Although admittedly shy and more comfortable as an attentive listener, Tom Stewart is also friendly and accommodating. He graciously agreed to share his thoughts about some of the important experiences in his life. Tom is that rare bird, a native Floridian, from West Palm Beach, 68 miles north of his Miami home. He received a Bachelor of Chemical…

Biographies are sometimes considered to be a bridge between fact and fiction. As students read real life accounts of the lives of scientists, they can expand their view of what kinds of things scientists do; realize that all kinds of people do science; find out how the scientific community influences the acceptance of scientific knowledge; learn…

In this article, the author discusses how narratives, which are part of the common currency of the day, have dramatically changed over the years. Grand narratives, which grew exponentially in the mid-nineteenth century, have now been replaced by two different narratives: life narratives and small-scale narratives. He also discusses how small…

In 1935, Aldo Leopold bought an abandoned farm in the sand counties along the Wisconsin River near Baraboo. Leopold sensed promise in the land, and with his wife and five children nursed the land back to health. They cleaned out the chicken coop and affectionately called their new family retreat "The Shack." Leopold kept detailed notes during the…

A brief description on the work and life of the great physicist scientist Albert Einstein is presented. The photoelectric paper written by him in 1905 led him to the study of fluctuations in the energy density of radiation and from there to the incomplete nature of the equipartition theorem of classical mechanics, which failed to account for…

Few scholars have achieved the level of recognition and respect among the wider public as Howard Zinn. This should not come as a surprise, given the "unconventional" ways that Zinn embodied and enacted his scholarship. He often took his teaching and writing into those seemingly restricted spaces of popular protest, converting words into…

This paper presents a discussion of Howard Zinn's intellectual and political ideas. Through the analysis of selections from his immense body of work, several interrelated themes emerge. Drawing more attention to these notions of dissent and democracy is crucial to revitalizing education at all levels and vital to advancing the public discourse…

In early twentieth-century Australia, men managed coeducational state training colleges (equivalent to normal schools) but teacher education programmes for kindergartners were initiatives of the free kindergarten movement and firmly in women's hands. The Kindergarten Training College in Adelaide, South Australia, was established in 1907 with…

In 1802, Edmund Rice directed the laying of the foundation stone for Mount Sion Monastery and School. After several previous attempts of instructing poor boys in Waterford, this was to be the first permanent home for the Congregation of Christian Brothers. Rice's dream of founding a religious community of brothers was becoming a reality with a…

Each year, the author's school district, North Syracuse (New York) Central School District, requires teachers to identify and work on specific professional development goals. She relates how she identified assessment as the area she wanted to work on during the 2005-2006 school year. For several years she had been wondering if the students were…

This biographical study features the leadership of Joan Miller Wint, now retired, who for 23 years was principal of Denbigh High School, located in a high-poverty rural area in Jamaica. In the article I examine biography as a qualitative research strategy used in "telling" the stories of women leaders; explore the influence of Wint's…

This article explores how a linguistically diverse, subject English class can become a multilingual contact zone in which naturalised linguistic identities are made visible and interrogated. The research is situated in a highly diverse, educational context--Wits School of Education in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is framed by a society in…

This paper traces events in the life of George Peabody. Born in Danvers, Massachusetts near Boston, Peabody attended a district school for four years and was apprenticed in a general store at an early age. After four years of apprenticeship, Peabody worked with his brother in a drapery shop, then traveled to the District of Columbia with his uncle…

This paper discusses the life and work of Lawrence A. Cremin (1925-1990), an important historian of U.S. education. One of Cremin's most notable works was the 1961 "Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876-1957." Cremin was on the faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University (New York) for 41 years.…

This paper is a bio-bibliography of Cynthia Rylant, exploring both her life and writings. The biography examines events in her life which have led to her development as a critically and internationally acclaimed children's author, with special emphasis placed on her childhood, since so many of her works have been inspired by her memories of those…