"This paper addresses the need to open opportunities in educational research so that more minority researchers can contribute their personal experiences and acquired expertise to the development of excellent, equitable, and effective school programs and practices for all children. It captures the perspectives of a young minority (African…

This study presents findings from an ongoing study of urban childhood on public assistance. The study used interviews with aldermen, social workers, police, public housing and ghetto neighborhood residents, and medical personnel as well as the collection of field study data from local institutions and their representatives. The results appear in…

This collection of four papers focuses on the Lancaster and Sussex Projects (England) that place an emphasis on writing outside of school and outside of work by "ordinary" people in their everyday lives. The papers refer to each other; the first is an introduction for the others. "Introduction: Making Writing Visible on the…

Restructured schools should be centers of inquiry and reflection, not of unexamined tradition; curriculum and instruction courses in teacher education programs should facilitate critical inquiry and reflection. A graduate level curriculum models course at the Wichita (Kansas) State University was restructured around the basic tenet of critical…

This document describes what reading should be in a Holocaust library for children. Considering the graphic and violent events of the Holocaust, this list of books for children presents the Holocaust in a way that satisfies the need for some gentleness of treatment, while still engaging interest and presenting facts accurately, to provide a list…

This paper describes a graduate course using biographical materials for teachers to work through their understandings of reading and writing as personal, valuable processes. The course consists of three parts; each session begins with the reading of a children's picture book that deals with reading and writing; next, the class reads the…

This paper describes a technique for English-as-a-Second-Language teaching that has students and teachers sharing personal narratives, developed using ethnographic research techniques, as a classroom exercise. The technique, used in a higher education institution in Japan, is presented as a work-in-progress to those who are interested in…

A study was done to examine the lived experience of conflict among students in a transitional class for returning long-term absentees in Walker Hill High School (a pseudonym), an inner city New York City high school. The project was a substudy of the New York City Dropout Prevention Evaluation Project. The theoretical framework of the study began…

In September 1989, letters were sent to the presidents and public information officers of each member college of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (Washington, D.C.) asking them to identify outstanding graduates who might be interested in composing short essays describing their community college experience. More than 190…

This book reports on a three-part qualitative research study examining multiage classrooms from different perspectives. Part 1 of the book describes the activities of a K-3 multiage classroom, based on 40 days of observation and participation. The four chapters in this part offer a description of a typical day in the observed classroom; a brief…

This book represents a collection of over 60 articles appearing in SKOLE: the Journal of Alternative Education from 1985 through 1992 and focusing on educational reform and alternatives to public schooling. The journal was created 9 years ago in response to the growing number of families and educators dissatisfied with public schooling and to the…

In an effort to inform teacher development efforts, a study was conducted to identify and describe the factors involved in making the transition from "other" professional occupations to employment as community college teachers and transforming professional skills into effective teaching practices. The study focused on one female and two male…

Teacher education programs rarely help teachers develop those attitudes and skills that will enable them to identify and speak out for that which they know and value. This research reports on a preservice program based on the assumption that by systematically requiring teachers both to reflect on their own practice and to seek out and respond to…

This paper examines the teacher educator's role in assisting prospective teachers to grasp what it means to transform knowledge so that content and pedagogy intersect. Knowledge is not certain nor is its authority held in the text or the teacher's lesson plans. If students perceive knowledge to be open-ended, requiring vital curiosity, they will…

This study was conducted in order to examine the efficacy of involving student teachers as naturalistic inquirers during their field experience. Such tasks as taking fieldnotes, doing simple qualitative analyses, writing brief summary reports, and learning to think critically about educational issues while learning to teach, is a very helpful…