It is important to remember that one's presence "can" create a clamor, a person's action "does" make a difference. The author is reminded of this fact whenever he thinks about a poem by Angel Nieto. Similarly, individuals need to be reminded of this fact more than ever before because these are hard times for social justice. As individuals…

This article is a response to recent revealing political attempts to set a political and social function for the Arts through the establishment of performance criteria. A long-standing feature of the historical development of government policy in the UK has been attempts to judge the effectiveness and efficiency of public activity (health,…

This essay reviews the history of school commercialization in the USA and the forms that it has taken over time, with particular attention paid to research measuring the scope and variety of commercialization trends in US public schools. The implications of commercialization activities such as those that promote the consumption of nutritionally…

In this volume, educators from Russia and western countries address the issue of the creation and management of schools in a modern democracy. Chapters examine the questions involved in the conception, justification, and implementation of the idea of "education for democracy." Following the acknowledgments and epigraph, chapters include…

Two dangers to linguistic and cultural pluralism are examined: (1) that the growing power of the major national languages threatens the very existence of less commonly spoken languages, and (2) that the spread of English as a universal lingua franca threatens even the major national languages. Much attention is given to the first issue, but less…

This book about the relation of education to society has as its thesis that the proper context for education is a politically and socially democratic one. The first chapter considers what education is and is followed by chapters discussing the relationship of education to democracy, community, schooling, its conditions, and the self. Throughout…

These conference papers report on interim outcomes of investigations conducted at the German Institute for International Educational Research. An opening address, "Education, Democracy and Development in a Period of Revolutionary Change" (Wolfgang Mitter), is followed by four sets of papers. The first set, "European Community,"…

With an increasingly wide variety of programs currently labeling themselves "civic education" and being taught by civic educators, the question at hand is how the culture of schools and classrooms contribute to supporting democratic political culture. This paper explores the questions: "Does the structure of the school and classroom have the…

This book focuses on the creative work and struggles of democratic teacher educators. After "Introduction: The Talk and the Walk of Democratic Teacher Education" (John M. Novak), the book is organized in three sections. Section I, "Programs," includes: (1) "The Institute for Democracy in Education: Supporting Democratic…

This paper suggests that for students to become accustomed to democratic habits of thought and conduct, they must continually practice them throughout the course of their school career. The daily interaction between the teacher and the pupil can influence the formation of attitudes and habits essential to democratic citizenship. For teachers, the…

This teacher's curriculum guide has been designed to provide high school students with an increased awareness of the importance of responsibility in their own lives and its place in contemporary society, and to encourage their capacity and inclination to deal with issues of responsibility wisely and effectively. Students are asked to examine and…

When created and operated appropriately, school-site councils can be a very useful component of school renewal. Councils are difficult to create, since members must shift roles, compromise strongly held beliefs, and invest considerable time, energy, and know-how. Advantages of group decision making are bringing diverse experience and expertise to…

To help administrators understand the organizational, social, and ideological forces impeding their efforts to empower teachers, this paper provides three critiques of teacher empowerment proposals from functionalist, structural Marxist, and poststructural perspectives. Although the 1980s reform reports promote a type of empowerment that accords…

Democratization of education refers to a process that allows decision-making based on alternatives, guided by the conviction that equity, equality, solidarity, freedom and justice are the essential universal values of mankind. This study examines these criteria in the context of reform strategies in the areas of educational planning and practice.…

When teaching moral education, the ethical dilemma often faced by educators revolves around the question of whose morals should be taught. Judicious Discipline, a constitutional model for classroom management, proposes to answer this question by offering educators the opportunity to teach the moral standards of the U.S. democratic system of…