The Jewish student population has received little attention on campuses and has indicated their disappointment with college administrators and faculty who do not understand their identity. Jewish undergraduates face many identity issues related to being Jewish, yet they have limited opportunities to learn about the impact of religion on their…

This article uses the Students Serving Christ student organization to examine the role of student subcultures in higher education. Using subculture theories, this article examines the origins of student subcultures, explores how subcultures are formed and sustained, reveals what counts as normal within and among student subcultures, investigates…

This study is based on a longitudinal, qualitative investigation of a burgeoning evangelical student organisation on a university campus in the USA. In addition to four months of observation, in-depth interviews were conducted with students in their first and third years of college to understand the gender climate and ideology that characterised…

This article discusses how the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) accountability mechanism of No Child Left Behind makes use of supposedly objective standardized test scores to describe schools in a certain way when the very same results could serve to draw very different conclusions. Examining the proficiency scores of students from a specific middle…

This study uses a new-to-educational-research methodology, based on the legal process, to build a case that U.S. students have been largely ignored in discussion and planning for their own, presumed futures. A variety of evidence, from two large and distinct data bases, is drawn together to show: (1) students perceive their classrooms in ways…

This article investigates the relationship between effective organizational culture and student discipline in a boys' boarding house at an urban South African school. Ethnographical methods (observation and interviews) were employed. The study reports on the results pertaining to organizational culture, namely, tangible manifestations of the…

Discussions on teaching and learning within theological seminaries often center on the question of student diversity, focused primarily upon issues of race, gender, and ethnicity. At the same time that seminaries are challenged to deal with a multitude of pedagogical suppositions emerging from increasingly diverse learning goals, seminaries must…

In the context of a "death" of class in popular and policy discourse, this paper argues that social class is still a major force at work in young people's lives, particularly in the context of schooling. We argue that young people's subcultural groups are classed, in the way in which they are constructed in discourse. Drawing on a data…

This qualitative case study focusing on a collegewide change initiative was conducted to provide community college leaders with a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the role of subcultures in planned change. Research indicates that institutional culture is a primary factor in the success of change programs; however, little research…

The concept of community in higher education is broadly defined yet often exclusively linked with the undergraduate student population. Based on a two-year qualitative study at Oregon State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this article explores the notion of doctoral student community. Community as experienced by science…

In this article the author explores the controversial thesis that African American Collegiate Fraternities and Sororities, also known as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs), are "educated gangs". First, the author examines this polemic as a "truth claim" and compares BGLOs and gangs through: (1) hazing; (2) rape and substance abuse; (3)…

While much has been written on teaching equity and social justice issues in the higher education classroom from a faculty perspective, there exists scant literature on these issues from the perspective of graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs). In this paper, a TA of a research intensive university, using a variety of sources of evidence, analyzes his…

Research shows that peer status in adolescence is positively associated with school achievement and adjustment. However, subculture theories of juvenile delinquency and school-based ethnographies suggest that: (1) disadvantaged boys are often able to gain some forms of peer status through violence; and (2) membership in violent groups undermines…

This article examines the case of Laura, a 9-year-old Mexican immigrant who officially "failed to learn English" in an American school. It may be more accurate to say that schooling failed Laura, and in ways that went beyond language learning. This diagnosis of failure is criticized, along with the individualistic and essentialist assumptions…

The present research examined whether individual differences in extropunitive (i.e., distrust, dislike, and discriminatory expectations of Whites) and intropunitive (i.e., internalization of society's disparaging views) responses to prejudice account for African Americans' concrete attitudes toward school (i.e., experience-based doubts about…