Presents an interview with Alfie Kohn, who has written and spoken widely on human behavior, education, and social theory. Discusses high-stakes testing, democracy, and the politics of literacy. (RS)

Argues for more responsible education accountability system. Builds on earlier work and presents alternative concepts that are more responsive to the purposes and functions of public schooling in a democratic society. Proposes ideas about good teaching and learning and the educational needs of students and their families, particularly in…

Notes the inevitable tensions between the interests of teachers and administrators on the one hand and individual constitutional rights of students on the other. Uses an incident at a Florida high school to discuss 4 basic premises explaining why school administrators must adopt a "preferred position" in support of student…

Introduces a character-education framework to guide principals in designing programs. Critical elements include discussion of values to be fostered, development of a comprehensive vision and purpose, consensus on expectations, adequate resources and training, parent/community partnerships, program and implementation standards, and assessment. (MLH)

Describes the first stage of a 3-year project, the Democratic Education and Exchange Project, sponsored by the Great Lakes Consortium for International Development. An 8-day institute was held in Szeged, Hungary for teams of Hungarian and Ukrainian teachers, who later established Internet connections with American counterparts. The institute…

Introduces several articles on social inclusion written by individuals struggling to accommodate changing professional demands with their own understandings and practices, drawing on the dominant discourses surrounding them, which include old professional understandings of equal opportunities, social justice, race, gender, and class and new…

We live in a global era of transcendent democracy. According to recent surveys by Freedom House, most peoples of the world favor democracy over other types of government. A global revival of education for democratic citizenship accompanies the worldwide resurgence of democracy. Diverse peoples in various parts of the world commonly understand that…

Anchored in insights from my evolving research in Mexico and the United States, this article engages the literature on democratic citizenship education and proposes a potentially unifying research program for the anthropology of education. I urge anthropologists of education to address questions of political order and to bring democracy and…

The educators in the teacher inquiry group examine how to teach for social justice and support the development of student-empowering social justice themes in teachers' practice. A better understanding of effective urban teachers' philosophies and practices and putting a system in place to support the professional growth of all teachers are the two…

Nineteenth century consciousness is traced to demonstrate a public recognition of corpoatization of education through Willa Cather novels, which rely on the rhetoric of frontiers to promote university education within a democratic ethos. It is argued that a previously democratic stage of the university, uncontaminated by the profit motive of…

Following World War II, a group of American educators was assigned the task of evaluating the U.S. military government's program for reconstructing Germany's educational system. Although issuing a generally positive report, this education mission identified a number of persistent tensions that ultimately undermined America's efforts to…

Drawing on relevant literature and a study carried out by the author and colleagues, this article reviews the evidence about children's expressed views on methods used by adults to obtain children's views. It identifies key considerations deployed by children to account for those preferences. Children are normally passive with respect to method…

Increasing numbers of students with disabilities receive a majority of their formal education in general education settings where they must be taught the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to lead fully equitable and participatory lives in a democratic society. Given the need for all students to acquire civic understanding, the purpose of…

The purpose of this article is to examine the connection between school democracy and a strong principalship. The point of departure is taken as the Danish Folkeskole, the aim being to extract some general trends from this Danish case. It is shown how international trends have influenced the Danish situation, making it possible to speak of a…

The genesis of the moral leadership concept in educational administration and examples of studies exploring this idea during the 1979-2003 period are discussed. The author recommends more contextually sensitive descriptive studies with a focus on the social relations among school leaders and others, giving particular attention, in a…