This paper explores the use of Peter Berger's theory of religion and its features of alienation and dealienation to lead students to the critical awareness of the role that human beings play in the construction of social worlds, including most especially our religious worlds. After summarizing Berger's theory of the alienating and potentially…

Drawing on ethnographic data on two Chinese immigrant families over a five-year period, I illustrate how and why growing alienation occurred in these families. My analysis shows that a host of developmental, immigration-related, and cultural factors lead to growing alienation in parent-child relations. Social class also plays an important role in…

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) students experience harassment, alienation, and violence in schools. Several school-based interventions have been suggested to provide a safe and effective learning environment for these students, but few have been evaluated or investigated experimentally. This review utilizes A. K. Ellis' (2001)…

Twenty young people with a history of incarceration, substance abuse and disconnection provided Whitelion with insight into "what worked" in changing their at-risk behaviours. The answer was obvious--state support beyond 18 years of age, perhaps until the mid-twenties. These young people require specialised intervention, and help…

Answers and rebuts an article by Larry Johannessen (in the same issue of the journal) that offers ways for teachers to deal with and help alienated remedial students. Addresses the issues of administrative help, the effect of the interests and enthusiasm of the teacher, and the inner resources of teachers in despair. (PRA)

In recent years, there has been an increasingly pervasive discourse regarding the need for high levels of post-secondary education for life course success in a knowledge economy. Correspondingly, most Western industrialized nations have seen a drastic increase in university enrolment. Although we do know that access to university continues to be…

This paper is an abbreviated phenomenology of understanding accompanied by some very general suggestions as to how pedagogy is related to a grasp of the essential features of understanding. (Editor)

This study examines alienation in two different cultural groups. Students from Middle Eastern or transitional societies expressed greater feelings of alienation than American students. In the case of students in both cultures from professional backgrounds the results were reversed. The results of the study are discussed in terms of cultural…

Alienation, defined as an objective state of isolation from others, is studied among 335 members of five organizations. Four dimensions of isolation are studied: isolation from formal authority, from the network of perceived actual control, from friends, and from highly respected coworkers. (Author)

Paper presented at the Western Regional Assembly of the College Scholarship Service.

Part of the monthly Saturday Review supplement, "Education in America," sponsored by the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.

This paper presents some impressions gained after 4 weeks of intensive discussion with about 130 graduating seniors on 5 college campuses in major Midwestern and Eastern urban centers. The student who is totally committed to the American Dream is increasingly rare. Students have realized that the end is here and now, the future and the present are…

The author suggests practical steps elementary-secondary school teachers might take to provide students with defenses against future work lethargy, detachment, and self-abasement. (MJB)

A poet's narrative describes the role of educators in turning an enthusiastic kindergarten student into an alienated elementary school student. (RH)