The descriptive phenomenological categorical psychiatric diagnostic systems that are currently being used in the field of intellectual disability do not adequately provide for the special needs of persons with intellectual disability. Many relevant diagnostic questions are left unanswered or are only partially accounted for. This is particularly…

It is a major commitment to undertake doctoral study but relatively little is known about what motivates students to enrol or what they subsequently see as the benefits they have gained and they costs accrued. This report on a study of alumni who completed theses in Education in 1992, 1997 and 2002 in the UK argues that although the doctorate…

This research examines two mechanisms by which persons' identities change over time. First, on the basis of identity control theory (ICT), I hypothesize that while identities influence the way in which a role is played out, discrepancies between the meanings of the identity standard and the meanings of the role performance will result in change.…

There has been a recent increase in interest in defining and describing the competencies for professional practice in psychology. Perhaps the most important mechanism for enabling the acquisition of competencies is the process of supervision. This article takes the position, based on a review of relevant research in supervision and the author's…

The psychotherapy literature has much to offer as educators strive to develop deeper and more nuanced understandings of the relationships youth form with mentors and other nonparental adults in community- and school-based settings. At the center of both psychotherapy and relationship-based interventions such as mentoring is a human connection, the…

To probe into the knowing of teaching/learning, we have to surmount the subject/object dualism based on the level of enlightenment rationality and trend towards epistemology of the relationship, which means that knowing of teaching/learning should be combined with its value and be wholly considered. The unique value of students and teachers is…

The paper addresses contemporary relations between emotions, gender and feminist action research. Starting from analysis of the increasing emotionalisation of everyday life, it explores the quasi-feminist--or what the author calls "feminised"--forms of incitement to reflexive confession that are increasingly gaining favour within professional and…

The central nervous system (CNS) is the first adult organ system to appear during vertebrate development, and the process of its emergence is commonly called neurulation. Such biological "urgency" is perhaps not surprising given the structural and functional complexity of the CNS and the importance of neural function to adaptive behavior and…

The attempt to establish children's rights can be called one of the major twentieth-century projects, with the 1989 United Nations Convention on Children's Rights as one of its most important results. Yet while the issue of spiritual development has played a clear role in the struggle for children's rights ever since the ground-breaking Geneva…

This is an account of a programme involving the application of action learning to the task of "blending personal development with development of an organisation's capability". It was aimed at dismantling cross boundary barriers and extending cross boundary networks. It became clear that staff needed to reflect on their own effectiveness in current…

Although several neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders can emerge during the preschool period, there are comparatively few instruments to assess executive control. Evidence for validity of the Shape School (K. A. Espy, 1997) was examined in a sample of 219 typically developing young children. There was good evidence for validity, as Shape…

The unique experience of HIV/AIDS among rural women in the United States was explored using qualitative interviews with 7 women who are HIV positive. Based on these interviews, eight themes emerged. These included (a) daily powerful emotions, (b) emotional and physical abandonment, (c) romantic betrayal, (d) medical treatment issues, (e) loss and…

This article describes a project called "Kids Speaking Up for Kids: Advocacy by Children, for Children". The project was simple in scope. The authors sought to collect stories of child advocacy--ways in which children were working on behalf of other children. They also sought to collect and profile children's voices and vision and so…

Educators are becoming more aware of the limitations of testing that simply measures student achievement at a single point in time, such as benchmark tests, locally constructed formative tests, conventional standardized tests, and state assessments used to determine adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind. Not surprisingly, school…

This is an essay about the transformative power of interpretive epistemologies for those who come into the social sciences seeking meaning in the messiness of human experience. It is about how an epistemological exercise gave the author symbolic tools to become sentient of his father's subjective oppressive force in his life--with the man living…