This qualitative case study explored the unique ways recent college graduates serving as full-time, near-peer mentors supported students along the path to college in three different urban public high schools. By applying the theory of figured worlds to school spaces and practices, this study sought to both define the physical and figurative ways…

Proposes that the role of the secondary school assistant principal should be studied in terms of the dynamics of basic political conflicts in schools. When seen as a polity, the school site is full of disturbances that can potentially expand into conflicts; the assistant principals' typical function is to respond to these disturbances. (KH)