Examined parental satisfaction with and involvement in intervention services of Child Development Centre at City Hospital in Birmingham, England. Found general satisfaction, but also that parents want more of a role in the initial assessment meeting, welcome the chance to help decide upon service quality, and appreciate help with issues such as…

A consultant discusses his experience in assisting teachers and students to develop a democratic approach to education at a new school for high-risk American Indian students in northern Michigan. Strategies included appointing students to the school board, holding weekly student meetings, and creating a judicial committee to review student…

Strengthening family involvement in early childhood programs became a fundamental component of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Excellence Initiative. The initiative's strategies for encouraging family involvement include: creating a welcoming atmosphere; actively involving parents, children, and other family members in the education process;…

Discusses site-based management as a means of school reform. Emphasizes the advantages of such decentralization for music education. Compares the traditional approach with a reform alternative in terms of decisions affecting teaching, learning, school climate, and curriculum. Urges implementation of site-based management as a means of involving…

Over 100 interviews with teachers and administrators provide the base for this analysis of teacher empowerment in several highly decentralized school districts. Examined are (1) how teachers respond to opportunities for influence; (2) how such opportunities affect teaching; and (3) how opportunities affect teachers' work lives and sense of…

If boards of education in rural areas are going to strengthen education, they need to achieve empowering leadership through written policies that create a clarity of vision, empower subordinates, and emphasize renewal. Empowering leadership allows linkages among stakeholders of education and encourages creative efforts toward improving the…

Argues that prevailing assessment methods in higher education confuse the adult learner, fail to place the instructor in a facilitative mode, and hamper attempts at learner empowerment. Descriptions of more appropriate evaluative methods are offered, including instructor, peer, and self-evaluation, accompanied by student responses to these…

Describes a qualitative research project examining homelessness's effects on children's schooling, highlighting a South Carolina intervention program's success. Research disclosed an informal homelessness "caste system," the political unpopularity of providing homeless services, homeless kids' high rates of academic failure and problem…

Within a university course, a professor and two graduate students explored societal and individual implications of literacy in general and of information and scientific literacies: conceptualizations (or ideologies) of specialized literacies in society, injustices caused by a narrow view of literacy perpetuated by dominant groups, literacy as…

First of a two-part series, examines effects of teen pregnancy and parenthood on adolescents and their children, and describes exemplary program to keep teen parents in high school until graduation. Discusses how to address the issue of teenage pregnancy, how to effectively help teen parents, the importance of teaching teenagers personal…

Participant observation and in-depth interviews explored how 10 New Zealand male secondary students, aged 17-19, made meaning from their outdoor educational experiences. Qualitative methodology was indispensable in revealing how learning through adventure not only improved self-concept (a conventional assessment), but also contributed to…

We analyzed the role that psychosocial empowerment and social support factors play in the employment status of immigrants who participate in job-readiness programs financed by the European Social Funds and the Welfare Services of Andalusia, a region in the south of Spain. The goal of these programs is to find new ways to improve immigrants'…

Virtually every Government programme for children and every Government Department in the UK is expected to involve children and young people in its policy development and service delivery (Children and Young People's Unit, 2001). It is the new orthodoxy. Yet, hard questions are often avoided when reciting the mantra of participation. Why bother?…

Those who are most marginalized, both culturally and economically, in society are concentrated in the nation's largest urban centers and have the least opportunities to be successful in school science or to pursue higher education and career trajectories in science, mathematics, or engineering. This article shares the results of a study in which…

Student teaching may require student teachers to address the demands of two masters that often have very different expectations and philosophies. They are caught in a bind of being expected to implement methods advocated in university coursework while also being expected to fit into the classroom to which they are assigned. This bind is further…