Doing the Work: A Portrait of an African American Mother as an Education Activist

In recent years, much research has documented the benefits of parent involvement and offered strategies on how educators can encourage parents’ participation in their children’s education. While the literature has brought much needed attention to school-family relationships, little is known about parents who are activists for educational improvement beyond their own children’s schooling and who concern themselves with district policymaking and governance. This article offers a portrait of one African American mother who is an education activist in Boston, Massachusetts. Drawing on social movement and Black feminist theories, the portrait documents how and why she has devoted her life to educational reform and equity with an emphasis on racial equality. The article concludes with a discussion of two possible factors that contribute to the making of an education activist: the development of a political racial identity and educators’ support for education activism.     

The history of lamaze continues: an interview with elisabeth bing

Elisabeth Bing-physiotherapist, childbirth educator, and cofounder of the American Society for Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics (now Lamaze International)-is well known to most childbirth educators in the United States. She has been a true pioneer in the education of parents for pregnancy and birth. Her book, Six Practical Lessons for an Easier Childbirth, served to guide many parents and childbirth educators in the use of the Lamaze Method for labor and birth. She has prepared a countless number of parents for their birth experience in both her hospital classes in the 1950s and 1960s and in her private classes in the "studio" of her New York City apartment building, where she began teaching in the 1960s and continues to teach today. Elisabeth is beloved by all those who have had the opportunity to meet her or work with her. She has created a legacy that will continue for decades to come.     

The history of lamaze continues: an interview with sunnye strickland

Although the most publicized beginnings of the Lamaze method in this country took place in the New York City area in the 1950s and 1960s, change was taking place even earlier in other parts of the United States as well, for women everywhere were eager to be educated and awake for their birth experiences. One of the early leaders of the "natural childbirth movement" in Colorado, Wyoming, and Oklahoma from the late 1940s through the early 1960s was Sunnye Strickland. Strickland began her career as a labor and delivery nurse, became a devoted advocate of prepared childbirth as a result of her own birth experiences, and embraced the philosophy of the psychoprophylactic method after visiting Dr. Pierre Vellay in Paris. She then became a faculty member with the American Society of Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics (ASPO/Lamaze, now Lamaze International, Inc.) and eventually a certified nurse-midwife. Her professional story spans five states, several countries, and 46 years, with a rich variety of experiences in which she was a change agent, educator, and active leader in the childbirth education movement.     

The Milwaukee Platoon School Battle: Lessons for Activist Teachers

During the 1920s, activist teachers within the Milwaukee Teachers Association (MTA) engaged in a successful campaign to prevent widespread adoption of the platoon school model within their city's public school system. In the course of this campaign, MTA leaders had to develop skills as educational researchers, coalition builders, and policy advocates. Their struggle sheds light on discordant conceptions of effective urban education in early twentieth century America, and provides lessons for contemporary teachers on how to collaborate to advance their own visions of effective and equitable schooling.     

我梦到自己采访上帝

那么你真的要采访我吗?"上帝问道。"假如您有时间的话。"我说。上帝笑了:"我的时间是永恒的,……那么你有什么问题要问我呢?     

Reflections on an evolving view of giftedness and talent: An interview with Rena Subotnik

Students' progress toward educational goals is usually assessed using achievement tests. Assessment of students’ growth in thinking abilities, however, requires alternate techniques. Since thinking is most often performed in problem‐solving situations, teachers can become the best observers of it by providing situations in which students can practice and demonstrate intelligent behaviors. Some indicators include: perseverence, precision of language, problem‐finding, decreased impulsivity, meta‐cognition, checking for accuracy, transference, flexibility, drawing upon previous knowledge and enjoyment of thinking.     

A challenging time in the history of lamaze international: an interview with francine nichols

Dr. Francine Nichols-President of Lamaze International from 1988 to 1991 (when the organization was known as "the American Society for Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics" or "ASPO/Lamaze") and the founding editor of The Journal of Perinatal Education in 1990-is a woman with many skills that have contributed to her success throughout her career. Dr. Nichols is a knowledgeable leader in maternal-newborn nursing, a respected nurse and childbirth educator, a researcher, and an author. However, these skills were not the abilities she relied upon the most to lead the Lamaze organization through a challenging period in the 1980s; rather, Dr. Nichols's tenacity, business savvy, and willingness to face controversy helped guide Lamaze International back on track so that it was able to grow into the strong organization it remains today. This interview took place by telephone on June 12, 2006, when Dr. Nichols was in Washington, D.C., for the summer to coordinate the National Institute of Nursing Research's Summer Genetics Institute, a doctoral-level course cosponsored by Georgetown University.