Fall/Winter 2006 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

E D U C AT I O N
Negotiating Transcultural Lives
Belongings and Social Capital among Youth in
Comparative Perspective
Edited by Dirk Hoerder, Yvonne Hébert,
and Irina Schmitt
In simple terms, transculturation describes the
phenomenon of merging and converging cultures.
In societies of the early twenty-first century, transculturation
is amplified by communication and
transportation technology – global media conglomerates,
the Internet, and air travel, are bringing cultures
together at an accelerating pace. This reality
is especially prevalent in the lives of young people,
who negotiate their position with peers from other
(ethno-) cultural and socioeconomic contexts on
a daily basis, and engage with diversely gendered
traditions and media-suggested roles.
In Negotiating Transcultural Lives Dirk Hoeder,
Yvonne Hébert, and Irina Schmitt bring together an
international group of scholars to reflect on transculturation
in the daily lives of youth. Contributors analyze
the life practices and projects of children and young
people in several societies with emphasis on Europe and
Canada, adopting a comparative perspective that allows
them to avoid mono-cultural assumptions. Together,
these studies argue that in order to understand the
issue of cultural belonging in young people today, it is
necessary to read histories as many-cultured. Ultimately,
the goal of the collection is to stimulate teachers, social
workers, facilitators, journalists, and the media to
understand and appreciate the many-cultural perspectives
and contributions of contemporary youth.
Dirk Hoerder is a professor in the Department of
History at Bremen University.
Yvonne Hébert is a professor in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Calgary.
Irina Schmitt is a PhD candidate in History and Cultural
Studies at Bremen University.
Teaching Adolescents
Educational Psychology as a Science of Signs
Howard A. Smith
TORONTO STUDIES IN SEMIOTICS AND COMMUNICATION
Grounded in the semiotic thought of Charles
Sanders Peirce, America’s greatest polymath,
Howard A. Smith’s Teaching Adolescents addresses
topics in educational psychology from a semiotic
or sign-based perspective rather than a behavioural
one. In this educational psychology textbook,
Smith’s main argument is that teachers must rely
on signs of all kinds to understand students and to
survive as teachers. This book is unique in applying
a single unifying framework throughout.
Among the many concepts that Smith discusses
in Teaching Adolescents are the nature of the sign
and its basis in semiotics, and the use of signs in
classroom management. Various signs of learning
and thinking are highlighted, as are those signs
derived from local culture that have an impact on
the lives of students and teachers, such as adolescent
preoccupations with drugs and sex. In addition,
Smith discusses what teachers can do to ensure their
physical and emotional health in the classroom.
The theoretical continuity and practical application
of semiotics makes Teaching Adolescents both
an indispensable resource for students in pre-service
teaching programs and teachers working with teens,
and a fascinating and real world study for anyone
interested in the science of signs.
Howard A. Smith is a professor in the Faculty of
Education at Queen’s University.
Approx. 259 pp / 6 ½ x 9 ½ / Available
Paper ISBN 0-8020-9253-5 / 978-08020-9253-3
£18.00 $27.95 C
NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS ONLY. CO-PUBLISHED WITH V & R UNIPRESS
Approx. 400 pp / 6 x 9 / November 2006
10 photographs
Cloth ISBN 0-8020-9099-0 / 978-0-8020-9099-7
£40.00 $60.00 E
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