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This study builds on earlier ethnography of friendship processes among children attending a Head Start program in a large city in the Midwest. Here, through intensive interviews and ethnographic observations of a small sample of the Head Start children's families, the researchers examine the values and concerns of lower-class Black mothers regarding their children's education. Earlier studies have shown that Black parents of all income levels place great value on education and have high expectations for their children's academic careers. The present research goes beyond these studies by directly addressing the strategies that parents employ in acting on these values. The article describes an impressive array of strategies that the study's respondents use to encourage their children's academic achievement and to promote the development of values that will keep them enthusiastic about schooling. The theoretical implications of the findings are then addressed. In particular, the discussion highlights the need for an extension of Kohn's well-known arguments concerning the relationship between social class and conformity. Finally, the researchers stress that longitudinal ethnography is a crucial method for developing theoretical understandings of family socialization processes and children's educational experiences.

By Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler. Rutgers University Press. 1998. 255 pp. Cloth, $48.00; paper, $17.00. As parents, we watch from the sidelines as our children negotiate the often [...]

The article discusses various papers published within the issue, including one by Scott South, Amy Lutz and Eric Baumer on the relationship between residential mobility and problematic adolescent behavior and another by Julie Artis and Greg Scott on youth's active involvement in a contemporary movement.

This article focuses on the empirical works of researchers on children's lives and experiences. As the chapters in the current volume demonstrate, the field is excitingly diverse. Four chapters concern adolescents exclusively, two chapters are specifically about children, and three concern both children and adolescents. First, three chapters explore transition to adulthood issues. Chapter 1 presents a critical review of the literature. Chapter 2 considers the role neighborhood social capital, and Chapter 3 examines high school students' family contexts and occupational aspirations. A lone policy piece follows in Chapter 4, examining the new Children's Health Insurance Program, begun as part of recent welfare reform. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 all concern children and adolescents' time use; household labor (Chapter 5) and free time use (Chapter 7) in the U.S., and labor market participation in Senegal (Chapter 6). The final two chapters present ethnographic analyses of young children's peer cultures (Chapter 8) and adolescents' classroom experiences (Chapter 9) in segregated inner-city schools. First, however, the contributions to this volume begin with a brief comment on a chapter that appeared in the previous edition.

The article focuses on the significant role of the parents and teachers in the academic achievements of the children in the U.S. According to Katherine Brown Rosier, the integration of parents and teachers is considered to be beneficial for the children to attain better academic performance. The expectations of the teachers could be attributed to their perceptions of meanings taken from parents' behavior. Rosier found out that parental behaviors subsequently shape the behavior of the teachers towards the children. She illuminates the diverse experiences of the children and parents in similar economic conditions. She recommended that the parents should further their involvement in manipulating teachers' expectations and feelings of accountability.