This article focuses on the ways that one individual child, Christina, experienced urban life in and outside of a diversely populated elementary school with a multicultural curriculum. Labeled by the school and her parents as white, Christina identified as Latina, and used specific spaces in the city to support this claim. Drawing on data from a…

Educators and the public alike are often perplexed with the enormous and evolving cyber mise en scene. Youth of the digital generation are interacting in ways our fore-mothers and fathers never imagined--using electronic communications that until 30 years ago never existed. This article reports on a study of cyber-bullying conducted with students…

This article reveals the findings of a participatory ethnography with post-secondary students enrolled in a large West Coast University in British Columbia who had previously been identified as "learning disabled" and thus, the "recipients" of special educational policy interventions. Instead of starting from the official meanings of the special…

Disability labels and other social categories in school arise out of an educational system which attributes learning problems, perceived weaknesses, and academic failure to individual students. Instead, this dissertation investigates how learning problems are produced and reinforced through cultural practices. Through a two-year, cross-context…

Eight homeless people were interviewed about their experiences of health and social services. Three themes emerged: responsibility, identity, and feeling trapped. Although some felt they were responsible for their own situation and avoided help, most turned to formal channels for help, but professionals were often seen as offering unwanted labels…

Achievement gaps may reflect the cognitive impairment thought to occur in evaluative settings (e.g., classrooms) where a stereotyped identity is salient (i.e., stereotype threat). This study presents an economic model of stereotype threat that reconciles prior evidence on how student effort and performance are influenced by this social-identity…

This article draws on life-stories told by older people with intellectual disabilities for a research study in the Republic of Ireland. Research participants recalled their experiences of confinement, coercion and exclusion that resulted from their being labelled as having intellectual disabilities. Participants also recalled the positive…

Much can be learned about the experience of autism by listening to the voices of individuals so labelled. They describe their understanding of competence, living in a culture where autism is considered deviant, deficient and outside the range of 'normal' human experience. This paper utilises autobiographical accounts written by individuals who…

School administrators, educators, psychologists, social workers, the juvenile courts, institutional reformers, and others shape the manner in which children are labeled, portrayed, and treated. However, the agendas, motivations, political language, and influence of these "helping professionals" in "treating" and…

Background: Although there is extensive research examining parental experiences of assessment and diagnosis of autism, there is a paucity of research from the perspective of individuals with autism. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine young people with high functioning autism who were capable of providing a verbal account…

This article draws on some of the existing literature on the politics of identity and representation as related to minority group formation. It applies this to constructions of Deaf identity from a cultural and linguistic perspective and contrasts this with dominant constructions of Deaf people as disabled. It highlights a number of ways in which…

Objective data provide overwhelming evidence that children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are underidentified and underserved. This was the central argument in our November 2007 Forum article to which Harry, Hart, Klingner, Cramer, and Sturges responded. In this rejoinder, we continue to assert the dramatic need to offer…

In the United States first-generation students (FGSs), those who are the first in their families to attend university, are recognised as disadvantaged and receive government support. Amidst affirmative action debates in higher education in South Africa, an increased awareness has emerged about challenges that FGSs in this country face. A…

This narrative inquiry aims to better understand and document how a bilingual Latina preservice elementary teacher's experiences as an immigrant student and English learner (EL) inform the construction of her professional identity and practice as an English language arts (ELA) educator. Although the study participant voices a lack of confidence,…

Getting anyone's attention is a prerequisite for being able to hold a good conversation with him or her, as anyone who parents or works with preteens or teenagers knows. It is absolutely necessary with individuals on the autistic spectrum because the achievement of what is called "joint attention" (the ability of children to respond to another…