A commentary on the articles in this special issue addresses the themes of the origins and consequences of children's adversarial social roles and behaviors; children's peer relationships as a context for social learning and development; and linkages between the family and peer systems. (LB)

The biggest problems with public schools is that they are public, big, compulsory, and pluralistic. Their powerlessness to achieve a broad consensus for common methods of socialization harms the education of both students who come to school already socialized and those whose background of deprivation did not give them these social values. (SK)

Pedagogical changes proposed in Scotland's Primary Memorandum of 1965 were not widely implemented because they were incompatible with the enveloping social structure and impeded transmission of the prevailing cognitive style. A macrosociological methodology committed to "structural perception" is proposed for analysis of teacher…

Examined harsh parenting across generations by means of parents' and adolescents' reports. Found that grandparents who had engaged in aggressive parenting produced parents who used similar practices. Harsh discipline of male children was a function of socioeconomic characteristics. (BC)

Results from 692 questionnaires completed by university students indicate that those who participated in community service as autonomous volunteers donated more hours of service and experienced deeper involvement in community service projects than did students recruited through a class or a club. Implications for encouraging student service are…

Maintains that adults--particularly parents and teachers--need to create a networking system to examine and question the impact of children's television programing on children in an effort to make the television environment safe for young viewers. (BB)

Examines majaor constituent ideas of education (from Durkheim, Plato, Rousseau, Dewey), suggesting that they are mutually incompatible and consequently result in an incoherent concept of education. Proposes an educational scheme that would develop the kinds of understanding developed in cultural history, which would require focus on imaginative…

Examines literacy education in Iran, including educational objectives, content, student characteristics, teacher selection, textbooks, and obstacles to success. Concludes that Iranian literacy education is limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic, with no additional training aimed at functional literacy; and serves principally as a…

Maintains that the monograph, "Self-Evaluation in Young Children," by Stipek and others, forces a consideration of the "self" in "self-evaluation," and a rethinking of views about emotions. It attests to the lack of information on effects of socialization in early childhood. Monograph should add to research on the connection between cognition and…

Discusses social studies' evolution as a discipline from its 1890s origins through the twentieth century. Examines the objectives of historians, sociologists, and "super patriots" (proponents of the Americanism movement) in advancing citizenship training. Concludes that the failure to achieve some of the original goals of social studies…

Trends such as technological innovation, downsizing, self-managed teams, and continuous learning imply that in continuing education technical content must be considered in the context in which skills are used. Knowledge of learning processes and workplace socialization suggests that formal training and informal learning must be integrated to…

Rules of development are the same for all children, but social contexts shape children's development into different configurations. To educate culturally and linguistically diverse children, teachers must be sensitive to the similarities and differences among themselves, their students, and students' families. They must create a classroom…

To provide male role models (and help save the endangered African-American male), a Miami principal assigned 20 black kindergarten boys to an African-American male teacher and 23 black first grade boys to a white male teacher. Focusing on attendance, academic achievement, student partnerships, gentlemanly manners, and appropriate school behavior,…

Discusses (1) the new perspective on children's capabilities provided by focus on discourse; (2) conversation with an older member of the culture as a context for development; (3) links between linguistic and cognitive development; and (4) children as a member of a culture from infancy onward. Developmental changes and problems in discourse study…

Children's conceptions of the emotions of guilt versus shame were investigated in 2 studies involving children ages 7 to 9 and 10 to 12. Age-related differences in conceptions of guilt and shame emerged. The older children understood the adaptive implications of both emotions, whereas the younger children perceived them more in terms of the…