This paper describes the practices employed by middle school girls in New York City to negotiate their postfeminist school environment and considers the contested notion of girls' agency. Based on an exploratory ethnographic study, the data reveal that girls--to varying degrees of success--enacted a range of practices to gain power over the…

This article describes a cultural production process called religification, in which religious affiliation, rather than race or ethnicity, has become the core category of identity for working-class Pakistani-American youth in the United States. In this dialectical process, triggered by political changes following the September 11 terrorist…

This article centers the stories of two eighth grade students in the context of a social action literacy project. Their teacher designed curriculum that scaffolded opportunities for them to address English language arts standards while speaking out for social change. The students' responses to the project reveal their civic literacy practices, as…

Differences in male and female brains may impact the way girls and boys process mathematics and underscores the need for research that examines modification of mathematics instruction according to gender differences. Based in constructivist theory, this mixed-methods study investigated the effect of mathematics instruction modified according to…

The following essay is a dialogue between two high school English teachers at a small, progressive public school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Throughout their dialogue, Jen, whose voice appears in italics, and Kim, whose voice appears in plain text, discuss the factors that motivated their decisions to become teachers, tell of the distinct…

A survey research study was conducted to determine the range and attitudes of youth in New York State vocational and 4-H organizations concerning traditional and changing sex roles. The survey instrument consisted of two parts: a short multifactor true/false quiz to sample knowledge of changes in male and female participation in employment,…

At a New York State Vocational Youth Clubs Leadership Camp activities on the topic of eliminating sex bias were conducted by Project MOVE (Maximizing Options in Vocational Education) staff to make club leaders more knowledgeable of the changing labor force and family roles, sex stereotyping and bias, and related legislation. A secondary objective…

Demographic changes between 1970 and 1980 will affect New York rural schools in the 1980's. In the 1970's overall New York state population declined nearly 4% (about 700,000 persons), but rural areas gained about 100,000. Rural New York school districts now serve a population of about 2.5 million, a 5% increase since 1970. During the 1980's,…