Dr. Deirdre Burke is a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton's School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, specializing in religious and genocide studies. She was a 2005 National Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy that recognized and rewarded her individual excellence in teaching in higher…

Berta Vigil Laden was a scholar who helped raise our understanding of minority-serving institutions generally and Hispanic-serving institutions in particular. She approached her work with empathy and compassion. This article reviews her major contributions.

The rapid evolvement of the computing domain has posed challenges in attempting to bridge the gap between school and the contemporary world of computing, which is related to content, learning culture, and professional norms. We believe that the interaction of high-school students who major in computer science or software engineering with leading…

In physical education, bodies are not only moved but made. There are perceived expectations for bodies in physical education to be "healthy bodies"--for teachers to be "appropriate" physical, fit, healthy and skillful "role models" and for students to display a slim body that is equated with fitness and health. In…

Precision in language usage can be thought of as an ego boosting activity, a snobbish pastime, an arrogant trait; or it can be interpreted as an attempt to aid audiences in understanding exact meaning, an effort to reduce ambiguity, and/or as a positive role model for others in one's language community. This essay argues that the latter set of…

The athlete role model has emerged as the new pastor invested with the task of leading young people classed "at-risk" from entering into self-destructive pathways. The logic invested in the athlete role model is that young people identify with their sporting heroes and in the process try to emulate them. This holds for the major sporting…

A group (n = 170) of inner-city, predominantly African American, health clinic patients were asked to identify the characteristics they desired in a new clinic health educator. A plurality (44%) of the patients perceived a bachelor's degree would be a sufficient level of education. The vast majority of patients claimed the sex of the health…

What exactly is perfect? Students describe perfection as a combination of characteristics valued by their peer culture: intelligence, thin and fit physical appearance, social poise. As students chug through their daily lives--morning classes, organization meetings, club sports practice or the gym, dinner, another class, more meetings, library,…

To examine how school characteristics are tied to science and engineering views and aspirations of students who are underrepresented in science and engineering fields, this mixed-methods study explores relationships between aspects of students' science identities, and the representation of women among high school science teachers. Quantitative…

This study focused on examining the roles that leaders, in particular college presidents, may play in creating organizational learning that helps move diversity agendas forward. This study highlights under-examined information sources (students own stories and experiences) for creating organizational learning that can advance a diversity agenda.…

In this article, the authors describe the Reading Buddies program. In this program, children of varied ages experience cooperation and mutual respect, have fun together, and share themselves with others. When Reading Buddies meet, reading and learning to read are the activities, yet another real benefit appears to be the enhancement of the…

Civic responsibility as an ideal of higher education is rarely considered through a cultural and theoretical lens. Swidler's (1986, "American Sociological Review", 51: 273-286) framework linking ideology, culture and action was used in this ethnographic study of a research university (a) to understand dominant institutional beliefs about civic…

Purpose: The success of schools fundamentally depends on teachers' willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty, namely, to exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Attempts to understand the causes of OCB frequently focus on individual characteristics; only recently have researchers begun to direct their attention to more…

This paper addresses environmental impact issues associated with rock climbing and stresses the importance of reestablishing a clean climbing ethic through climber education and ethical considerations. The adventure sport of rock climbing has grown considerably over the last decade: it is estimated that there are currently over 200,000 rock…

The participation of women in the physical sciences and engineering woefully lags behind that of men. One significant vehicle by which students learn to identify with various adult roles is through the literature they read. This annotated bibliography lists and describes biographies on women scientists primarily focusing on publications after…