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The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate the process of implementing an elementary school-based action team dedicated to increasing physical activity and healthy living opportunities for students. To facilitate this intervention, Epstein and colleagues' (2002) partnership framework, coupled with action research principles, was used to create partnerships between the school, home, and community. The results suggest that an action team based on Epstein and colleagues' guidelines may be suitable for creating opportunities for healthy and active living in an elementary school setting. In particular, families, students, teachers, and administration believed that the action team initiatives added to the school environment, school spirit, and value of the family as an essential component in the school. Likewise, the action team members felt that the health and wellness committee they represented was a valued component in the school culture that could be further developed and improved on in future years.

This study explores the notion of autonomy in the dynamics of private higher education in China. Focusing on the role and function of autonomy in the operation of private institutions of higher education, it examines the evolution of government policy, documents the recent rapid development of private post-secondary institutions, and investigates the quality of the relationships between private institutions, their communities, society and government. / Data were collected from government sources and from fifty-six private institutions through various methods, including interviews, questionnaires and case studies. / Qualitative analysis of the data revealed different dimensions, perceptions, and patterns of autonomy in these institutions. / The study found that institutional autonomy has generally promoted efficiency and flexibility in the operation of these institutions and allowed adaptability and responsiveness to changing social and economic conditions which in turn, have enabled private higher education to contribute significantly to the on-going transformation of Chinese society. However, such autonomy is subject to both external internal constraints and problems, including some restrictive government policies, the lack of financial resources and inexperience in private school operation.

In this inquiry, I examined how young children use their personal, social and material resources to solve a music notational task. I asked 13 children, ages 5-9 to notate a song they learned the previous week, sing it back, explain what they did and then teach the song to a classmate the following week. I used Lightfoot and Davis' concept of portraiture as a qualitative research methodology to collect, code, analyze and interpret my data. Data included the children's invented notations and videotaped transcripts of their actions as they created their notations and taught the song to a classmate. Sociocultural Vygotskian developmental theory, activity theory and Bakhtin's dialogic theory provided the interpretive lens through which I examined how the children used their resources as mediational tools to complete the task. / Findings revealed that children who had no previous music training used increasingly sophisticated representational strategies to notate a song, and that they were able to refine their notations when singing the song from their notation, teaching the song or when prompted by an adult or a peer. I concluded that the peer-peer situation was a motivating force for triggering a recursive process of reflections-on-actions and knowing-in-action. Classmates' questions, comments and their singing played a critical role in moving the children to modify their notations and their singing, verbal explanations and gesturing in ways they did not do alone or with me. / Analysis of the children's notations, verbal explanations and teaching strategies provided insights not only into what they knew about music, but also their appropriation of the cultural conventions of writing and their aesthetic sensibilities, as gleaned from their choice of symbols, colours and how they presented their symbols on the page. Interviews with parents, teachers and school principal provided contextual background for interpreting the children's notations and how they approached the task. This study shows the value of adopting a social constructivist approach to teaching the language of music. It also demonstrates that researching the products and processes of children's invented notations from a social constructivist perspective enables more detailed portraits of children's musical and meta-cognitive understandings.

This qualitative, interpretive research inquiry presents a multiple case study design that aims to describe, understand, and explain two primary teachers' pedagogical strategies for teaching social studies and their implementation of literacy events, in a Montreal French school (L1) and in a French immersion school (L2). Two teachers and their students were observed during all the 1992--1993 school year, as they taught social studies lessons. The contexts for the study are one grade 3--4 French classroom and one grade 3 French immersion classroom. We used ethnographic tools of inquiry such as participant observation, fieldnotes, audiotaped lessons, official documents, formal and informal interviews during our data collection phases. A qualitative analysis of the teaching strategies and the literacy events relates to the role and importance of writing in French in social studies within the context French as L1 and French as L2. Findings show that in their practice, both teachers are generally more preoccupied with the content of teaching than aspects related to the language of instruction. The analysis also reveals that writing in the social studies consists of simulated tasks in which students are asked to regularly fill out worksheets. / Implications of this study could be used to increase teachers' awareness of the language of instruction, the role of the writing process in learning a L2 through the social studies. This study allowed us: (1) to describe the characteristics of teaching French in L1 and L2 social studies; (2) to identify and explain the similarities and the differences related to integration of the language and content within two learning contexts; to determine the importance and the role of writing in the teaching-learning of social studies content within two learning contexts.

