This paper examines how Social Impact Games (SIGs) can provide important instructional support in secondary social studies classrooms. When used within the framework of the constructivist teaching philosophy and teaching methods, as recommended by the NCSS (2010), SIGs have the potential to hone critical thinking, collaboration, and problem…

Rural children belong to an educationally disadvantaged group whether they migrate or remain in their villages. Using a specially designed questionnaire, this paper surveyed more than 2,500 migrant and left-behind children in the Xixiangtang District of Nanning in Mainland China on issues relating to education and mental state. Through comparisons…

This dissertation explores the role of creative, participatory methods of communication in response to the impacts of climate change and other environmental and social pressures in Sub- Saharan Africa. Specifically, the research seeks to understand the extent to which narrative and participatory drama influence social interaction, attitudes, and…

Students need more opportunities to learn how to respond to and counter forms of everyday racism. This qualitative study addresses that need by investigating how one peer-led group engaged in dialogue about issues of race in regards to an eleventh-grade Language Arts assignment. A racial literacy perspective framed our analysis of three small…

"You, Me and Diversity" offers teachers and student teachers approaches for teaching children about development education and promoting intercultural understanding through carefully selected picturebooks. Research by the United Kingdom Literacy Association in 2007 found that few teachers are aware of such books. They feel unable to…

This book includes a set of rigorous and accessible studies on the topic of "research evidence" from a variety of levels and educational vantage points. It also provides the reader with thoughtful commentaries from leading thinkers in the field. The complex process of acquiring, interpreting, and using research evidence makes for a rich…

This article reports on a qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative research intervention case study of English as a foreign language students' construction of perceptions on social issues found in famous works of art. Participants in this study engaged in the practice of critical thinking as a strategy to appreciate art that expresses social…

Background/Context: The current debate about historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)--whether these colleges are needed in a society that "seeks" equality--is not new but is the product of a continuing controversy that dates back to the close of the Civil War. Since then, each landmark in the history of HBCUs has occasioned renewed…

We in the U.S. live at the edge of radical possibilities, but few seem to actually see openings available for profound change, or perhaps have become simply too paralyzed to act. After all, the U.S. government in the post 9-11 world has placed "national security" above "liberty" and taken unprecedented measures to monitor citizens'…

"Critical social dialogue" (CSD) is the process of problem posing, facilitating personal stories through silence and multimodal assignments, and positioning them for students to re-examine and re-evaluate their understanding of systems of social difference, the beginnings of a multicultural and social justice intellectual frame for…

Within a 20-year period from the late 1850s to the late 1870s, most European countries created programmes in response to what appeared as a new social problem: unwed daughters of the middle classes in need of jobs. Taking off from the 150th anniversary of the English Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, this paper examines the diffusion…

Background: Since developmental psychologists are interested in explaining age and gender differences in depression across adolescence, it is important to investigate to what extent these observed differences can be attributed to measurement bias. Measurement bias may arise when the phenomenology of depression varies with age or gender, i.e., when…

In this article the authors respond to a recent special issue of the "Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education" (Alsop & Bencze, 2010) in which the role of environmental activism in science, mathematics, and technology education (SMTE) was addressed. Although they applaud this Special Issue's invitation to begin a new…

Are middle schoolers capable of discussing the war in Iraq in meaningful ways? Can seventh graders develop informed ideas about presidential candidates' positions on health care? Should young adolescents discuss controversial public issues, interpret primary sources, and analyze social problems? Thoughtful social studies educators disagree. While…

A close examination of a number of political, social, and economic indicators reveals the ongoing challenges of what it means to be Black and male in the United States. Many of these challenges begin at birth and persist over time. The complex, yet complicated picture of life for Black males in the United States remains a topic of study and…