation and retention. Although new mainstream teacher concerns and experiences have been readily discussed in the literature, the same attention has not been invested for new Aboriginal teachers. In Ontario, Canada, in excess of 60% of the Aboriginal…

Recent research on how infants and toddlers grow and learn has provided new evidence for creating child care practices that support healthy development. The author describes 6 program practices drawn from this research. The article discusses practices that support secure attachments, identity formation, family practices, attention to developmental…

At first consideration, the worlds of the classroom, the psychotherapy office and the experimental psychology laboratory may seem disparate settings with no obvious connection among them. In this article, the author would like to draw such a connection and to suggest the relevance of psychosocial developmental theory and research to self-regulated…

There is currently an over-emphasis on the economic aims of higher education at the expense of the aims of personal and social transformation. This article proposes a specific approach to integrating educational aims. It draws on the works of Jurgen Habermas and Martha Nussbaum to conceptualise integrative learning as a simultaneous focus on self,…

The theory that emerged from this constructivist grounded theory study of 10 college men's experiences depicts their gender identity as developed through constant interaction with society's expectations of them as men. In order to try to meet these perceived expectations, participants described putting on a performance that was like wearing a mask…

Urban high-school students' low average level of academic achievement is a national problem. A lack of academic progress is a factor that contributes to students failing to graduate. In response to these urban high school student problems, a growing number of urban charter high schools have opened as an alternative to the traditional public high…