Recent years have witnessed the large number of Chinese immigrants in Canada. With the coming of those immigrants is the large number of school age children. Hence, immigrant families' educational expectations and parental participation in their children's schools become major educational concerns. This study focuses on recent Chinese immigrants' expectations of and concerns about their children's schooling. / Drawing from Bourdieu's cultural capital theory and Ogbu's social mobility theory, in this study, I used a qualitative interview methodology to explore the educational expectations and school involvement of five Chinese parents who had recently immigrated to Canada. The educational expectations for their children and school participation of these Chinese immigrants are deeply rooted in Chinese tradition and heritage and are also greatly shaped by their personal experiences in Canada. Their cultural values and beliefs and immigration experiences as visible minorities have had a great impact on their educational expectations. Language barriers and different cultural values between dominant mainstream and Chinese traditions are the two main factors that hinder immigrant parents' participation in school activities and hence in their children's schooling.

Since 1998, school governing boards have been Quebec's answer to the trend towards school-based management. This study investigates the experiences of two parent representatives on a school governing board and a school board administrator in the early years of Quebec's effort to decentralize educational governance. The literature suggests that school-based management can be found in various degrees, but that it is not always successfully implemented. Obstacles related to school-based management include how school governing boards are composed, how their powers are defined, and the nature of their relationship with their school boards. Evidence from the three participants suggests that these obstacles may threaten the credibility of school governing boards. The study concludes with recommendations for improving the effectiveness of school governing boards in Quebec.

Should we be concerned about the more than 30 percent national dropout rate? Can anything be done to intervene successfully? Many students who drop out of school have the intellectual ability to complete college (Howard and Anderson, 1978). If this is so, then our educational institutions are failing them and doing them a tremendous disservice (Committee of Canadian Council for Exceptional Children, 1992). / This research investigates the high school dropout phenomenon in Quebec through the "eyes" of potential dropouts. The project examines the high school dropout phenomenon from the perspective of students who are at risk of leaving school prematurely. The objectives of the research are to investigate how potential high school dropouts perceive success, and to find out what program reforms these students believe are necessary to keep them in school. In the data analysis the students' schooling experiences are critically examined, and factors such as students' perception of public high schools, social affairs schools, teachers and their view of success are considered. These considerations are made within the conceptual framework of a variety of sociological theories in education. Social Affairs schools are special schools reserved for youths who are wards of the court, and those who are in the care of Youth Protection because they cannot live at home. / This study provides richly descriptive narrative accounts of the students' experiences, thoughts and feelings. The study gives voice to high school students who are at risk of dropping out, and of their views of what their needs are to be successful in school. Data collected from this study can be used to develop suitable programs for students. The study concludes by signaling a call to parents, teachers, governments, policy-makers, and caregivers to listen to children and to involve them in matters that are important to them---such as their views of how they can achieve school success.

