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…

This study evaluated effects of "Positive Action," a school-based social-emotional and character development intervention, on indicators of positive youth development (PYD) among a sample of low-income, ethnic minority youth attending 14 urban schools. The study used a matched-pair, cluster-randomized controlled design at the school…

This study explores 16 novice, urban-trained teachers' evaluations of their current schools. Findings suggest that teachers used the perceived behaviors, values, and beliefs of students to measure how urban a student was and, therefore, to guide their expectations and satisfaction of their placements. The less urban the students were perceived to…

In her ethnographic study of Lao American students at an urban, public high school, Bic Ngo shows how simplistic accounts of these students smooth over unfinished, precarious identities and contested social relations. Exploring the ways that immigrant youth identities are shaped by dominant discourses that simplify and confine their experiences…

Schools provide a context or moral space for youth to develop their identity; however, with the racialized ideology, language and practices that promote Black youth criminality, criminalized schools become a racialized, classed, and gendered moral space that feeds into the school-to-prison pipeline. The criminalization of schools refers to a…

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…

This study examined the relationship between self-concept variables and academic achievement in 72 African American inner-city high school students. The self-concept variable of particular interest was racial self-concept, those perceptions about the self that develop as a result of racial identity. The hypothesis that racial and global…

Explores qualitatively the ways in which 12 urban and working-class adolescent girls spoke about themselves, their relationships, and school over a 3-year period. The ability to speak one's mind was the most prevalent theme in their interviews about relationships with others. (SLD)

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study of the nature of teachers' connections with their African American students. It is based on three rounds of interviews with six African American women teachers who had used the social justice curriculum "Facing History and Ourselves." The teachers ranged in age from the mid-twenties to…

Assesses the self-concept and school attitudes of a sample of Black ninth graders at two urban schools. Reports that, while the percentage of Black youth with low self-concept may be lower now than in previous years, there are still many who lack a positive self-image. (KH)

Project EXCEL, developed from a 2-year pilot study, provided college enrichment in reading, writing, and foreign languages for rising sophomores and sophomores in two inner-city high schools. One school had a predominantly black student body; the other had a student body that was 40% black. This study focused on the sources of equality and…

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…

Urban at-risk elementary school students (n=72) who experienced both parent involvement (PI) and reciprocal peer tutoring interventions or the PI intervention alone reported higher self-concept and greater gains in mathematics achievement than students in practice control conditions. (SLD)

Young African Americans face several critical issues such as dire economic circumstances, peer pressure, random violence, and feelings of alienation from the cultural mainstream in America. Black popular culture for these youth creates a value system born out of these same issues. This analysis will address the influence of Black popular culture…

The Erikson Psychosocial Inventory (EPSI) (Rosenthal, Gurney, and Moore, 1981) was introduced into a longitudinal study of 234 previously studied inner-city children as they were scheduled to make the transition from elementary to junior high school. Compared to the EPSI original Australian sample, inner-city African American 12- and 13-year-olds…