[Review of] Luci Tapahonso. Saanii Dahataal, The Women Are Singing: Poems and Stories

Wrapped around the cover of this volume is a painting by Emmi Whitehorse entitled, White Shell Woman Story 111. This is an implication of Tapahonso’s Navajo origins -- mythical, historical, and persona -- which are evident throughout the book. In this work, Tapahonso seems to be aiming at a mainly non-Navajo audience to teach them about Navajo experience -- historical and present-day, collective and personal

[Review of] Shelia Chamovitz. Skokie: Rights or Wrong

Skokie is an Illinois suburb in which about 7,000 Jewish survivors of the European Holocaust live. In 1978, The National Socialist Party of American [America] (NSPA) (known until 1970 as the American Nazi Party) wanted to demonstrate in Skokie, to publically speak about the NSPA\u27s ultimate purpose, which is to create an all-white [non-Jewish] America in our lifetime, via legal methods hopefully. The NSPA\u27s immediate goal in marching in Skokie was to dramatize the fact that there is no free speech for National Socialists ... a pressure move in order to force the system, the courts ... to give [the NSPA] back [their] right to free speech. Frank Colin, the NSP A leader and spokesperson, parallels NSP A public assembly with demonstrations by blacks in the heart of dixie during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Blacks were Dramatiz[ing] their cause in an area where those concepts were most opposed, Colin says, just as his group was attempting to do. In other words, the intent of both groups was to demonstrate their constitutional right to free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) picked up Colin\u27s NSPA case when Skokie went to great lengths to keep the NSPA from their community. As news of the planned march spread, community leaders began to receive telephone threats; the Nazis\u27 ultimate plan seemed already to be working

[Review of] Anna Lee Walters. Talking Indian: Reflections on Survival and Writing

Anna Lee Walters creates an interesting chronicle that is both personal and historical. As she writes of self and family, she also writes about a multitribal web of cultural beliefs and historical interactions with whites that have come to define tribal people today

An exploration of teacher engagement practices with families of primary aged students categorised as at risk of educational underachievement : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Current education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand signals that parents of students who are ‘at risk’ of educational underachievement should be drawn into the educational field to assist those children to reach the outcomes specified by the normative National Standards framework. An ‘educationally powerful relationship’ is advanced as being the optimum way to link home and school. Framed in this way, the home/school relationship emerges as an instrument of governance. The re-calibration of education-as-governance represents an emergence of teacher/parent relations as a means to address at-risk sub populations. Caught up with the administration of ‘at-risk’ families, the work of the teacher reflects capital(ism) in its tendency towards a crisis in social reproduction more generally. Identified by Nancy Fraser, this crisis refers to both the undermining and the overuse of the capacity of actors to establish emotional bonds, and of the contradictions that consequently emerge. Similarly, in the field of education, the emotional capacities of teachers are put to work to meet bio-political ends of producing productive populations. This research asks teachers to talk about their experiences of engaging parents of ‘at risk’ children. Using an inductive methodology, underpinned by a Foucaultian theoretical framework, data was generated by conducting semi-structured open-ended interviews in the Marlborough region. Findings point to a series of further contradictions at the site of the school. The following contradictions speak of the discontinuities inherent in the work of the teacher. Constituted to provide universal education, schools have established corrective mechanisms with which to address student underachievement. Accommodating the effects of adverse home conditions, teachers predominantly rely on in-school learning. Teachers try to be approachable yet may find themselves acting in ways that are inconsistent with their knowledge of family systems because of administrative requirements associated with the operation of National Standards. School management systems may disrupt tentative relationships with parents amplifying the tendency for parental involvement to diminish as children advance through the school years. It transpires that institutional practices work against the establishment of an effective home/school relationship, thereby illustrating the contradictions within Fraser’s crisis of social reproduction

Buffalo Habitat for Humanity: The Challenges and Prospects of Green Building

Habitat for Humanity Buffalo has operated since 1985, and in that time has rehabilitated or built more than 150 homes in the cities of Buffalo and Lackawanna. An affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), Habitat builds affordable housing for qualified low-income people. Once approved, homeowners must put 500 hours of “sweat equity” into Habitat projects, including their homeowner education. In return, they receive a zero-interest mortgage, the proceeds of which pay their property taxes and homeowner’s insurance, as well as support the rehabilitation or construction of more Habitat homes in the Buffalo area