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The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth account of how individuelas with a mild intellectual disabilitiy or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF; IQ 50–85) perceive their group climate in a secure forensic setting. Giving voice to these service users may provide relevant insights for secure forensic settings.

The interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore what individuals with MID-BIF experience with regard to their group climate.

In the interviews about the four domains of group climate (i.e. repression, support, growth and atmosphere), five overarching dimensions appeared, namely, autonomy, uniformity, recognition, competence and dignity. Depending on the person and the (treatment) context in which he/she resides, these five dimensions relate to all four factors of the group climate instrument.

From the perspective of individuals with MID-BIF, this study contributes by providing a framework to “fine-tune” group climate on five dimensions. Training socio-therapists to be sensitive to interpret ambiguous signals on these dimensions can contribute to optimizing group climate in secure forensic settings.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a classroom negotiation exercise. A case involving controversy over the naming of a sports stadium containing a university football field and track is described. A local municipality, representing veterans groups, negotiates with university officials over a university plan to rename “Veteran's Memorial Stadium” after a recently‐retired football coach.

The negotiation activity is adapted from an actual case. It requires little advance preparation and can be used with either pairs or small groups of participants. “Teaching notes” provide instructions for using the activity.

The “Teaching Notes” examine how this controversy illustrates several concepts related to conflict, integrative bargaining, power and negotiating on behalf of constituents.

The case differs from many published cases in that one side's position is apparently rooted in values and matters of principle whereas the other side's position is interest‐based. The student must grapple with these dynamics, while seeking an integrative solution to the issues.

Data use cultures in schools determine data use practices. Such cultures can be muted by powerful macro accountability and organizational learning cultures. Further, strong equity-oriented data use cultures are challenging to establish. The purpose of this paper is to engage these cultural tensions.

The data discourse and decisions of four grade-level teams in two elementary schools in one district were studied through observation of 62 grade-level meetings over the course of a year. The observations focused on “data talk,” defined as the structure and content of team conversations about interim student performance data.

Distinct macro cultures of accountability and organizational learning existed in the two schools. The teams’ own data use cultures partly explained the absence of a focus on equity, and none of the teams used student performance data to make instructional decisions in support of the district’s equity aims. Leadership missed opportunities to cultivate an equity-focused data use culture.

School leaders who advocate that equity importantly guides data use routines, and can anticipate how cultures of accountability or organizational learning “show up” in data use conversations, will be better prepared to redirect teachers’ interpretations of data and clarify expectations of equity reform initiatives.

This study is novel in its concept of “data talk,” which provided a holistic but nuanced account of data use practices in grade-level meetings.

Focusing on gender as an aspect of diversity, the purpose of this paper is to review social studies research on technology, and suggest a new direction, with gender redefined from a gap to be eliminated to a difference to be explored.

This paper is a literature review of research on gender, technology, and social studies from 1987 to 2007.

Previously, men had more access and used more types of technology than women, but a shift to web‐based computing eliminates some gender gaps. Women dominate online communication. Although “male” technology culture interferes with girls' self‐efficacy in schools and potential computer careers, the new Web 2.0 “participatory culture” holds promise because it relies on collaboration and networking, two well documented female strengths.

The gap notion of gender is questionable because: technology culture has been constructed as male; and social studies education, where women greatly out number men, pays little attention to gender. Evidence suggests that girls and women use technology well when it serves their interests, which may not be the same as men's. Defining gender as difference helps researchers answer calls to integrate “21st century literacies” into future studies and put gender equity at the center of future technology policy.

Very little has been written about gender as a facet of multicultural social studies education in its relation to social studies.