Many students in Australia from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds have historically been alienated from learning and education because of the narrow definition of literacy and of what counts as legitimate texts. Consequently, traditional pedagogy, curriculum and assessment practices disengage many students. To address this issue, we…

"The Montessori Observer" is mailed four times each year, in March, May, September and November, to Society members throughout the world. The purpose is to provide news and information about the Society's work in Montessori education, and to extend awareness of Montessori principles throughout the world. This issue contains a feature…

This paper aims at describing and explaining how drama pedagogy is appropriated in Chinese language classrooms in Hong Kong. Drawing on the theories of dialogue and appropriation of Mikhail Bakhtin, the research shows that the dialogicality of drama in Hong Kong's classrooms is conditional, and therefore deviant from the conventional as…

The Open Book, an adult literacy program in Brooklyn, from 1985-2002, remains, for many of the students and staff involved, a defining experience in their lives, a time that allowed them to see different possibilities, for themselves and society. In an attempt to preserve the field's collective historical memory, the authors in this chapter…

In an electoral system governed by the plurality rule, those groups who wield the greatest amount of power in the United States are those who vote as a cohesive bloc. Although the size of the Latino population is growing, it is unclear whether all Latinos perceive a shared collective identity that will be exercised in the political realm. This…

The authors explore governance and related policies that shape Canada's vocational education and training (VET) system and trends that have the potential to fundamentally change accepted practices. The conceptual framework derived from Bourdieu's theoretical concepts of field, habitus, and capital is applied to the description of Canada's…

This paper will explore the underlying requirements of canon law for establishing and administering Catholic schools, with a view toward helping to arrive at creative solutions to the question of how best to structure these schools civilly and canonically in order to ensure their temporal, spiritual, and religious well-being, and to assure that…

Critical literacy is the practice of evaluating information, insights, and perspectives through an analysis of power, culture, class, and gender. A critical perspective suggests that the meaning within a text cannot be separated from the historical, political, personal, and social contexts in which it was written. Being critically literate,…

In many parts of the world, classrooms are characterised by cultural and ethnic diversity. Increasingly, researchers are interested in exploring these rich and socially complex contexts. However, research into "the ethnic other" can present complex ethical and methodological challenges. In this paper, the authors discuss, with reference…

One of the major challenges that faces nation-builders in postcolonial societies is the incorporation of subaltern groups, particularly aboriginal peoples, into a collective national project. One vehicle for addressing this challenge is sport with schools being amongst the most important venues. This article offers an empirical study of the role…

Historically, passive ideologies of counseling have regularly morphed into active approaches. The author contends that professional power and status are the underlying motives for this ideological transition. Based on empirical findings and recent philosophical developments, a case is made for the counseling profession to revalue passive…

Recent critiques have drawn important attention to the depoliticized consensus and empty promises embedded in network discourses of educational policy. While acceding this critique, this discussion argues that some forms of network analysis--specifically those adopting actor-network theory (ANT) approaches--actually offer useful theoretical…

This opening article defines the ways in which three mentoring interaction elements--focus, purpose, and authorship--distinguish between effective and ineffective mentoring relationship styles. The framework described can help mentors better understand the difference between prescriptive and instrumental styles and differentiate laissez-faire from…

This article provides a longitudinal analysis of leadership. In the first section of the article, the evidence reviewed indicates how, historically, leadership has been significant in various societal arrangements in the co-ordination of actions for collective purposes. Such co-ordination may also be facilitated through self-organisation, except…

While society's level of education increases in a modernization process, the knowledge monopoly is taken over by the young. Increasing demand on knowledge attained through organized education leads to increasing power by the young. In the modernizing society of Turkey, this kind of struggle will occur between intellectual groups. Results of this…