Drawing on data from a historical-ethnographic study of the cultural politics of school desegregation in Seattle, USA, the author explores suffering as a recurring theme in the narratives of four black leaders, educators and activists involved in the struggle for black educational opportunity in that city during the post-Civil Rights Era. As these…

The present article is drawn from a year-long ethnographic study of adolescents' uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) and their perceptions of themselves and their uses in multiple contexts. Examining three cases, the author shows how ICT provided participants with powerful opportunities to develop strong self-efficacy beliefs.…

This paper describes how the pedagogy of multiliteracies was piloted in a language arts curriculum for high-ability adolescent students. Specifically, it delineates the pedagogical intervention that was needed for its implementation within the formal language arts curriculum. Drawing on ethnographic research in two classes of 14-year-old students…

The purpose of this research study is to examine the instructional practices of teachers who are currently teaching homeless students in their classroom. This study identified eight teachers in two suburban elementary schools that have students in their current classrooms that are experiencing homelessness. In addition, the research study explored…

As a pedagogical approach, problem-based learning (PBL) has shown success for average and gifted students (HmeloSiver, 2004) and there are numerous incentives for its implementation in online learning environments (Savid-Baden, 2007; Chernobilsky, Nagarajan, & Hmelo-Silver, 2005). However, little research has been conducted regarding the…

In these times of economic uncertainty, successful performance at job interviews has become increasingly important in order to obtain employment. This study examines the experiences of students at an urban community college in an intervention where drama embodied with reflection is used to enhance professionally relevant self-presentation skills.…

What does reading look like? Can learning to read be reduced to the acquisition of a set of isolable skills, or proficiency in reading be equated with the independence of the solitary, silent reader of prose fiction? These conceptions of reading and reading development, which figure strongly in educational policy, may appear to be simple common…

The purpose of this study was to discover which andragogical characteristics and expectations of adult learners manifested themselves in the three-dimensional, multi-user virtual environment known as Second Life. This digital ethnographic study focused specifically on adult students within the University of Hawai'i Second Life group and their…

As American high school seniors graduate and prepare to attend college, these students must change in order to adapt to the new rituals that higher education presents. Teens, for the most part, leave their family structure and their normal everyday routines to pursue a degree and a chance for a good paying job. However, these students can be…

This dissertation investigates how a gay literacy worker's coming out helped change the campus discourse surrounding sexuality. Through an ethnographic examination of this English instructor and the community college where he taught composition and literature for nearly thirty years, the study illustrates a rhetorical situation where a gap in…

Autoethnography is adopted as the procedure and orientation for this PhD study which aims to explore the cultural identity of the Chinese families and its influences on their children's mathematics learning. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, readers are invited to travel with the researcher a journey in which she explores her diasporic…

This article presents findings from a qualitative study describing how a cohort of teachers pursuing their master's degree in teacher leadership developed critical consciousness through coursework and the cohort structure. The findings--collected via observations, interviews, and document review--indicate the struggles and conflicts that teachers…

Success in educational programmes often depends on learners being able to negotiate and manage a variety of digital literacy practices commensurate with the literacy demands of their course. This paper reports on preliminary findings of a multi-method PhD study which examines the digital literacy practices arising when an adult learner in a UK…

This paper draws on psychoanalytic and socio-political perspectives of trauma and emotion to examine how "critical emotional praxis" may serve as a pedagogical tool for reconciliation education. A major challenge for teachers in traumatized societies struggling to enact reconciliation education is that emotions of trauma are often…

This autoethnography explores challenging and ethically sensitive issues around sexual orientation, sexual identity and masculinity in the context of school sport. Through storytelling, I aim to show how sometimes ambiguous encounters with heterosexism, homophobia and hegemonic masculinity through sport problematise identity development for young…