Polarization in political culture and the decline of public education for civic engagement have become serious challenges to a healthy constitutional federal republic in the United States. Communication as a field of study in American universities is well-poised to address these challenges and contribute meaningfully to improving the civic…

Guided by a critical race praxis for educational research lens, the authors worked individually alongside their students in a K-12 or higher education classroom, embracing spaces of tension derived from the push and pull between oppression and liberation. The authors explain how these tensions troubled the ways in which humanizing practices are…

In this article, the author explores youth participatory action research (YPAR) through gameplay. He describes Ask Anansi, an alternate reality game (ARG) played in the "real world" by weaving elements of storytelling and fiction into the environment played as part of class experience. This game which the author created drove the…

Developed out a community participatory research partnership with schools, the Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools Program is a targeted intervention for school children who have experienced a traumatic or violent event and have symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. This article describes the original development of the…

This article is part of The Weekly Qualitative Report's occasional series on "How-To Collect Qualitative Data." The qualitative data collection method described is that of focused discussion groups (FDG's). This method involves the moderator, or scripter as is the preferred term in focused discussion groups, to move beyond that of a…

Background/Context: The issue of how to achieve a racially diverse student population has become increasingly challenging since a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court split decision endorsed the importance of creating diverse schools, while simultaneously limiting the assignment to public schools based on an individual student's race or ethnicity. The article…

Timber operators, ranchers, corporate timberland owners, environmentalists, state government, and local schools in rural northern California formed an alliance to save the local salmon from extinction. The community's struggle toward consensus was an attempt to abandon the polarization that arises from power struggles. Local nonprofessionals were…