This article examines how a group of martial arts students in China make sense of their futures and how their hopes toward a "feel-good" future reveal and affect their perceived class identities. Twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in Dengfeng, a county-level city in central China. Dengfeng was home to 48 registered…

This paper addresses some of the contradictions, dilemmas, and struggles in a Danish primary school practice involved in medicating children diagnosed with ADHD. It draws on a social practice research study of a 7-year-old boy diagnosed with ADHD, who was medicated against his will. It focuses on his struggles when being medicated, and…

This article focuses on the life history of a university academic, and the ways in which he learned in different communities of practice during his career. This account raises questions about the applicability of situated learning theory to a knowledge-based organisation, and argues that both the external context and the individuals within the…

This essay addresses the relationship of improvisation and identity. Biographical research that was conducted by the author into professional musicians' lifelong learning showed the huge importance of improvisation for personal expression. Musically, the concept of "sound" appeared to serve as a strong metaphor for identity. In addition,…

Tyese Wright and Michelle Banks have very different lives; however, both women are independent, confident, and successful, and both were identified as deaf by the age of 18 months. Perhaps their success is partly a result of their upbringing. Both had parents who learned sign language and who became intimately involved in their education. In fact,…

The aim of this study is to evaluate the opinions of social studies teacher candidates on use of biography in science, technology and social change course given in the undergraduate program of social studies education. In this regard, convergent parallel design as a mixed research pattern was used to make use of both qualitative and quantitative…

Habitus dislocation is a much debatable term. By presenting life-histories of working-class adolescents, this article argues (i) that not all upwardly mobile working-class adolescents experience habitus dislocation and, (ii) that habitus dislocation has its roots in the self-initiated ruptures that face some of those who want to be upwardly mobile…

The purpose of this study was to determine how women music teachers became the United States' first female military band directors. Interviews with seventy-nine World War II military bandswomen revealed that seven of the ten chosen female directors were music teachers prior to their enlistment in the Army, Coast Guard, or Marines--band and…

Using administrative sources in the history of education and childhood involves a range of methodological and ethical considerations. This article discusses these problems, as well as the role of archives and archival policies in preserving history and shaping our understanding of past childhoods. Using Finnish child welfare archives from the…

As governments the world over continue to advocate the importance of teacher professional learning, researchers and practitioners continue to explore ways to enact that learning in meaningful ways. The value of narrative for teacher education has been widely discussed and several studies show that learning is significant when teacher-writers…

This article documents the critical friendship of an experienced teacher educator and a doctoral student through our joint exploration of student teaching supervision. By adopting a co/autoethnographic approach, we learned from biographical and contemporaneous critical incidents that informed short- and long-term practices. In particular, we…

This article describes difficulties and opportunities associated with students' disclosure of their personal experiences in university class settings. In classes that deal with topics such as violence, racism, family dynamics, mental health or social justice, students with first-hand experience of these topics can bring valuable real-life…

Neoliberal market logic positions youth as either commodities produced and marketed by private institutions or consumers for whose business those institutions are competing, a paradigm that narrows pathways for youth participation in civic and political institutions by restricting youth agency to participation in markets. However, youth organizing…

Since the new millennium, the issue of financial inclusion of young people has increasingly gained recognition, especially in relation to those living in deprived circumstances. Financial inclusion can be promoted through education that specifically aims for the strengthening of young persons' financial capabilities. In 2013, a participatory…

The purpose of this study was to elicit the experiences of women who participated in a gender-responsive program in jail. Through the collection of life history interviews, this article highlights the transformative learning experiences of 13 women participants. Research questions included (1) how did the program foster transformative learning?…