In many U.S. prisons an overuse of individualized instruction silences literacy learners and reinforces oppressive notions about what knowledge is and whose knowledge counts. In these classrooms, methods that invite learners to tap their background knowledge, reflect on their worlds, and dialogue with others to construct meaning--commonplace in…

This paper examines a timely topic in international youth studies--the transition to (middle-class) marriage--in a developing country, Indonesia. While early marriage in Indonesia is still common in rural areas and marriage itself remains almost universal, these trends are moving into reverse for urban, tertiary-educated middle-class young people.…

Although there are some success stories of technology integration in schools, it remains unclear in the literature how teachers become, and take on the identity of, exemplary users of technology in classrooms. Using concepts from cultural sociology, this article examines how an experienced elementary school teacher in Singapore, Cassie, accounted…

This research assessed the extent to which sociocultural factors implicated in explanations of weight dissatisfaction among young Western females extend to sources of body image concern in emerging adult and adolescent males from the People's Republic of China. In Study 1, 219 Mainland Chinese male university students completed measures of stature…

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about conditions for boundary crossing between academic and vocational practices and to identify dimensions of social practice within workplaces. The data consist of 28 questionnaires and 14 in-depth interviews with newly qualified secondary school teachers in their first year of teaching. We use the…

In their "Telling Identities: In Search of an Analytic Tool for Investigating Learning as a Culturally Shaped Activity", Anna Sfard and Anna Prusak articulate the promise of story or narrative in defining identity as an analytic tool in sociocultural research on learning. The article strives toward a process-rich notion of identity that responds…

Children constantly encounter signs during cultural practices, although many theories do not fully acknowledge sociocultural aspects of semiotic development. The author examines research on cultural practices and contexts in which children learn to produce signs involving representational drawing and pretend play. This work is contrasted with more…

This article outlines Foucault's conception of critique in relation to his writings on Kant. In that Kant saw Enlightenment as a process of release from the status of immaturity in that we accept someone else's authority to lead us in areas where the use of reason is called for, it is claimed in this article that Foucault's notion of critique…

Despite significant social changes in the past 50 years, research continues to find a strong and enduring link between religious homogamy and marital quality. Yet, research has not explicitly examined whether this link has changed over time or over generations. To address historical and generational trends, I use national, longitudinal data…

This article conceptualizes acculturation from a sociocultural theoretical framework. Drawing on data from a 2-year ethnographic study of immigrant families, specifically their beliefs and practices related to discipline, the authors show that acculturation is a complex, dynamic, and interactive process that cannot be easily measured through…

With globalization, increased mobility of families, and the resultant changes to the social and cultural profiles of many countries, early childhood education is in an exciting, challenging, and, in some ways, uncomfortable position. For many years, teachers have been influenced by developmentalists as they have tried to respond to the diverse…

Social workers have long been involved in identifying resources and making final arrangements for clients who die without an estate or have no heirs, who may be institutionalized or unknown to the community, or whose body may be unclaimed for burial. Absent quick intervention, these individuals are often at risk for an anonymous potter's field…

This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at Laval University in Québec City, Québec. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims of the Study…

This is an analysis of California history of the shifting of language policies from Spanish to English, as an Official Language The focus is English as an imposed language that from the beginning of schooling policies stifle a process of language acquisition for the majority of Spanish speakers. In 1849 the California Constitution stipulated that…

Listening to the dying poses special challenges. This paper proposes a contingency framework for describing and assessing various circumstances when listening to the dying. It identifies current approaches to listening, applies the contingency framework toward effectively listening to the dying, and proposes a new type of listening called…