This paper provides a discussion of the challenges and possibilities of conducting critical research on highly contested practices, such as militarism and military recruitment, in schools serving vulnerable and nondominant communities. The discussion is grounded in data collected from a year-long qualitative case study of an urban school in…

Nationally, only half of Latino males graduate from high school (Contreras, 2011). Scholars are beginning to critically examine the various internal and external influences which contribute to low academic achievement for Latino males. This qualitative study uses a human ecological theory to examine how Latino male high school students with high…

This article adds to the small collection of art education studies on video games (Parks, 2008; Patton, 2013; Sweeny, 2010) by critically examining the association between violent video games, the U.S. military, and mental disability--from a critical disability studies perspective. Derby overviews the controversies surrounding violent video games…

For more than forty years, parents, teachers, veterans, and community activists have engaged in grassroots resistance to the military's presence in schools. The historical study of campaigns against militarism in schools remains underdeveloped. This is a glaring omission, given the breadth and history of this activism. Militarism in the…

On taking power the coalition government embarked on what many commentators believe is a radical programme of public policy reform. Under Michael Gove, education policy has become totemic to those arguing that Britain's classrooms are mired in academic mediocrity and behavioural failure. One policy response by the government has been to propose…

This article provides documentation of the current military presence in U.S. secondary schools and groups that have mobilized to monitor or oppose this presence. This documentation provides the background for a narrative of a multiple-year effort the author engaged in to promote academic freedom for teachers and students and to provide high school…

In this semi-autobiographical short story, Malcolm Reed writes about English teachers' responsibilities towards the pupils they teach. This work grew from his insight that the armed forces have traditionally recruited from areas of high unemployment and low literacy. Reed taught for many years in an all-boys, secondary school in one of London's…

In the next decade, the military will rely on aggressive marketing to battle the nation's businesses as both search for the best entry-level employees. (Author)

Local high schools sending the names and phone numbers of all juniors and seniors to United States military recruiters is more than a back-door assault on student privacy. This may have life-or-death consequences for unwitting kids who are contacted by these recruiters. This student information give-away was mandated in a little-known provision of…

Using data from three Army sources, the author examines enrollment and financial participation in the Army College Fund from 1981 to 1985. He finds enrollment grew rapidly during that time and that quality of recruits, as measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test scores, dramatically increased. (Author/CH)

Army enlistees with General Educational Development (GED) certificates who completed military service (1,894) were compared with 2,085 GED enlistees who dropped out. Completers had higher GED scores and Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery subtest scores. It was recommended that GED scores be an integral part of recruitment screening and a…

During World War I, so the story goes, recruiting in French Canada went slowly because the Minister of Militia, Sir Sam Hughes, was a bigoted Ontario Orangeman with the gall to appoint a Methodist minister as recruiting officer for Quebec. Secondary students analyze primary source materials regarding this matter. (RM)

Many American high school students from lower socio-economic backgrounds see military service as a vehicle for advancement. Various branches of the Armed Forces have consistently provided underprivileged youths enlisting in the military with a means to escape poverty. Generous benefits, adequate pay, college tuition, and specialized training in…

Analyzed inducements offered in brochures advertising the volunteer army. Found that (1) the appeals focused on education benefits, military/civilian job training, and economic incentives and (2) few appeals featured the intrinsic satisfactions of military service. Considers the implications in terms of recruitment and retention problems. (PD)

In recent years, military recruitment has failed, with rare exceptions, to meet its quotas. The nations's high schools have thus become battlefields for the hearts and minds of young people as recruiters dangle gifts and promises of future benefits before teenagers in an effort to fill the ranks of an all-volunteer military. In this article, the…