In developing a national curriculum, ways must be found to challenge students and teachers, preserve initiative, and maintain democratic control. President Bush's New American Achievement Tests will consist of a system of examinations to be administered by individual states or clusters of states. Conversion should embody a grand,…

Local school board, epitome of representative U.S. governance, is undergoing profound changes as to vision, focus, service approach, and structure. Local school boards can spark development of educational programs to prepare youngsters for increasingly competitive, technological, and dangerous world. To achieve needed reforms requires federal and…

A high school's abortive attempt to abolish ninth-grade honors English and math classes serves to illustrate some difficulties inherent in site-based management. The challenge is balancing the power of the people with that of selected representatives. Patience, tolerance, respect, and uncertainty are the four cornerstones of democracy, whether in…

Examines two ways of achieving social coordination: unilateral/hierarchical controls and multilateral controls. Discusses advantages of using mutual adjustment as an alternative to central coordination. Mutual adjustment occurs variously through language creation, moral codes, biological self-selection, market systems, and politics. Although…

This paper recommends a role for the history of science in democratic science education, suggesting a dialogical mode of science instruction that captures what John Dewey considered most crucial to democracy--completely open communication. (SM)

Argues that the heterogeneity of morals and aesthetics in contemporary pluralistic cultures, and the consequent concentration on individual self-interests, is a threat to democratic ways of life. Discusses people's problems appreciating the values of democratic forms of life and accessing public life under the condition of postmodern mass…

Examines liberatory pedagogy in the context of helping beginning teachers become open to liberatory ideas as they construct themselves as teachers and begin to develop their practice. The paper considers practice and prospective teachers as learners of practice, then examines what this suggests for the construction of opportunities for prospective…

Drawing on personal experiences with homeless urban children living in shelters, discusses liberatory science education (focusing on an after-school science program) and describes dilemmas inherent in such work, considering how an understanding of the complexity of the relationship between margin and center is necessary in moving toward liberatory…

Establishes the moral basis for special education as it concerns the duties of justice, toleration, and beneficence. The moral motives for special education are in the liberal democratic ideals of self-determination of every citizen and justice for all. (Author/SLD)

A genuine, ethical public-relations program must not center around capitulation in the face of criticism from particular persons or interest groups. Nor should it be directed at propagandizing or browbeating the public into submission. Instead, PR programs should strive to achieve mutual understanding via symmetric, two-way communication. (9…

Examines the larger implications of the academic labor movement, especially in relation to democratic governance of higher education institutions. Discusses the American Association of University Professors, focusing on the rights of nontenured and part-time faculty and graduate student employees and noting how the Association works to end their…

Rethinks the meaning of power and demonstrates how, by building effective public relationships, students and educators alike can change their environments and transcend the culture of powerlessness. (Author)

Discusses the relationship between liberal democratic principles and multiculturalism as it applies to implementation of educational policies. An ethnographic/ethnic studies and critical multiculturalism model is proposed to ensure the acknowledgment and empowerment of the ethnic identity of the students. (MMU)

Sets out the positions of Liberal and Communitarian philosophers on the fundamental requirements for a democratic civil society. Argues that a cultural, pluralist, democratic society will be characterized by a diversity of controversial moral positions at a range of levels. Offers discussion as a method of reconciling controversial moral…

Two systems of metaphors (laissez-faire and communitarian) have set the parameters governing the educational choice debate. Choice proponents argue that markets will make schools more efficient and egalitarian; critics view privatization as fragmenting the body politic. When institutional racism is factored in, privatization appears to further…