Ann Locke Davidson

Navigating the Psychosocial Pressures of Adolescence: The Voices and Experiences of High School Youth

This article describes pressures and problems in adolescents’ family, peer, and school worlds that they perceive as powerful enough to have an impact on their ability to engage optimally in school and learning endeavors. The study sample includes 55 ethnically and academically diverse youth in four urban desegregated high schools in California. The primary data were obtained through four in-depth interviews with each student over a period of 2 years. Using the Students’ Multiple Worlds Model and Typology (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1993), which provides a framework for examining the interrelationships of sociocultural components in students’ worlds, we discuss the problems reported by youth in each of four category types: (a) congruent worlds/smooth transitions; (b) different worlds/border crossings managed; (c) different worlds/border crossings difficult; and (d) different worlds/border crossings resisted. Further, we describe social, emotional, and educational consequences of the problems that youth face.

Border curricula and the construction of identity: implications for multicultural theorists

Scholars, policy makers, and classroom teachers concerned with diversity have expended tremendous effort debating multicultural curricula. However, there has been relatively little discussion about how school environments play into lessons that youth learn about ethnic diversity. This research addresses this gap by focusing on how three academically high‐achieving Latina women perceive curricula relevant to their ethnicity. It also explores the implications of ethnically‐relevant curricula for the ways in which these youth craft ethnic identity in relation to school. Case studies synthesized from interviews and field observations demonstrate that these women place particular emphasis on two aspects of the hidden curriculum often ignored in policy debates: (a) the relational curriculum — lessons about the means and possibilities of communicating with others socially different from oneself, and (b) the differentiating curriculum — lessons that teach youth about their place in the structure of society.

Connecting schools to the world via the Internet: do the walls come tumbling down or just get lower?

The paper reports the results of a four year study of a project designed to bring the Internet to a large urban school district with the explicit purpose of breaking down barriers between the schools and the outside world. The study was conducted using qualitative research methods including extensive observation in classrooms and other sites, the conduct of over 200 interviews with administrators, teachers, students, and the collection of a wide variety of archival materials. Data were analyzed using established methods (M. Hewstone and M. Huberman, 1984; A. Strauss and J. Corbin, 1990). Use of the Internet made possible a substantial amount of contact between students and the outside world. However, problems arose that prevented students from using the Internet as readily and productively as originally envisioned. These problems can be conceptualized as flowing from mismatches in schedules, goals, and norms either between the schools and the outside world or inside of the schools.