Outlines some of the issues and problems inherent in the group dynamics in the English classroom. Considers how English teachers are part of the group in a classroom and, therefore, are subject to the same predictable anxieties and are reliant on similar coping behaviors. (HB)

A future-search conference is a participatory planning and decision-making process in which a group of individuals with diverse perspectives come together; engage in a process of data collection, discussion, and learning; and decide on an appropriate course of action. The competencies, skills, and intellectual capital developed as part of this…

Why are authentic school and community connections so rare and so fragile, particularly at the high school level and particularly in urban areas? Why, when high school reformers are so eager to create learning communities of their students and faculty, do so few high schools extend their mission to serving as centers of community learning for…

The article examines conflict avoidance in performing arts group work and issues arising in relation to teaching and learning. In group theory, conflict is addressed largely in terms of its detrimental effects on group work, and its constructive potential is often marginalized. Similarly, undergraduate students usually interpret "effective…

The online IPJ (Interactive Portfolio Journal), open to the individual student and the teacher but not to the whole class, allows online discussion to draw from both public and private voices, and productively uses the traditional focus on collective critical exchange in tandem with private reflection. (Contains 2 figures and 1 note.)

Oral language is an important component of literacy development, yet is often ignored in research and stifled in the classroom. The varied contexts for literate talk in a first-grade classroom were explored. Oral sharing time, writing workshop, reading workshop, whole-class reading time, and project-centers time provided opportunities for rich…

Much recent debate has suggested Australia's technical and further education (TAFE) teachers not only need new knowledge and skills but need to perform their professional practices in new ways and in new contexts. What this debate has failed to recognize is that these change discourses are in effect constructing new professional identities for…

Describes students' attempts to use rhetorical analysis to study the professional communities they intend to enter. Asks whether analyzing discourse conventions can help students feel like initiates in their chosen profession, and explores how such analyses might contribute to writing-across-the-curriculum as a whole. (RS)

Offers a philosophical history of the nature of public discourse, describing it as a basic constituent of human rights. Analyzes the dichotomy between the common good and tolerance and protection of pluralism. Discusses the philosophical views of Condorcet, Jefferson, Dewey, and Habermas, portraying public discourse in relation to the…

For successful implementation of FLCs, consider leadership recommendations for institutional change, reasons for choosing the FLC model, and institutional conditions that may facilitate or hinder FLC development. (Contains 1 table.)

Creating learning communities in low-performing districts and schools is especially daunting in an era of accountability and standards-based assessment. This article describes research that informed application of Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's Working Systemically model for increased student achievement. The article highlights 4…

The analytical approaches used to develop and evaluate policies at the water-use planning sites are intended to provide insight to decisionmakers and to help stakeholders structure their thinking and deliberations. These objectives are fundamentally different from those of evaluation approaches favored by many economists, which seek to provide a…

This paper reports on the creation, growth, and continual development of a teacher-researcher community formed in conjunction with the University of Georgia site of the National Reading Research Center (NRRC). The National Reading Research Center School Research Consortium (SRC) is a teacher-researcher community that includes approximately 35…

Examines reasons for discourse communities becoming a subject of writing research. Provides a brief example of the kind of analysis possible, focusing on the composing environments of two similar organizations. (AEW)

As two groups of teachers met to set up a HyperNews network for a grant project, it became clear that politics cannot be kept out of the classroom. In creating a community of diverse writers via HyperNews, six composition classes were linked for online discourse among departments: Asian American Studies, Chicano Studies, Pan African Studies, and…