Guided by sociological perspectives that view (young) children as agents who are shaped by and shape the structures of social systems in which they live, we studied forms that agency of young children from historically marginalized groups may take in science class when offered opportunities to engage in science in a variety of ways, how curricular and instructional structures facilitate or hinder these children's agency, and how their agency influence these structures. Using a case study approach, we analyzed performance and narrative data related to Carlos, a Latino 3rd grader, to understand the dialectical relationship between Carlos's agency and structural elements of his year-long science class as a sociocultural system populated with people, curricular and instructional structures, research structures, artifacts, and tools. Carlos performed and narrated his self in relation to science differently across the various structures in which he found himself-as a knowledge broker, a (self-appointed) authority, an emergent author, and a selfidentified scientist. His agency was linked to the roles he performed within the structures, roles he created at the intersection of the rules and resources that governed the structures in which he was immersed, and of his construction and interpretation of them. Learning from Carlos's case, we discuss implications for teachers of science to recognize the many ways in which students make meaning and plan for them, and to craft ideologies that embrace and nurture student agency in relation to structures-an essential understanding that should inform teaching and teacher education for justice and equity. # 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: [516][517][518][519][520][521][522][523][524][525][526][527][528][529] 2015
This qualitative study examined sexual health information networks among urban African American youth living in low-income communities. The authors identified sources, message content, and utility of messages about sex and sexual health in a sample of 15–17-year olds (N = 81). Youth received sexual health information from a variety of sources. Messages from parents and sex education had high utility, whereas messages from the Internet and religion had low utility. Four information network patterns were identified, suggesting considerable variation in how youth are socialized regarding sex. Findings suggest that sexual information networks have the potential to affect sexual health and development.
Adolescents often engage in concurrent sexual partnerships as part of a developmental process of gaining experience with sexuality. The authors qualitatively examined patterns of concurrency and variation in normative and motivational influences on this pattern of sexual partnering among African American adolescents (31 males; 20 females), ages 15 to 17 years. Using content analysis, gender and contextual differences in social norms and motivations for concurrency were explored. Findings describe the normative influences on adolescent males and females with regard to sexual concurrency and the transfer of these norms from one generation to the next.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.