During the last decade, Sweden has witnessed a significant increase in public attention concerning the following interrelated linguistic phenomena: (a) a linguistic style labelled "Rinkeby Swedish," (b) specific "Rinkeby Swedish words" that have been perceived as disparaging in Swedish public debate, and (c) a specific young…

Western liberal conceptions of democratic citizenship require the state to be "neutral" by separating the political from the social. However, this is often at odds with the realities of socio-political organization in many former colonized countries. In this paper, I draw on empirical data from photo-elicitation interviews with eight…

This essay charts the experiences of a group of Year 10 students studying literature together. I challenge the current educational thinking that the literature classroom should consist exclusively of a set of canonised texts handed down from teacher to student. Instead I consider the importance of ensuring students have space to explore themselves…

An enduring concern for educational policy in many affluent countries is the endemic nature of educational inequalities that are predominately located in poor urban contexts. Given the inabilities of school reform "per se" to deal with these inequalities, the paper focuses on issues of scarcity and spatial processes that are implicated…

"Nativeness" has been recognised for two decades now as a problematic concept within applied linguistics, yet other areas of language analysis have been slow to question it, with some continuing to treat it as a primordial fact of nature. This paper briefly examines the history of the "native speaker" and the shifts in thinking…

What does it mean to be young in El Alto, a Bolivian shantytown? Based on ethnographic research, this article looks at cultural resilience among young people in a vulnerable urban context. It emphasises how young people value informal youth groups as a tool to valorise their own indigenous culture. This is echoed in the world of adults, implying…

In order to investigate the self identity and vocational identity among community youth in Shanghai and their associated spatial experience, 4 focus groups, made up of 14 individuals were interviewed. We assigned numbers to indicate each interviewee as well as the general theme of each transcription of the interview. Results are as follows:…

In this article the authors explore the relationship between concepts of identity and the purpose, process, and products of youth media arts organizations. Since the explicit mission of these organizations is to work with adolescents to explore and represent identities, the authors develop our understanding of how organizations conceptualize…

This case study examines José, a bilingual Latino fifth-grader, and his complex and dynamic engagements in "travesuras" (mischievous behaviors). José's "travesuras" served to disassociate him from being labeled a "schoolboy." This disassociation was evident in how José: (1) renounced "school-like" work and…

Apache Indian's spectacular performance of the identity of "Jamaican" dancehall DJ exemplifies the problematic politics of acculturation in "postcolonial" Britain. Born in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, a major centre of Caribbean and South Asian migration, this multilingual, border-crossing, urban youth appropriates…

This study explores questions of identity and culture in an urban high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It draws on personal observations, conversations with teachers and students, experimental work in drama, use of video, and student writings to show how race and identity are negotiated among the diverse students of a high school that…

No significant differences in global self-esteem and self-concept stability were found between 380 self-identified majority and 262 self-defined minority (i.e., Turkish, Moroccan, and Surinamese) youth in the Netherlands. Minority youth did identify more strongly with their ethnic groups, and they evaluated their groups more positively than their…

Changes in student perceptions over the first year of high school and the interrelations of student and student-reported mother, father, and teacher perceptions form the basis of this study. Self- and task-perceptions as well as utility judgments are measured in two subject domains, mathematics and English, since the transition to high school has…

Mexican and American children in grades 1 through 3 in urban schools were administered the McDaniel-Piers Young Children's Self Concept Scale to compare their self concept scores. Comparisons were made within three socioeconomic levels by grade level and sex for each item on the scale. In comparing the results, four generalizations were inferred:…

This report provides a snapshot of students in grades 7 and 8 of the former Toronto (Ontario, Canada) public schools as they were in 1997. The first survey of students in grades 7 and 8 was conducted in 1970, and surveys have been conducted periodically since then. The survey, which was completed by 7,081 students, 92% of all students in grades 7…