The "Skool's Out" initiative was aimed at encouraging effective responses to homophobic harassment and violence in and around schools, both public and private, in New South Wales, Australia. The focus was on safety and security in the school environment for all students, teachers, parents and community members. It was held as part of the…

This paper draws from theorists in critical pedagogy and cultural studies in order to name and then trace the re-inscription and circulation of normative whiteness in geographically isolated rural communities. The paper examines a particular rural Canadian maritime community where my role as teacher-educator and my commitment to developing…

Criminal justice agencies often call for partnerships with the community. In restorative and community justice initiatives, citizen volunteers often serve as decision makers in nonadversarial sanctioning. Although prior research has reported the attitudes of other participants in restorative decision making, such as victims and offenders, none…

By age three or four, children have already begun to construct their gender and racial identity. Stereotypes, prejudices, and practices in homes, communities, and the media can negatively affect children's feelings about themselves and others. Derman-Sparks (1983, 3) warned that young children may develop "pre-prejudice," which she…

More than five decades after Brown v. Board of Education and four decades after the Civil Rights era, racial prejudice remains a national problem cutting across social class and culture. Although schools may seem ideal places to teach children about tolerance and harmony, there is little consensus on how to best reduce negative sentiments and…

American culture glorifies the self-made man and this self-making extends to individual identity. The United States celebrates geographical and social mobility and the very anomie this produces is also the site of secular rebirths. In this essay, the author examines a literary genre that draws upon the American faith in self-transformation in an…

This article documents a two-year journey developing and implementing a teacher education programme that required preservice teachers and teachers, administrators, and students in six cooperating schools to address issues of diversity, multi-/transculturalisms, inclusion, anti-racism/anti-oppression and social justice. We describe approaches and…

The globalization of youth culture complicates young people's relationship to democracy as traditionally conceived. More and more young people define themselves as cosmopolitan citizens, connected through popular culture, digital technologies, and migration histories to social geographies outside their own local and national contexts. Despite…

This paper addresses the ethical and social justice implications of an educational movement called, The New DEEL (Democratic Ethical Educational Leadership). In particular, this paper emphasizes the ethical underpinnings of this movement by focusing on the paradox in the form of the dyad of control/democracy. This important paradox is developed…

This article comments on Fullinwider and Lichtenberg's "Leveling the Playing Field". It reviews their central claims and comments on both their arguments and their reform proposals, and suggests alternative, bolder, egalitarian proposals which involve a higher degree of effective privatization than theirs. (Contains 1 note.)

Australia and New Zealand are two South Pacific nations with a shared history of British colonisation and close links maintained through kinship, travel, shared media and business relationships. Our public education systems also reflect a shared history of educational ideas and responses to the challenges of increasingly heterogeneous populations.…

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss how public school administrators with a social justice perspective have an obligation to permeate society beyond their schools and how they might address the perilous politics associated with advocating social change. Using George Counts' landmark 1932 speech, Dare the School Build a New Social Order? as the…

In this article, the author starts by introducing three women from the Pacific whose lives illustrate the main points she addresses. She then discusses why place and gender matter in issues concerning the environment. Lastly, she touches on the implications of gender on environmental education.

The Doorways training program was designed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Safe Schools Program (Safe Schools) to enable teachers, community members and students to prevent and respond to school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). Teachers can play a central role in violence prevention, and they can also help…

This paper reports a three-year study of Praxis Inquiry based developments in teacher education undertaken by an international consortium of university colleagues who have worked in Australia, Iceland, Latvia, and the United Kingdom. Our study suggests that the attainment of inclusive community responsive pedagogies--in schools and in teacher…