The purpose of this study was to examine how five African American middle school students, who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina represent their literacy experiences before, during, and after their displacement. Specifically, the two research questions were: (a) What are the stories that these middle school students tell about their lives,…

The author traced an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher's professional development by examining her narrative and identifying the transformation of her awareness or "kizuki". "Kizuki," which is unique to Japanese culture, implies a sudden feeling of inner understanding of a phenomenon and can be roughly translated as…

The problem addressed in this study was the transition from middle school to high school, a source of difficulty for many students. Student advisory programs have been implemented in many secondary schools as one solution to this problem. While research supports the use of advisory programs, little research exists regarding the effectiveness of…

This inquiry explores the collaborative relationship between Mary, a teacher at a junior high, and Stefinee, a teacher educator at a nearby university. Through the use of emblematic narratives that emerged through the process of reliving and retelling experiences from a shared professional knowledge landscape, we make assertions about our…

This study is an exploration of how English as a second language (ESL) teachers relate their ethnic and social backgrounds to instructional practices. Fifty-seven ESL teachers from inner-city junior high schools of Los Angeles responded to a questionnaire, interviews and provided self-written perspectives on how their personal histories mediated…

This paper describes how adolescent students responded to a poetry workshop in an English classroom where the content was derived from their knowledge from their various life experiences and understanding of world events. Informed by theories of New Literacy Studies, ethnographic methods of participant-observation were used to document an eighth…

The "International Society for the Social Studies (ISSS) Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. The following papers are included in the 2014 proceedings: (1) Legal Profession in the Technological Era with Special Reference to Women Lawyers in…

In this essay, the author laments the fact that middle schools are so often neglected both within and outside of the world of education. She issues a call to action for middle school teachers: in order to make communities aware of just how valuable middle schools are, educators should create opportunities to show off what their students are doing,…

Digital storytelling provides an opportunity for children and adolescents to design multimodal narratives that represent and reflect upon their lives and interests. In the article we look at how two English language learners, Diego, a male Mexican-American kindergartener, and Allie Feng, a female Chinese-American junior in high school, drew upon…

The Brown Decision, whose 50th Anniversary was observed in 2004, was a landmark case that ended the doctrine of separate but equal. During the observation of the anniversary, many pundits reflected on the political, social, and historical significance of Brown. This article takes a different approach in reflecting on the importance of Brown. A…

This article presents a teacher's story regarding the necessity of a laws such as Indian Education for All (IEFA). According to the law, all school personnel are expected to "gain an understanding of and appreciation for the American Indian people." It is deeply rooted in democracy and reflects so much of what the teachers believe about…

Can teacher-educators and teachers work together in community, to make a difference in society? The aim of this article is to describe a set of strategies the implementation of which will contribute towards the elaboration of a new "culture of teaching". By promoting practices that lead to the development, in students and educators…

In this article, the author describes her personal experiences as the principal of Princeton Junior High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her administrative strategy focuses on: (1) maintaining a quality faculty; (2) using a model for classroom observation that is best suited to helping the teachers at Princeton succeed; (3) providing teachers with…

The paper examines two types of texts, personal experience narratives and expository discussions, dealing with the shared theme of interpersonal conflict. Both were produced by the same 80 subjects, participants in a crosslinguistic study on developing literacy: gradeschoolers aged 9;0 to 10;0, twelve-to-thirteen-year-old junior high school…