Das Ziel der Arbeit ist die Darstellung der preußischen Mittelschule für den Zeitraum von 1872 bis 1945. Neben der strukturell-curricularen Entwicklung dieser Schulform werden die Bereiche ‚Chemieunterricht’ und ‚Lehrerausbildung’ schwerpunktmäßig untersucht. Vorgeschaltet ist eine Analyse und Darstellung der zur Mittelschule hinführenden Entwicklung mit ihren politischen, wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Bedingungen. <br><br> Die für die Strukturierung der Arbeit gewählte Phaseneinteilung orientiert an den bildungspolitischen Zäsuren, die durch die jeweiligen staatlichen ‚Bestimmungen’ charakterisiert sind. Mit diesen in den Jahren 1872, 1910, 1925, 1938 und 1942 vorgelegten Bestimmungen wurde das Mittelschulwesen jeweils neu geordnet. <br><br> Schwerpunkt der benutzten Quellen ist, die Verbandszeitschrift der Mittelschullehrer, die „Die Mittelschule“. Weiter wurden zeitgenössische Quellen und Literatur sowie pädagogische Zeitschriften für die Analysen benutzt. <br><br> Untersuchungsschwerpunkt ist die Darstellung der preußischen Mittelschule unter dem Aspekt der bildungspolitischen Institutionalisierung im Jahre 1872. Ein weiterer Untersuchungsschwerpunkt ist der Chemieunterricht. Als bedeutungsvoll für diesen Unterricht müssen die Diskussionen im Untersuchungszeitraum gesehen werden, die über inhaltliche Fragen und die methodische Gestaltung des Unterrichts geführt wurden. Der Einsatz der Schulbücher wird hierbei besonders berücksichtigt. <br><br> Die Situation der Lehrer wird unter dem Aspekt ihrer Ausbildung untersucht. Als Mittelschullehrer wurden vornehmlich Volksschullehrer eingesetzt, die sich autodidaktisch auf die Prüfung zum Mittelschullehrer vorbereiten mussten. Die Verweigerung einer identitätsstiftenden schulformbezogenen Lehrerausbildung hat der Mittelschule die Möglichkeit genommen, sich frühzeitig zu einer selbständig-unabhängigen Schulform zu entwickeln. Bedeutungsvoll ist das festgestellte Verhalten der Lehrerschaft dieser Schulform in den unterschiedlichen politischen Systemen. <br><br> In den zeitlichen Phasen steht die Mittelschule als eine zwischen Elementarschule und Gymnasium sich emanzipierende Schulform. Die Ambivalenz in der Stellung äußert sich in dem wechselvollen Verhalten zwischen Standesschule und Öffnung für andere gesellschaftliche Schichten. Im Zusammenhang mit der Verweigerung der Berechtigungen muss die Mittelschule als Anstalt zur Befriedigung der Bildungsansprüche mittlerer Schichten gesehen werden. Sie wurde aber auch als schulischer Abwehrmechanismus der oberen Schichten gegenüber unteren gesellschaftlichen Schichten instrumentalisiert. / The aim of the paper is a description of the Prussian secondary school between 1872 and 1945. Besides the structural-curricular development of this structure of school, there is a focus on investigating the areas ‚chemistry lessons’ and ‚teacher training’. Beforehand is an analysis and description of the development towards secondary school and its political, economical and social circumstances. <br><br> The chosen disposition of stages is oriented on breaks in education policy, which are characterized by particular governmental regulations. With the new regulations in 1872, 1910, 1925, 1938 and 1942 the secondary school system was reordered at each time. <br><br> A main source of information is the organisational journal of secondary school teachers „Die Mittelschule“ (The Secondary School). Furthermore contemporary sources and literature as well as educational journals were used for analysis. <br><br> The main focus of the investigation is on the description of the Prussian secondary school under the aspect of institutionalization of education policy in 1872. Another field of attention is education in chemistry. Especially meaningful for this are discussions about content-related questions and methodical design of teaching within the period of investigation. The use of school books is hereby especially considered. <br><br> The situation of the teachers was investigated under the aspect of their training. Elementary school teachers were appointed primarily as secondary school teachers. They had to prepare autodidactically for the exam as secondary school teacher. Because of the refusal of an identity forming school oriented training of teachers, secondary school lacked the possibility to develop early to an autonomous school design. The behaviour of the teachers of this school form within the different political systems is significant. <br><br> Within a time frame secondary school stands as an emancipated form of school between elementary school and high school. The ambivalence of the position is shown in changes of the role model between school for a particular social class and the opening for other social stratum. Related to refusal of allocation of educational competences secondary school has to be seen as an institution to satisfy middle class claim on education. But it was also exploited as an academic defence mechanism of upper class against near-illiterate, lower social classes.

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