Urban Youth Scholars: Cultivating Critical Global Leadership Development through Youth-Led Justice-Oriented Research

The Urban Review - Educational researchers and practitioners have cited the need for new directions in youth leadership studies as it relates to globalization. Globalization is considered one of...     

Raciolinguistic ideology of antiblackness: bilingual education,tracking, and the multiracial imaginary in urban schools

Abstract

Based on a qualitative study of an urban middle school, this article examines student perceptions of shifting tracking structures following the dismantling of a school’s bilingual education program. The article demonstrates that students understood the school changes based on supposed language needs through an explicitly racialized lens, thereby illuminating both the permeability and entrenchment of raciolinguistic ideologies in the predominantly nonwhite school. In particular, a raciolinguistic ideology of antiblackness that positioned Black students as lacking when compared to other non-White students was ultimately reproduced in student discourse despite the change from bilingual education to English-only class tracks. This finding is significant because it questions how education reform is often structured without regard to broader social contexts and histories. The article concludes by exploring strategies policymakers and educators can draw from to challenge underlying relational racializations of antiblackness that are so pervasive in our current language education programs.     

A Critique of Modern Education,with Special Reference to the East

The population of urban migrants in developing countries has received little specific notice within the field of adult education, although, because of its size and importance to the economic and social development of much of the world, this group deserves significant attention. Examination of urban migrants as learners provides important insight for policies and programmes that support developing their creative potential, building on individual and community strengths. Two characteristics of the motivation and learning needs of urban migrants stand out. First, individual characteristics relating to personality or motivation somehow differentiate migrants from non‐migrants, beyond generalized economic or macro‐level factors that affect migration decisions. On the other hand, it appears that group learning processes that incorporate the participation of the members and build on their networks, motivation, and coping skills, are particularly effective. Both of these aspects are important in identifying appropriate policies and programmes that stimulate the positive potential of this group. This paper examines evidence related to the demographic and cognitive characteristics of the urban migrant population in developing countries, how these relate to the learning tasks facing this group, and the implications for successful adult education programmes. In addition, these characteristics have implications for broader policies designed to take advantage of the role that communities of urban migrants can play, within a more participative development approach.     

A supporting system for effective construction and sharing of scientific databases by general researchers

A supporting system is presented for effective construction and sharing of scientific databases in a research environment, where various databases are constructed by general users who are often not familiar with the Information Retrieval System (IRS) (ORION) and the DataBase Management System (DBMS) (ADABAS). Although the general-purpose commercial IRS and DBMS are useful for scientific use, their DBA interfaces are not convenient for general users, and expert's assistance is required in database management. Therefore, we have adopted ORION and ADABAS as basic software and implemented a supporting system called COMDBS (Controlling Monitor of DataBase Systems). It consists of a database called DBAT (DataBase Administration Table) storing dictionary information on the individual databases and a set of commands for their effective construction and utilization. DBAT is accessed in executing the commands, and necessary controls are made automatically. With the assistance of COMDBS, users can construct and share their databases easily by themselves with full functions of ORION and ADABAS. Now, at the Hokkaido University Computing Center, about 30 databases have been constructed by general users.     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -