Considering Kirsten Thompson's career in the Milwaukee Public Library (MPL), it is no surprise that as an undergraduate she studied both computer programming and psychology. The combination is the driving force behind her multiple projects at MPL, which have all focused on bringing technology to users. "Having the computers is great, but you…

This article profiles educator Maria Rubies I Garrofe. Rubies was a woman committed to education and the reconstruction of her country, Spain, equipped solely with the force of her convictions and her faith in dialogue. It is difficult to separate her personal commitment from her educational, social and political commitment. From the very outset…

Purpose: The late James C. Hardy completed an extensive investigation of respiratory muscle activity during speech production. The data set that resulted was probably the most comprehensive and instructive that has ever existed. One aspect of the data puzzled Hardy and caused him to question the validity of his findings and withhold his…

In this article, the author discusses the life and works of an Anishinaabe expressionist artist George Morrison. Morrison was an eminent expressionist painter with a singular romantic vision and an erudite sense of natural reason and liberty. He created an elusive shimmer of "endless space," the color and eternal motion of nature. The…

As U.K. school exam results continue to rise, perennial accusations appear in the media of the "dumbing down" of the curriculum and of employers' complaints about school leavers' lack of basic literacy skills. In this context, Andrew Motion, the poet laureate, has raised questions about how to provide an inspiring English curriculum, the…

This paper describes the challenges faced, and rules devised, while dealing with bilingual interview data as part of a life history study of a female science teacher's conceptions of the nature of science while teaching in a school in Karachi. The interview data generated was both in Urdu and English, which underwent a number of processes…

Drawing on life history data generated from interviews with young athletes at an English university, this paper explores the narrative maps provided to them by older team members and the ways in which these influence perceptions of self-ageing. Three possible selves associated with mid-life emerged from the analysis for detailed focus. These are…

This article reconstructs women's entry into the architecture classrooms of Germany's "Technische Hochschulen," which were, and remain, the nation's primary institutions for training architects. Created in the 1860s and '70s to supply an industrializing nation with well-educated engineers and building officials, these elite colleges…

An apparent "crisis" of youth at-risk is a key marker in contemporary debates about young people among a range of intellectuals, social commentators and experts in various domains and centres of expertise. Drawing on aspects of the reflexive modernization, governmentality and feminist literatures, this paper explores how risk discourses emerge as…

Educators, students, and parents are among those who have stereotypical preconceived ideas about science and scientists. The study reports on a content analysis of graphic images in 303 of the "Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12" from the years 1973 through 2005. Using quantitative and qualitative content analysis, all of the images…

Extending the study of autobiographical narratives to entire life narratives, we tested the emergence of globally coherent life narratives in adolescence, as hypothesized by McAdams (1985). Participants were 102 children and young adults (ages 8, 12, 16, and 20 years) who narrated their lives twice. Between narrations, half of each age group…

The focus of this article is to examine the notions of language learning, heritage (referring to tradition) and ancestry (descendants & properties passed on), and cultural identification for Urdu-speaking immigrant children now living in Canada. This article provides a detailed ethnographic account of an innovative language program developed…

This is a self-study of my professional and cultural biography and identity, a history which directed me first toward the work of urban teaching and then into teacher education and research into comparative educational issues of racial and national identity. I use this inquiry to demonstrate how biography and identity influences the lived…

The purpose of the following article-style dissertation was to present the life histories of three exemplary physical educators, to give them voice, explore ways in which they experienced marginalization, and describe how they persevered in spite of difficulties they experienced in their careers. The participants included (a) Robin, a female…

The widening participation agenda was instigated by a government seeking to develop skilled workers in the global economy, yet it has consistently refused to fund the burgeoning student population adequately. Managers and academics within the HE sector have to reconcile requirements for the implementation of policies with an increasing "audit"…