Conference workshops on gender, experiential learning through the lifespan, and action research provide examples of methods of enhancing understanding of social structures and political interventions in academic and professional communities. One challenge in this method is the unpredictability of the outcomes of experiential events. (SK)

Interviews English parents who had at least one child who had finished compulsory schooling about their school choice and experience of compulsory schooling. Examines different significances that parents attached to discipline and why. Argues that power relations between adult/child and resulting from social location are relevant to understanding…

Discusses the paradigm of aging and society and explains how life changes and changes in the surrounding social structure influence one another. (SNR)

Describes the "sociological imagination," which suggests an ability to create possible reconstructions of larger social forces which affect peoples' lives, through a story about Muhammad Ali. Discusses the importance of stories and their role in society. Utilizes three more stories to address various issues in relation to literacy…

Outlines some future research directions in anthropology and education as they relate to gender issues. Studying how gender and education can be linked to more general values embedded in social organization seems an important area to explore. An example would be exploring how the teacher-student relationship reflects gendered relations of…

Drawing upon a programme of comparative studies in three European countries, England, France and Denmark, this paper discusses some of the particular issues and problems that can arise in comparative research. It outlines some ways in which the research has attempted to resolve these and to shed light on the complex interplay of factors--personal,…

This article details how a unique educational project conducted through Tel Aviv University's Community Theatre program tackled the complex dynamics of the prison-political system over nine months in 2005-2006. The program focused on theatrical facilitations between mainly female students and male prisoners - two more or less homogeneous groups…

Extraordinary Asian American educational achievement has often been credited to a common cultural influence of Confucianism that emphasizes education, family honor, discipline, and respect for authority. In this article, Min Zhou and Susan Kim argue that immigration selectivity, higher than average levels of premigration and postmigration…

Crisis in the context of a school has many unique features related to the social structure and sense of community within schools. A school crisis exposes children and staff to threat, loss, and trauma that undermine the safety and stability of the entire school. Crisis intervention has as its explicit aim the goal of providing immediate support to…

Addressing educational change through systems design allows disciplined inquiry into the complex and emerging social structures of this dynamic system. One such method, narrative story, provides a way to examine the historical and current-lived practice of those engaged in the educational system. As a design conversation, it encourages the…

Individual action is a basic analytical unit in educational action. This paper examines how individual and organizational actions in schools draw their true meanings from the institutional structure of education and complement each other in creating different structures of meanings in different practical educational situations. The paper argues…

This paper summarizes a new paradigm of instructional supervision, which shifts the focus on supervision from an examination of individual behavior to the improvement of work processes and social system components of the school district. The paradigm, called "Knowledge Work Supervision," helps teams of teachers and specially trained supervisors…

This paper summarizes a new paradigm of instructional supervision, which shifts the focus from individual behavior to the improvement of work processes and social system components of the school district. The proposed paradigm, the Knowledge Work Supervision model, is derived from sociotechnical systems design theory and linked to the premise that…

This book, in three parts, presents a set of studies that: (1) explores some significant questions about mathematics teaching and learning and (2) illustrates new methodologies for the analysis of new kinds of questions about mathematics education. The data from the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) are the starting point for all of…

Anthropologists have documented the importance of rites of passage rituals for marking the successful passage from one position in the social structure to another. The characteristics and importance of rituals and rites of passage to mark the transition high school to college will be presented. It is proposed that colleges and universities utilize…