The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to investigate the ways teachers support young adolescents' academic motivation in one large, urban, ethnically diverse middle school. Data included individual interviews of 24 participants (18 students, 5 teachers, and 1 middle school assistant principal). Findings suggested that the following…

Although there are numerous calls to enhance the professionalism of teachers, there is little empirical research in the United States that examines educators' understanding of the concept. This exploratory case study compared the conceptualization of professionalism by faculty and students in a college of education vis-à-vis the conceptualization…

This paper reports on an interpretivist research study that sought to articulate the strategies being adopted by selected universities to recruit, teach and retain students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. The literature is clear that these students face more barriers and fewer encouragers than their peers to engage with higher…

This article reports on a recent study of teacher educators in England which aimed to explore teacher educators' constructions of their own identities in the academic communities within two university schools of education. Findings show that teacher educators constructed repertoires of identities for themselves, deploying these to achieve…

Pseudoscience is error, substantive or methodological, parading as science. Obvious examples are parapsychology, "intelligent design," and homeopathy. Psychoanalysis and pop evolutionary psychology are less obvious, yet no less flawed in both method and doctrine. The fact that science can be faked to the point of deceiving science lovers suggests…

The "elaborate systems of communication" that historian Christopher Lasch observed nearly three decades ago have intensified in complexity and scope. The explosion of the Internet and wireless technologies has resulted in a dizzying proliferation of texts. Teachers and students are but a keystroke or mouse click away from a limitless stream of…

This study explores the nature, use, and social organization of one form of communicative action that is common in everyday life--"bullshitting." We use this form of communication to assess the ways in which dimensions of community, power and status are created in interaction. Abiding by the canons of ethnographic content analysis, we gathered…

The purpose of this qualitative content analysis was to determine how the The Six Pillars of Character as defined by the Character Counts! Curriculum are exemplified in 21st century Newbery Award books (2000-2010). A team of 5 reader/coders, all experienced educational professionals, examined each of the 11 titles in order to investigate…

This study uses a quantitative approach to evaluate the trustworthiness of e-businesses as measured by the E-business Trustworthy Index, EBTI, developed as part of this research. The problem is that despite the importance of e-business trustworthiness and the findings from many studies, there are few if any objective measures that evaluate the…

In all its complexity, the superintendent's role is an essential one--to the school district as an organization and social institution, to the greater system of which the school district is a part, and to the profession and field of education. Most directly, the role and person within it are essential to the overall welfare of the school…

In this article, the author problematizes external, objectified, oversimplified, and mechanical approaches to validity in qualitative research, which endorse simplistic and reductionist views of knowledge and data. Instead of promoting one generalizable definition or operational criteria for validity, the author's "deconstructive validity work"…

Our decision about whether to trust and cooperate with someone is influenced by the individual's facial appearance despite its limited predictive power. Thus, remembering trustworthy-looking cheaters is more important than remembering untrustworthy-looking cheaters because we are more likely to trust and cooperate with the former, resulting in a…

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) represent one of many types of institutions in the American system of higher education. Comparatively little attention has been given to the campus' executive leader, namely the president. Our study describes early twenty-first century contributions to and challenges of public land-grant…

Background and objective: Some districts in the United Kingdom (UK), where the level of child dental caries is high and water fluoridation has not been possible, implement school-based fluoridated milk (FM) schemes. However, process variables, such as consent to drink FM and loss of children as they mature, impede the effectiveness of these…

This paper extends the work of Gamble, who followed Marx in seeing a reconstitution of the reserve army of labour as a key function of capitalist crisis, but it suggests a wider class reformation that includes what can be called the middle-working/working-middle class. Education and training to all levels are deeply implicated in this class…