This article will briefly narrate illustrative life stories of some of the 450 men and women who taught in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, between 1919 and 1949 and identify and explain how they employed these options to build occupational pathways. Taken together, these "microbiographies" show patterns in the life trajectories of ordinary…

African Americans have historically championed education as a vehicle for community enrichment (Anderson "Education"; Cooper "Voice"; Giddings). Among African Americans, education has long served as a mechanism to facilitate societal transformation--the form of transformation that addresses social inequities. For many African…

The Tribal College Movement began in the late 1960's in some of the poorest and most remote areas of the country among some of the largest and most dynamic tribal groups. Of the colleges, only one moved quickly toward university status: Sinte Gleska University, located on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Its President, Lionel…

Studies indicate that women are poorly represented in school leadership across the various regions of the world particularly in developing countries. Most studies explain this underrepresentation in terms of external or institutional factors that have impeded women's advancement onto school leadership. Such factors include women's lack of…

Consistent with other sciences (e.g., Kass-Simon, 1993; Tang, 2006), the field of kinesiology has been called a "masculine domain," which has an institutionalized culture biased against women (Brackenridge, Mutrie, & Choi, 2005). This paper represents the second part of a larger project that examined the life histories of eight trailblazing women…

Empirical research focused on women studying childcare in an English further education college found the participants strangely contented despite demanding lifestyles. They were intent on integrating their family, work and educational commitments rather than actively seeking future gain, an understanding that led to the development of an original…

There is a gap in existence between the number of males and females entering science careers. Research has begun to focus largely on how identity impacts the selection of such careers. While much research has been done to examine the factors that impact student identity, little work has been done to examine what happens to female students who have…

This article features the life of Louise Underwood, an advocate for people with disabilities and their families. Underwood is known for her nickname "The Velvet Hammer" because of her relentless attitude when it comes to advocating for people with disabilities. Many times she has pulled strings to halt legislation that would have…

This article examines Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda's choice to include articles depicting the advanced decay of cadavers, which are simultaneously horrible and awesome, in her women's periodical "Album Cubano de lo Bueno y lo Bello". Background on Avellaneda's biography, women's print culture, and theories of the sublime provide a frame for the…

This study discusses the results of a content analysis of 75 Latina biographies for primary and pre-adolescent students that were published over a 16-year period, spanning from 1995 to 2010. Significant to this study was how Latinas were represented in the biographies and what changes can be seen over time. Using a rubric based on research by…

Within the last twenty years, some educational researchers initiated an emphasis to study the accomplishments and contributions of African-American women in higher education. Although they were marginally recognized, some African-American women forged into uncharted territories by providing examples of administrative leadership in post-secondary…

In the modern world, women have acquired formal education, become professionals in the workforce, and are equal to men according to law. Yet cultural and social mores continue to characterize a woman as one who acts according to stereotypes. For these reasons and others, teaching has long been considered a woman's profession. Realization of the…

This article analyzes the strategies that a sample of Maya men and women of Yucatan, Mexico used to avoid dropping out of school. Data from in-depth interviews, focus groups and life stories were analyzed using grounded theory techniques through a non-essentialist gender approach. Among the Maya, statistics show that women drop out of school…

Extending democracy into schools so that every child has the opportunity to achieve is the topic of many books and conversations. The three Latina superintendents who coauthored this book do more than discuss the issue of equity in education--they live it. They grew up affected by it, taught students who needed it, and changed the minds of those…

This issue's "Middle Level Learning" section presents two articles. The first is "Harriet Tubman: Emancipate Yourself!" (by Steven S. Lapham and Peter Hanes). "Argo," which won the 2012 Oscar for best picture, was about a daring escape of six U.S. diplomats from Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. Now imagine the…