In an effort to address her obsession with worrying about people, ten-year-old Trina decides to invent an object she calls the Thing. Whenever Trina starts becoming overly concerned about someone, she opens the top of her magical box, peeks inside, and hopes that everything she sees will make her feel all right.

But one night, everything is not all right. While looking in the Thing, Trina sees her older sister involved in a deadly car crash. Suddenly, Trina is left trying to make sense of events that are difficult for her to understand: her sister s death, her alcoholic father, her overworked mother, and her relationship with a God that would let bad things happen to good people. The tragedy that befalls her family teaches Trina how to survive disappointment and loss with humor, love, and a belief in second chances.

Urban teens of color are often portrayed as welfare mothers, drop outs, drug addicts, and both victims and perpetrators of the many kinds of violence which can characterize life in urban areas. Although urban youth often live in contexts which include poverty, unemployment, and discrimination, they also live with the everydayness of school, friends, sex, television, music, and other elements of teenage lives. Inner City Kids explores how a group of African American, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, and Haitian adolescents make meaning of and respond to living in an inner-city community.

The book focuses on areas of particular concern to the youth, such as violence, educational opportunities, and a decaying and demoralizing urban environment characterized by trash, pollution, and abandoned houses. McIntyre's work with these teens draws upon participatory action research, which seeks to codevelop programs "with" study participants rather than "for" them.

This book explores the ways in which a diverse group of feminist and participatory action researchers experience, create meaning,and respond to the challenges of engaging in collaborative processes of reflection, action, and change. While headed in similar directions, rarely have feminist researchers and participatory action researchers acknowledged each other as collaborators with mutually important contributions to the journey. Through the work presented in this volume, the contributors hope to influence feminist scholarship to be more participatory and action-oriented, and participatory action research to be more grounded in feminist theories and values. This book has two distinct yet interrelated and intertwining aims. First, it creates a space for a diverse group of educators, researchers, and scholars to grapple with the multiple and complex issues that are threaded throughout feminist and action research. Second, it seeks to examine how action research and feminist research can complement each other in developing strategies for engaging in collaborative research that is rooted in activism and productive change.

In this study, a group of working-class women narrate their own stories, lives, and "place" in Belfast, showing how the geography, community, and--perhaps most of all--conflict becomes deeply intertwined with identity. These women, who have been socially excluded and economically disadvantaged, describe their lives during war and a now precarious peace. Challenging traditional methods of conducting research in the social sciences, McIntyre enlists Participatory action research to understand how these women see themselves, their world and their place in it. Participatory action research includes creative and interactive projects--collages, painting, poetry, and photography--to enable free expression. We see in this volume how the Belfast women negotiate and struggle with the intersections of violence, politics, gender, parenting, community work, religion, fear, humor, friendship, and their deeply held views of what it means to be an Irish woman.

Describes how a group of white female student teachers examined their "whiteness" and developed ways of thinking critically about race and racism in educational practice.

Mclntyre describes how a group of white middle- and upper-middle-class female student teachers examined their "whiteness" and how they, as current and future educators, might develop teaching strategies that aim to disrupt and eliminate the oppressiveness of white privilege in education. The group analyzed ways of making meaning about whiteness and thinking critically about race and racism, and explored how racial identity is implicated in the formation and implementation of teaching practices.

Urban teens of color are often portrayed as welfare mothers, drop outs, drug addicts, and both victims and perpetrators of the many kinds of violence which can characterize life in urban areas. Although urban youth often live in contexts which include poverty, unemployment, and discrimination, they also live with the everydayness of school, friends, sex, television, music, and other elements of teenage lives. Inner City Kids explores how a group of African American, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, and Haitian adolescents make meaning of and respond to living in an inner-city community.

The book focuses on areas of particular concern to the youth, such as violence, educational opportunities, and a decaying and demoralizing urban environment characterized by trash, pollution, and abandoned houses. McIntyre's work with these teens draws upon participatory action research, which seeks to codevelop programs "with" study participants rather than "for" them.

Much of the literature about stress and its effects on children is focused on how these various groups can learn how to "cope," "adapt," and/or "manage" stress. Practicing mindfulness, on the other hand, is about becoming familiar with how one responds to stress and, as important, how one can differentiate between stressors that generate beneficial actions and ones that escalate distress and discomfort. It was the latter approach that characterized the year-long mindfulness project that a group of racial, ethnic, and culturally diverse fifth graders in a local Boston public school participated in during the AY2016-2017. The facilitator of the project met with participating students for an average of 75 minutes, once per week. In large and small group discussions and numerous creative techniques and processes (e.g., photography, symbolic art) the participants explored, documented, and assessed how they experienced various forms of mindfulness and how those processes informed their thinking, emotions, and actions. As important, participating in the project provided the young people with opportunities to become 'mindfulness ambassadors' who brought mindfulness into their families, school, and respective communities. Engaging in mindfulness practices provided the young people with opportunities to develop life-long, skillful ways to become familiar with their minds, increase their self-awareness, more effectively respond to difficult thoughts and emotions, and provide strategies to foster positive connections with others. In addition, sharing and exploring strategies for developing a mindful perspective contributed to creating an environment for learning that intersected with young people's capacity to be critical thinkers and thoughtful decision-makers. The greatest contribution of the book is that it is threaded with the voices of young girls and boys who speak about themselves, their thoughts and emotions, their experiences with fear, anxiety, success, and failure with directness, honesty, and a confidence in their skills and abilities. Their participation in the project demonstrates the possibilities classroom teachers have to integrate mindfulness practices into the school day. As important, teachers are invited to hone their own mindfulness practices to ensure that they are intentionally working with their own thoughts, emotions, and assumptions as they relate to the students they teach.

In an effort to address her obsession with worrying about people, ten-year-old Trina decides to invent an object she calls the Thing. Whenever Trina starts becoming overly concerned about someone, she opens the top of her magical box, peeks inside, and hopes that everything she sees will make her feel all right.

But one night, everything is not all right. While looking in the Thing, Trina sees her older sister involved in a deadly car crash. Suddenly, Trina is left trying to make sense of events that are difficult for her to understand: her sister s death, her alcoholic father, her overworked mother, and her relationship with a God that would let bad things happen to good people. The tragedy that befalls her family teaches Trina how to survive disappointment and loss with humor, love, and a belief in second chances.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) introduces a method that is ideal for researchers who are committed to co-developing research programs with people rather than for people. The book provides a history of this technique, its various strands, and the underlying tenets that guide most projects. It then draws on two PAR projects that highlight three integral dimensions: the meaning of participation; the way action manifests itself; and the strategies for gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information. Author Alice McIntyre describes the various ways in which PAR is carried out depending on, for example, the issue under investigation, the site of the project, the project participants, people's access to resources, and other related issues.Intended Audience: This resource is an ideal supplement for graduate courses PAR, qualitative research, and various types of action-based research.