This socioculturally framed case study focuses on children's sense of agency in educational settings. The study has two objectives: (a) to portray the modalities of children's sense of agency in preschool and first grade settings, and (b) to identify the sociocultural resources that mediate children's sense of agency in these two activity…

Background: The learning of students from (im)migrant backgrounds has long been a consideration for the field of education. The "transnational" turn in research has brought to the forefront the need to account for students' language and literacy practices as situated within multiple national affiliations, fluid migration histories,…

Young children in diverse urban contexts bring to school transnational knowledges, complex multilingual literacies, and cultural practices which reflect global mobility and the blended nature of their social worlds. For children such as the Latino first graders we have been working with for the past three years, their lived experiences do not…

In consideration of the potential of drawing and writing as assessment and learning tools, we explored how early primary students used these modes to communicate their science understandings. The context for this study was a curricular unit that incorporated multiple modes of representation in both the presentation of information and production of…

How can centers be utilized in a classroom so students have full control of what they are learning and when? Can centers be used effectively post-kindergarten? During student teaching in a first grade classroom in southeast Louisiana, two student teachers, their classroom mentor teacher, and the 1st grade students experienced center learning that…

In this article, the author describes how his first-grade students made their own compositions based on James Rosenquist's collage series in which long shards of faces were painted over a background that appeared to be abstract. The background was made up of enlarged details of things such as flowers, leaves, fire, and water. The students'…

The targeted reading intervention (TRI) is a professional development program for rural kindergarten and first grade classroom teachers to help them provide effective reading strategies with struggling readers. In two randomized controlled trials, the TRI was delivered two ways: (1) literacy coaches provided support for classroom teachers through…

Enriched environments may moderate the effect of genetic factors on prosocial leadership (gene-environment interaction, G × E). However, positive environmental experiences may also themselves be influenced by a genetic disposition for prosocial leadership (gene-environment correlation, rGE). Relating these processes to friendships, the present…

In this article, the author describes a self-portrait project that encouraged students, boosted their self-confidence, and got them excited about their artistic abilities--while producing amazing results. This lesson effectively develops artistic ability by compelling students to see that drawing is quite simply breaking down objects into the…

Focusing on two bilingual children experiencing learning difficulties, I explore the scientific representations these students generate in an afterschool programme where they have opportunities to exercise agency. In the programme, children use a digital camera to document science in their lives and engage in conversations about the products they…

Digital cameras are now commonplace in many classrooms and in the lives of many children in early childhood centres and primary schools. They are regularly used by adults and teachers for "saving special moments and documenting experiences." The use of previously expensive photographic and recording equipment has often remained in the…

This study aims to evaluate primary school Life Sciences (1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades) and Social Sciences (4th, 5th, and 6th grades) course books in terms of gender discrimination. This study is a descriptive study aiming to evaluate the primary school Life Sciences (1st, 2nd, 3rd grades) and Social Sciences (4th, 5th, and 6th grades) course books…

This study was presented at the American Educational Research Association 2012 conference in Vancouver, Canada. The study explored how action research of arts-based teaching (ABT) impacted at-risk students in three urban public schools in southern California, USA. ABT was defined as using arts, music, drama, and dance in teaching other subjects. A…

Digital photography energizes students and focuses their attention on their environment. The personal connection to science helps students develop a habit of mind in which everything they see inside or outside of school can prompt them to wonder and investigate. This article describes how first graders explore their school grounds with cameras in…

In this article, the author describes an exciting project, written for first-graders, wherein students got to put themselves into their art using a camera and just one computer. In this project, students were challenged to invent their own fantasy place where anything could happen. Using the camera, the author took their picture in their chosen…