A mother of a deaf child recounts her earlier commitment to an oralist position, her gradual realization that she was asking her child to do the impossible, and the child's rapid acquisition of language when allowed and encouraged to use signs. The importance of hearing parents learning sign language is stressed. (DB)

The author discusses how she learned to accept the differences in approaches to living and learning among herself, her mother, and her daughters. She achieved this by drawing on her own learning experiences, spirituality, and experience in teaching her adopted Native American daughter to read. (LP)

The author and illustrator of a picture book about the life cycle of the lynx describes the research and development process she used to create the book. Contacts with wildlife biologists, presenting the predator/prey relationship, creating pictures and text, drawing from life, and creating the book jacket are among the topics covered. (KRN)

Discusses issues related to homosexuality through the personal reflections of a gay man. Highlights include family, personal, and employer and employee relationships; gays and lesbians in the military; concern over AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome); public support for gay and lesbian rights; and the relevance of these issues for…

Through diary entries and written reflections, two educators chronicle and comment on a two-week summer seminar for college faculty on use of the case method as a teaching technique. Discussion focuses on the stresses and rewards of the experience at all levels of participation. (MSE)

A third-grade teacher and her students used the Foxfire practice of reflection to analyze student projects in reading. Analysis of student comments and levels of participation indicate that elementary-age students are capable of using high-level thinking skills to improve the quality of their work. (LP)

Argues that teacher education in general lacks using personal testimony as a form of pedagogical reflection and interrogation. Asserts that, through the use of personal and public narrative, teachers can overcome their postmodern cynicism and discover an enlightened, modernistic set of ideals and ethics to convey to their students. Contains 36…

The Isolated Schools' Project offers final-year preservice teachers the opportunity to experience teaching in a nonevaluated situation in a rural or remote part of Queensland (Australia). Two student teachers describe their three-week experiences in isolated one-room schools. (SV)

In a dialogic essay, the authors reflect on aspects of their two professional lives in the field of English for special purposes (ESP), discussing their initial reactions to each other as authors, describing how they came to co-edit the present journal, providing personal and selective impressions of each other's careers, and summarizing currently…

A college junior's personal narrative tells how, with the help of a handful of caring adults, he managed to overcome a life of poverty with no parental support. He states that adults can help troubled adolescents by emphasizing their creativity and intellect, not their bad habits or inescapable backgrounds and history. (Author/MKA)

Uses an analogy with a mother's cooking skills to illustrate how teachers spend years building their own "intuitive" style of teaching; how they need to constantly watch, think, and reflect, all the while dealing with multiple demands, juggling everyone's needs, seeking balance. (TD)

A journalist and college instructor who attended college on a Pell Grant recounts her escape from poverty through education. She notes shifts in public policy toward financial aid through loans and tax credits rather than grants, but urges that the Pell Grant program be restored to the level of assistance provided youth from economically deprived…

An Oregon elementary-school principal describes her experience of creating a peaceful school. To create the safe environment needed for learning, teachers taught students conflict-resolution skills; 15 life skills, such as integrity, initiative, flexibility, and humor; and a three-step problem-solving model. Students are taking their new skills…

"Grand" historical narratives of nationalism or colonialism exclude histories of Aboriginal and other non-European peoples, thereby shaping unconscious racist views. Multicultural and antiracist pedagogies must explore such narratives to escape their categorizations. Newspaper reports of a racial incident in an Ottawa school and judicial…

Addresses the importance of implementing outdoor training courses for women only to provide a supportive environment in which women can gain the confidence and skills needed to become outdoor leaders. Describes the experiences of the author (a black woman) in dealing with her race and gender during outdoor training courses. (LP)