In 2018 we published a chapter entitled "Middle Grades Schools and Structures" (Ellerbrock et al., 2018a) in "Literature Reviews in Support of the Middle Level Education Research Agenda" (Mertens et al., 2013). Building on the earlier work of Ellerbrock et al. (2018a), this chapter reviewed literature between 2000 and 2018 that…

This paper offers a critical examination of ethical consumption, exploring how it reinforces social identities within the capitalist framework. It argues for the crucial role of educational institutions in addressing ethical consumption within their curricula. While ethical consumption is often promoted for its moral virtues and its potential to…

Due to their birth at the same time interval, according to the generation theories based on the idea that the individuals who were exposed to the same social, historical, and cultural events and thus have common experiences, similar attitudes to similar thoughts and behaviors, nowadays five generations, which are the Silent Generation, Baby…

Flourishing has become a popular ideal in the educational debate. Could flourishing guide meaningful choices in education? My skepticism rests on unclear definitions of flourishing, a hidden insistence of theories of flourishing on selfish and individualistic themes, and an elitist vision of flourishing as the consequence of favorable conditions.…

Attachment theory postulates that there is a particular style of caregiving that, because of its interaction with our evolved psychology, is most likely to result in healthy psychological development. Attachment research has been criticized because most studies have been conducted with Western populations. Critics argue this has (a) overemphasized…

In the United States, HIV disproportionately affects people 13-45 years old, people of color, people in the south, and men who have sex with men. Given the growing number of postsecondary students within these demographic groups, this presents an equity issue and raises concerns for how higher education researchers and practitioners choose to…

The purpose of this paper is to critique current women-only coach education initiatives, before suggesting an alternative approach to dealing with gender discrimination in coaching provision. Having increased in popularity over recent years, primarily through justifications as being "safe spaces" for participants, such initiatives have…

In this presentation, I examine some tensions of implementing structural changes in the instrumental classroom in pursuit of equity. Using structuration theory (Giddens, 1984) as a framework to identify and label social structures, I explore the experiences of a high school orchestra teacher and three of his students during a period when the…

Research on the role of teacher agency has been growing significantly during the last decade. Agentic teachers act purposefully and constructively to direct their professional development and contribute to the quality of education, especially in rural areas. Professional development is mutually constituted between teachers and socio-cultural…

Remote scientific research settings embody a long-term combination of extreme conditions, physical boundedness, and blurred boundaries among work, play, and sleep that challenge traditional notions of how individuals perceive and interact with infrastructure. In such settings, individuals often use creative outlets to form social bonds with…

This paper seeks to further develop and refine a theory of the ways in which artefacts created by humans direct and deflect the attention of groups and individuals as they act in specific institutional settings. It draws on the writings of Basil Bernstein and Lev Vygotsky. These are two bodies of theory that have strengths which, to some extent,…

The purpose of the research was to explore how female nutrition/dietetics majors at a large, Midwestern university, with a caregiving role in their home, interpreted their roles in home foodwork, how their formally acquired nutrition knowledge influenced that role, and how they saw their role in home foodwork shaping their careers. These future…

Friendships and close relationships within organisations and schools are integral for developing trust, engagement, and a sense of community. That said, few studies exclusively look at tie formation in friendship networks in K-12 contexts. In this study, we explore the relationship between Day and Gu's teacher life phases and the formation of…

Modern cities produce areas of poverty, despite their overall wealth. These pockets of living can exacerbate societal problems, especially because the opposite end of the societal spectrum is often close by. This paper examines an educational initiative in one such district, called Claymore, in the suburbs of outer Sydney. The project deployed a…

Although game-based learning has gained significant attention in higher education globally, it is difficult to harness its engagement and interactions to improve student success. This paper argues that the use of digital games has the potential to interrupt social practices and increase engagement and interaction, thereby fostering meaningful…