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This chapter makes a case for a new conception of health education, which properly reflects a diffused health agenda and diffused responsibility. It also considers some of the dilemmas facing educators in this area. It calls for an education for action which: (i) is based upon treating people as subjects not just as objects; (ii) is based upon broader and more self-consciously debated notions of what might count as valuable ends; and (iii) is closely linked to genuine mechanisms of inclusion in health-related decisions-making.

This chapter sets the stage for the remainder of the text by demonstrating that a chasm exists between the practice choices of school social workers and the research on school-based prevention and intervention, as well as contemporary education models developed to guide the organization and delivery of school social work and other support services (e.g. school psychology, behavior consultation, and school counseling). This gap is referred to as the knowledge—practice gap. The history of school social work, contemporary education models, and the knowledge—practice gap are discussed.

This chapter examines several reasons for the existence of the knowledge—practice gap; a gap between the practice choices of school social workers, and research on school-based prevention and intervention as well as contemporary education models. It presents three plausible explanations for the knowledge—practice gap: (1) lack of practitioner familiarity with the knowledge base; (2) barriers to implementing principles and specific empirically supported treatments (ESTs) emerging from the knowledge base, and (3) a privileging of practice wisdom over empirical research, resulting in a rejection of current school-based research. It introduces the evidence-informed practice (EIP) process that has been proposed in social work and other disciplines to address the research—practice gap. While EIP has intuitive appeal, it has also received much criticism from the practice community. These criticisms, many of which are legitimate, have undoubtedly contributed to the slow embracing of EIP in practice.

An increasing proportion of people in all age groups are using social media as the dominant means of informal learning, developing strengths and preferences in how they create and share knowledge and the types of authority they accept as certifying its accuracy. As a growing number of students enter schools and colleges with beliefs and preferences about learning and knowledge derived from social media use, these institutions will experience pressure to acknowledge types of learning and knowing discrepant with the formal learning and types of instruction, authority, and epistemology commonly found in classical educational models. To prepare students for the twenty-first century and a global, knowledge-based civilization, Web 2.0 tools may empower a strategic vision of a redesigned K–20 formal educational system that leverages current technologies to implement sophisticated learning, teaching, and assessment anyplace and anytime, lifelong and lifewide.

Undergraduate education is rarely viewed from a business model perspective. University budgets are notorious for intermingling costs associated with graduate and undergraduate instruction, research, campus upkeep, administration, sports, and other endeavors. Tracking costs is made particularly difficult because the institution, for the sake of efficiency, wants to utilize its assets across several lines of business. For example, a lecture hall may be filled by undergraduates in the morning, graduate students in the afternoon and rented out to a student club for an event in the evening. Rather than trying to solve how to allocate those costs more effectively, Minerva is built around an operational philosophy of direct accountability. Three underlying principles allow us to succeed: First, where the market provides an efficient alternative, utilize that alternative rather than creating our own. Second, dollars paid by a constituent should not subsidize activities that are not in the service of that constituent. Third, natural incentives should be aligned only with successful delivery of the mission—incentives that encourage discriminatory behavior, reduction in quality of instruction, lowering of admission standards, or any other non-mission-aligned activity carry with them substantial inherent penalties that always outweigh any potential rewards.

This chapter, with examples from the mass media, outlines how the image of the police officers and prison officers is presented in party propaganda. Different ‘model’ officers are presented in ways highlighting their ‘exemplary qualities’, like their willingness to sacrifice self for public good, and emphasizing their heroic and benevolent personal characteristics. It examines how the party propaganda might affect drug detainees’ expectations of the police and prison officers in real life.

Minerva is a response to problems that beset higher education writ large. We focus in large part on the most significant problem, which centers on the value of higher education. We address this problem by teaching “practical knowledge,” which is knowledge the students can use to achieve their goals. Practical knowledge is rooted in critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication and effective interaction. We also have considered in depth how to teach this material effectively; all of our pedagogy is informed by the science of learning, which has led us to develop new forms of active learning. In addition, we have developed a software platform that supports our unique pedagogical and curricular model. This platform provides tools that not only facilitate teaching but also--and more importantly--enhance student learning. Furthermore, we believe that the future is increasingly international and thus our students learn to use practical knowledge in a global context. To achieve this, no one nationality is a majority—so students learn from each other—and students live and study together in up to seven different cities around the world. Finally, the Minerva talent agency supports our students from the beginning of their tenure through their post-graduate career, helping them succeed for many years to come.

This chapter discusses the distinctive legacy of Catholic social action and the entrance of Latin American liberative models of praxis into community organizing in the late 1970s. By the 1970s, organizers of congregational-based communities were constructing new paradigms, drawing from both the civil rights movement's legacy and Catholic social justice traditions, especially the emergence of Latin American liberation theology. Congregational-based organizing is now grounded in the use of popular education models, which are particularly appropriate to the cultural predispositions of borderlands people. Indeed, for people living in marginalized communities who become leaders in congregational organizing, the use of popular education leads them to an awareness of the root cause of the ills affecting their communities, of God's commitment to justice, and of their own capacity to transform their collective well-being.