Describes a neighborhood-based democratic decision-making process in which college students conducted research to support a group of citizens as they attempted to make informed decisions about the future directions of their community. Discussion looks at how to create forums that allow for genuine democratic decision making and the roles of…

Recounts the author's experiences as he developed a love for reading in elementary school, discovered in high school the element of power that reading held, and endured isolation in college. Describes his work with struggling African-American adolescent readers. (SR)

Provides a framework for critiquing assumptions about the collaboration process, highlighting concepts of public space and power. Key issues are the private-public distinction and the "public space" metaphor. Collective spaces are made by groups (formal institutions or persons), who can debate with each other and act. (Contains 42…

Argues that Native American Studies does not belong under the rubric of Ethnic Studies, where unbalanced power relations result in the marginalization, silencing, and exploitation of issues unique to indigenous peoples. Examines the process by which "ethnicity" assimilates "indigenous" and how this process and its impact…

Considers the possibilities and limitations of constructivist practice in preservice mathematics pedagogy using examples from an action research analysis. Results suggested that the intended supportive environment reinforced common sense conservative assumptions of teaching as usual, and alternative pedagogical strategies are needed if the context…

In this interview, Lisa Delpit, a specialist in urban education and cross-cultural communication, discusses various aspects of teaching black children, including valuing their own cultural and language traditions rather than simply bowing to the rules of the culture of power of the dominant majority. Parent participation in urban schools is also a…

Describes workplace literacy programs serving immigrants at Cableco, a cable manufacturing plant in California serving the electronics industry in Silicon valley. A workplace literacy lesson, employees responses to it, and an interview with the manufacturing manager demonstrate some of the dangers of conceiving of language as a discrete workplace…

Reviews essays by Raymond Williams, which explain how, within the context of a 150-year literary history, rural stereotypes have been constructed and imbedded within a collective consciousness by a form of cultural colonization. Suggests that Williams' insights can help rural education researchers think outside the conventional wisdom that…

An Icelandic study examined the relation between parenting style and adolescent substance use at age 14 and longitudinally from 14 to 17 years. Findings indicated that adolescents who characterized their parents as authoritative were more protected against substance use than adolescents who perceived their parents as neglectful, both concurrently…

Using Swindler's settled discourse theory, examined 12 women superintendents' discourse to determine whether patterns in their talk about work experiences contain events or episodes of inequality. Five topics emerged: power, silence, style, responsibility, and people. Each was analyzed to discover how women treated such experiences in their…

A model of social work education for undergraduates from primarily privileged backgrounds links postmodern perspectives of cultural competence, diversity, social constructionism, and a generalist strengths-based orientation for work with families. Four steps for helping students recognize the role of culture in generating a worldview and develop a…

Introduces a collection of articles that address the following issues: authority and morality in classroom discourse; becoming experienced in teaching and learning; first-year teaching success; teachers' roles in preservice education; student teacher cohorts; theories of language learning and teaching; and metaphors as blueprints of thinking about…

Two women of color professors use the themes of authority, mastery, voice, and positionality to examine the theoretical and practical underpinnings of feminist pedagogy.

This chapter explores obstacles to and strategies for developing social justice attitudes and actions with men.

In this article, Jonathan Jansen describes his experiences as a Black dean in the formerly all-White University of Pretoria in South Africa. The article shows how race, gender, history, and institutional culture constitute emotional terrain in which decanal leadership plays itself out in the volatile postapartheid era. In the context of South…