Children's participation initiatives have been increasingly introduced within various institutional jurisdictions around the world, partly in response to Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Such initiatives have been critically evaluated from a number of different angles. This article engages with an avenue…

This article deconstructs the online and offline experience to show its complexities and idiosyncratic nature. It proposes a theoretical framework designed to conceptualise aspects of meaning-making across on- and offline contexts. In arguing for the "(im)materiality" of literacy, it makes four propositions which highlight the complex…

This study examined the extent to which young adolescent alcohol use was related to alcohol-related norms and law enforcement of underage alcohol use, after accounting for known strong parent and peer correlates. Our sample consisted of 7,674 students (X-bar age = 12 years) from 30 Australian communities. Two-level (individuals nested within…

This article explores the merits, possibilities and difficulties of making intra and trans-disciplinary"border crossings" essentially of an ideational kind. Drawing ideas from complexity literature, the article lauds the potential of "concept studies" as means of making such crossings and addressing enduring issues (e.g., of…

This study examined the behavioral, personality, and communicative predictors of acceptance and popularity in 608 early adolescents. Data were collected with sociometric methods and ratings in 30 sixth-grade classrooms. Hierarchical regressions were run to predict acceptance and popularity from prosocial, antisocial, and withdrawn behavior,…

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between media exposure and body image concerns in preteenage girls, with a particular focus on the Internet. A sample of 189 girls (aged 10-12 years) completed questionnaire measures of media consumption and body image concerns. Nearly all girls (97.5%) had access to the Internet in their home.…

Adolescents are an emerging population in Haiti, particularly after the deadly 2010 earthquake. The steady penetration of U.S. culture into this poor, disaster-prone country begs the question, Do today's adolescents possess a similar fondness for their home country, culture, and traditional family values as did Haitians of old? Or are they…

This paper explores the metonymic slippage surrounding the discourse of public education, through observations and interviews with Lawson High School active campaigners in the state of Victoria, Australia. The notion of campaigning for public education has become an ever-present issue on an international scale, and this article aims to contribute…

Previous research has demonstrated that adolescents make differential self-evaluations in multiple domains that include physical appearance, academic competence, and peer acceptance. We report growth curve analyses over a 7-year period from age 9 to 16 on the six domains of the Harter Self-Perception Profile for Children. In general, we find…

Of the handful of national studies tracking trends in adolescent substance use in the United States, only the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study collects data from 6th through 10th graders. The purpose of this study was to examine trends from 1998 to 2010 (four time points) in the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use…

High-stakes testing is changing what it means to be a "good teacher" in the contemporary school. This paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's ideas on the control society and dividuation in the context of National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing in Australia to suggest that the database generates new…

The exhortation to innovate is a pervasive one that occupies a central position across university mission statements, strategic plans, marketing literature and job titles. This article locates a discourse of innovation within a history of Australian federal higher education policy, a history that may bear similarity with other national contexts.…

Based on interviews with eight adult immigrants to Montreal, this article explores how discourses from their cultures of origin interact with discourses in the host culture to influence the process of identity construction during their acculturation to the host society. Drawing on sociocultural theory and psychological concepts of identity…

Increase in numbers of postgraduate students worldwide represent an opportunity and necessity for nurturing and recognising the diversity of culturally inflected research topics, methodologies and expression. However, there are tensions in the definitions, encouragement and recognition of diversity in theses, and in balances of power in…

In postcolonial multilingual societies, matters of education are deeply rooted in the discourse of ethnicity. In Malaysia, the interface between ethnicity and education is reflected in recent debates on the choice of medium of instruction (MOI). In 2002, the Malaysian government introduced English as MOI by replacing Malay, the national language,…