Describes a group called the Southern Arizona Early Childhood Network, an eclectic collection of leaders invested in the well-being of young children, including directors, child care advocates, health care providers, teacher educators, teachers, and agency personnel. Discusses how the group serves as a forum to share information, experiences,…

Develops a framework for examining how social capital contributes to the well-being of rural communities. Reviews the educational and social science literature on social capital, contrasting rational choice and embeddedness perspectives. Introduces the concept of entrepreneurial social infrastructure, which adds equality, inclusion, and agency to…

The decisions of 83 American Indian undergraduates to drop out of school were investigated based on the influence of their self-beliefs, social support, and comfort. Although all three accounted for academic nonpersistence decisions, social support was the strongest predictor. Discusses implications for increasing academic persistence of students,…

Grounded in a model of service utilization, this study conceptualizes attendance of African-American women at an HIV prevention intervention as associated with influences across three ecological domains--individual, service (program), and social network. First, the texts of responses to semistructured, open-ended elicitation interviews were…

This article deals with informal networks and their role in young people's strategies of coping with the uncertainties of transitions to work. The underlying hypothesis is that informal networks have a high potential in this regard that, however, is strongly differentiated according to class and education. Drawing on West German data from the…

Responding to the dramatic growth in Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs), the present study focused on mental health among older residents in ALFs. We assessed the effects of physical health constraints (chronic conditions, functional disability, and self-rated health) and psychosocial resources (social network, sense of mastery, religiosity, and…

How can K-16 partnerships enlist Latino parents as informed allies in support of their children's college planning? This article draws on data from 3 years of participant observation to show how a bilingual outreach program for parents at a diverse high school narrowed the information gap about college, enhanced family social networks, and…

In this special issue, we have sought to explore the strategies, programming, interventions, and policy decisions that institutions and communities use collaboratively as they attempt to cope with this educational crisis. Some of those strategies involve working with nontraditional constituencies such as parents or involve nontraditional and…

This study examines young people's discussions about alcohol in an Internet chat room. I study how alcohol is meaningful to the young people through specifically focusing their understandings of the concepts control/loss of control, conscientiousness and maturity. I also study what relations of power are constructed among them. The results point…

Over the past few years a constellation of social movements and organisations concerned with issues of globalisation and world poverty have exploded onto the world stage. They have mobilised demonstrations, organised mass gatherings and conferences, created e-networks and websites and become major players in international political lobbying and…

The use of new and advanced technologies has a significant potential to impact the way students communicate in a number of contexts and settings. Many students will find themselves in both academic and career situations where computer-mediated communication (CMC) group interaction will be necessary. As a result, it is important to integrate…

This paper addresses the historic under representation of female superintendents. The primary focus is the legacy of discrimination, in which the barriers to female advancement in a traditionally male field are described. Particular attention is given to three different models of male dominance that have been developed to explain how and/or why…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine social networks from a Western and Eastern view. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses case study methodology to gather evidence of how world pioneering firms from Asia and Europe measure and report their social connections from a Western perspective. Findings: It examined the basic indicators…

Despite the many studies of student departure, colleges and universities continue to face difficulties in retaining underrepresented student populations. The authors argue that contemporary social integration and multicultural theories of student retention theory do not adequately address the academic needs of underrepresented students of color.…

It is argued that the Web is transforming schooling in the 21st century, and as such altering the terrain of what leadership "means." Theorizing our submersion in the Internet, we discover that the Web enhances a "leadership-for" paradigm, while at the same time it militates against what is defined as a "leadership-with" paradigm. For the power of…