Driving across tracts of new-home development in El Paso, Texas, one can't miss the signs of charter-school momentum. Charter-school enrollment has been growing in Texas for years, but in many localities and even at the state level, charter schools had until recently encountered harsher treatment from policymakers than what advocates have…

The Workers' Educational Association (WEA) has supported adult learning for over 120 years. Participating in adult learning brings a range of benefits for individuals and communities. These go much wider than solely education benefits and include better health, increased participation in community activities, and increased confidence and critical…

Conducting graduate studies in an online program can be isolating for students. This qualitative case study explores the way one online doctoral cohort utilized a text-based communication channel to keep in touch and encourage each other throughout the dissertation writing and defense phase of their program. Using Social Presence Theory and Social…

Empowered women are a major factor in advancing towards progress and prosperity via national development. But national development plans have received very limited academic analysis. A quantitative descriptive research design was used to discern what actually exists in Saudi Arabia's recent national development plan ("Vision 2030")…

Fandom practices are often considered meaningless and unnecessary. However, the use of social media carries the potential for positive as well as negative impact on the users. Using the framework of Community of Practice, the latest theory addressing community formation and interaction, as its theoretical framework, the study explores the…

Youth fields professionals create the conditions in which young people can thrive: They activate the vision for high-quality programs; develop tools, systems, and approaches for designing and sustaining such programs; and form relationships with and among participating youth. However while investments in afterschool programming have continued to…

California is prioritizing equity in education post-COVID-19 by investing in community schools. Districts have an important leadership responsibility to develop the conditions, capacities, and resources for effective, sustainable community schools. Specifically, districts must strengthen system-level supports and infrastructure to ensure…

This article documents how an MSW student in an introductory community practice course took her class assignment and over the course of two years revitalized, democratized, and transformed a sclerotic, corporate-run Home Owners Association (HOA). While the community analysis assignment required the student to interview six of her neighbors, the…

Through a multistakeholder partnership, this research aims to catalyze the development of a blue economy corridor (BEC) through community-based asset mapping in the eastern portion of the Tar-Pamlico River Basin in North Carolina, a geographic area predominated by physically and culturally rural landscapes. Underpinned by appreciative inquiry,…

This article focuses on the PeaceJam Foundation Ambassadors Curriculum, analyzing how its content and structure align with a Transformative Human Rights Education (THRE) approach. A THRE approach centers on creating social change and encourages youth to analyze structures and conditions that lead to injustice. It embraces emancipatory learning…

Understanding and identifying the professional development needs of 4-H youth development professionals should be the first step in developing the Extension workforce. However, 4-H professionals find it challenging to use the Professional, Research, Knowledge and Competencies (PRKC), which consists of 348 unique competency items, to guide…

Creating an online learning environment that engages learners beyond the given course period is challenging. Open, participant-driven discussion forums, where participants are provided with greater agency on what to learn, how to learn, and whom to learn with, have a unique potential to help learners engage in learning experiences based on their…

Increasingly designers from an array of different disciplinary backgrounds work in international and community development, yet design education rarely prepares them for the challenges and roles in this context. The article reflects on issues of power and representation during design research in The Gambia by adapting reflexivity and positionality…

This article narrates the rise and fall of a notable adult education programme at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada. The Centre for Adult Education and Community Development was established in 1951, replacing the External Service for Social Education. In the 1950s, the Centre gained an international reputation for excellence in adult…

This paper is concerned with the civic significance and cultivation of three constructs that involve different ways of having an expansive and virtuous concern for others. Identification with all humanity involves caring for an expansive domain of others, identifying with humanity generally and not just with one's ingroup. Others-centeredness…