Notes that public welfare agencies are serving middle-class Americans. Examines six factors that may contribute to gentrification of public welfare agencies: growing demands for services from nontraditional clients; restructuring of public welfare's service delivery system; declining resources; increasing emphasis on child protective services;…

Analyzes reading practices in the classroom and the mechanisms through which school proposes a uniform way of reading based on the concept of middle-class reading. (PA)

Rebuts Alfie Kohn's article "Only for My Kid: How Privileged Parents are Undermining School Reform" in the April 1998 "Kappan." Kohn expects the author to pay a fortune for a home in an affluent community so his kids can get violence-prevention training and sing "Kumbaya" in a mainstreamed classroom. Earning the right…

Investigated differences in beliefs and practices about infant feeding among middle class Anglo and Puerto Rican mothers. Interviews and observations indicated that Anglo mothers reported earlier attainment of self-feeding and more emphasis on child rearing goals related to self-maximization. Puerto Rican mothers reported later attainment of…

Class strategies, how individual members of class fractions tactically gain advantage in fields including education, have been used to analyse schooling and initial post-compulsory education. In this paper, class strategies are applied to adult education in considering participation across social classes. Using empirical data from a biographical…

This study draws from interviews with 20 girls in British Columbia, Canada who participated to varying degrees in skateboarding culture. We found that skater girls saw themselves as participating in an "alternative" girlhood. Becoming skater girls involved the work and play of producing themselves in relation to alternative images found…

This article examines the arguments and underlying assumptions of Adam Swift's book on "How Not to Be a Hypocrite." It argues that, although there is much that is commendable and fascinating in the book, it might have benefited from a more sociological approach to the middle class. While the book is designed to capture and argue with the anxieties…

The author presents results of an exploration of the experiences of counselor educators of color, focusing on participants' relationships and interactions with the system of academe and how they are exemplified in the tenure and promotion process. Results suggest P. H. Collins's (1991) concept of the "outsider within" academe is highly relevant.

The continued discrepancies in educational outcomes and learning conditions found among our nation's schools serving low-income students and students of color call for teacher educators to seriously consider what factors lead to culturally responsive policies and practices. This article summarizes a comparative study of 96 middle school and high…

The dominant cultural image of veteran teachers is conveyed in the fictional life story of Mr Chipping of Brookfield School as conveyed in James Hilton's short novel "Goodbye, Mr Chips." This reflects emerging ideals and practices of teacher professionalism in England from the 1920s onwards in terms of its emphasis on autonomy and…

This critical essay is based on ethnographic research that followed thirteen students (from different social classes and racial background) through the college application process during their senior year of high school (Bloom, 2007). The study's purpose was to understand the accumulation and use of social and cultural capital by critically…

By the time youngsters reach high school in the United States, the achievement gap is immense. Some remarkable inner-city schools, however, are showing that the achievement gap can be closed, even at the middle and high school level, if poor minority kids are given the right kind of instruction. In this article, the author features six schools…

Fueled by optimism and driven to succeed, middle- and upper-middle-class families--and those who aspire to join their ranks--are cherished by public schools. It is easy to see why. Better educated and more affluent, middle-class families tend to send their children to school ready (and eager) to learn. And, as 45% of American voters, middle-class…

The relative development of Piagetian concrete logical operational abilities was investigated in Mexican American and Anglo American children. Performance was assessed on eight classification tasks and three forms of transitivity, measuring seriation skills. One phase of the study compared the performances of 30 Anglo and 30 Mexican American…

The most exciting innovation in education policy in the last decade is the emergence of highly effective schools in our nation's inner cities, schools where disadvantaged teens make enormous gains in academic achievement. In this book, the author takes readers inside six of these secondary schools and reveals the secret to their success: they are…