Explores benefits derived from the "Gardendale Family" (a vertically aligned team of K-6 classrooms in which students remain throughout their elementary school careers). Highlights a community-based research project which served as a vehicle for fostering cross-age learning opportunities, connecting students' learning to their community,…

This paper examines how Asian Pacific American high school students struggle to gain social support, cultural affirmation, and political empowerment. Four distinct case studies are highlighted: (1) an urban elite public school in which entrance is by examination; (2) an urban nonelite neighborhood public school; (3) a wealthy suburban public…

A consultant discusses his experience in assisting teachers and students to develop a democratic approach to education at a new school for high-risk American Indian students in northern Michigan. Strategies included appointing students to the school board, holding weekly student meetings, and creating a judicial committee to review student…

Virtually every Government programme for children and every Government Department in the UK is expected to involve children and young people in its policy development and service delivery (Children and Young People's Unit, 2001). It is the new orthodoxy. Yet, hard questions are often avoided when reciting the mantra of participation. Why bother?…

This book describes "The Learning Community," a minischool that was founded in 1972 by five teachers as an alternative program within a large urban high school in Astoria, New York. The Learning Community included 150 high school juniors and seniors and 6 teachers. The book overviews the development of the minischool, beginning with the…

In this book, an experienced elementary school teacher recounts how she and three other teachers of grades 4, 5, and 6 decided to relax the compartmentalization of learning into subject areas and shuffle subject matter into new patterns to offer students a voice in their education. The book describes how the teachers created a multiage…

This collection brings together papers initially presented at a conference held in Helsinki (Finland) on gender equality in higher education in several European countries and elsewhere. Following an introductory chapter by the authors, the 30 chapters (separately authored) are grouped under the following topics: national politics and policies;…

The choice theory holds that people can control only their own behavior, and that all people need a sense of belonging, freedom, power, and fun. This article argues that teachers must recognize that these needs motivate student behavior, and describes how a middle school turned its discipline and achievement problems around by using choice theory.…

The principles and practices of multicultural education became the heart of one middle school teacher education program. The five principles included fostering inter/intragroup harmony through learning communities, targeting social justice and affirmation of diversity, empowering students and teachers, seeing things from multiple perspectives, and…

Despite Botswana's commitment to the ideals of democracy and equity, abject and relative poverty are widespread among the country's rural populace. Since Botswana's independence, its rates of poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy have increased. The situation necessitates fundamental changes in the lives of Botswana's rural residents. Such change…

The community literacy program of Western District Adult Basic Education in Georgia was examined to demonstrate how the meaning and value of literacy is a function of specific local institutions. The goal of the examination was to theorize literacy by constructing a localized framework for understanding literacy within a given institution in order…