Standard teaching methods do not work in teaching severely handicapped children. The teacher of the "specially handicapped" needs dedication, an undying "creative urge" to make a difference in a human life, personal insight, and sensitivity to an as yet unknown dimension of the human spirit. (Author/MH)

Recounts author's life as wife of an abusive alcoholic and mother of three preschool children. Describes how, through exposure to Head Start, the author provided her children with a preschool education, gained personal self-esteem, educated herself, left the abusive relationship, and ultimately returned to Head Start as a teacher. (SD)

Presents a case study of critical pedagogy in practice. Demonstrates how the "ageing women" and their teacher in a writing class came to a better understanding of their own personal texts when they learned to distance themselves sufficiently to see the broader social and cultural patterns their texts reflected and constructed. (18…

Undergraduate and graduate training programs in the helping professions are important sites for professional acculturation of students, reflecting a powerful political process. By giving voice to students' narratives, faculty validate students' cultural perspectives and encourage them to question and challenge professional practices of the…

An educator of special education teachers reflects on his childhood, the current conservative political movement as it affects people who are poor or disabled, the current inclusionary reform movement in special education, and how to best serve youth with emotional or behavioral disorders. General education is seen as inherently inadequate to…

Results from focus group interviews with 23 professional disability-sector workers indicate that personal values strongly influence the practices used by study participants when they are listening to nonverbal individuals with severe intellectual disabilities. Environmental, teller, and listener impediments to successful listening are identified,…

Maintains that autobiography, as a form of qualitative research methodology, has the ability to incorporate a deep sense of the intricate relationships of the meaning and process of artistic practice and its embeddedness in cultural influences, personal experiences, and aspirations. Provides specific examples of how to use autobiographical…

Attempts to document the process of being immersed in the discipline of visual art making by presenting excerpts from an artist's studio diary. Includes post-diary commentaries on the excerpts and a discussion of how this process informed the artwork. Includes photographs of artworks produced during this period. (MJP)

The dean of a divinity school reflects that the dean's role is to move the center of a school to its heart, safeguarding, promoting, and capitalizing on the school's collective intellectual intelligence and reconciling it with the school's collective emotional intelligence. Creating a climate for growth in the current environment of contraction is…

Examines joint construction of narratives in the classroom, presenting narratives from two ethnographic studies. The preschool narratives illustrate how peer culture, friendship patterns, and identity are socially constituted through discourse. Fifth grade narratives illustrate ways in which students view their bilingual class community as jointly…

Presents the educational stories of elementary heritage language teachers in Toronto (Canada). Interviews explored the complexities of teaching in the heritage language program. Some issues identified were a communication gap between parents and children; and professionalization, certification, and integration into the educational mainstream. (SM)

Examines the process of constructing a new school library. Highlights include organizing the planning team, working with the architect, planning the environment and the details, and preparing for the grand opening. (AEF)

Twelve First-Nations teacher-education students at the University of British Columbia were interviewed concerning experiences in anthropology classes. Students were disturbed by instructors' authoritative presentations of First Nations issues, presentations that did not correspond with students' knowledge and experience. Analyzes the process of…

Presents results of the 1991 placement survey of accredited library schools. Highlights include status of graduates; placements by type of library; full-time salaries of graduates; comparison of salaries by type of library; women's salaries; institutional data and trends; and a sidebar that relates the experiences of one recent graduate. (LRW)

This case study of a young African-American urban male and his increasing involvement with the criminal justice system illustrates that merely providing opportunities for members of the underclass is not enough. An outlook that allows members of the underclass to invest personal resources in their opportunities must be fostered. (SLD)