Scholar Ivan Illich discusses his educational experiences, the people who influenced his views regarding education, his proposal for "deschooling" society, and how he has concluded that compulsory schooling is a form of social control that creates a class society with many more school failures and dropouts than successes. (LP)

Discusses recent curricular and instructional reforms, collectively called basic skills restructuring, that have developed in urban schools. Discusses these reforms as a response to various crisis tendencies in the operation of schools by dominant power groups. Discusses the causes and effects of top-down curricular reform initiatives. (JS)

Presents a study of historical documents focusing on the complex relationship between dress, gender, and power in North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Examines social rules governing dress and appearance, providing examples of how people dressed to comply with social expectations. Loosely based on a Smithsonian…

Investigates the influence of social relations on the behavior of disabled boys. Reports observations and interviews of three dyads relative to the exertion of dominance and the aim for equality. Concludes that in relationships not based on friendship, ruthless assertion and resolute defenses are reinforced while friendships generate a concern for…

Examines the relationship between centralization and public education. Suggests that compulsory schooling is key to the increasingly centralized and "managed" nature of society and that the nationalization of schooling has undermined individual rights to liberty and democracy. Advocates that communities be responsible for their children and for…

Examines the way in which integration or mainstreaming policies in Australia have been subverted by labeling disruptive young people as defective and by deploying the practices and culture of disability as a means of imposing social control on such students. Suggestions are given for reframing the issue of school failure as interactional rather…

Many early childhood teachers report an increase in children's use of aggressive means to work out disputes, often as a result of such influences as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fad. This article offers suggestions for helping children learn ways to resolve conflicts and for creating a conflict resolution curriculum. (LB)

Discusses the causes of the Los Angeles (California) riots, and considers why such events have not occurred more often. Conflict-resolving forums that are needed are discussed, and a systematic search for urban programs that work is advocated. Urban problems must be seen as the result of unsatisfied human needs. (SLD)

Discusses an ethnographic study into the phenomenon of resistance in a middle school, focusing on seven students in seventh grade. Proposes the need to negotiate classroom life in ways that take into account individuals' backgrounds, strengths, and needs, and the need to create a place where identity and difference can exist in respectful…

Investigates teachers views of forgiveness and institutional pardon for conflict resolution at school. Asks questions related to forgiveness and forgiving. Shows that teachers endorse forgiveness as social expectation, a humanitarian, moral response to conflicts at conventional levels. Argues that teachers do notperceive forgiveness as related to…

The winds of decentralizing reform that have been driving their way through various government education systems across the globe over the best part of two decades have generated a great deal of conflict. In the late 1990s those working in the Western Australian government high school in which I conducted the research reported here found…

On Wednesday, April 18, 1906, an earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter magnitude scale and lasting 48 seconds, erupted along the San Andreas fault with a flash point originating in the San Francisco Bay area. The force of the earthquake tore apart buildings and roads, causing water and gas mains to twist and break. The resulting effects of the…

Increasing violence and threats of violence in American schools have prompted many school districts to take aggressive action in providing greater security and more positive learning environments. This book presents an alternative approach--that of training students in conflict resolution and peer mediation. The book offers specific, practical…

Designed to help improve the staff-to-student communication style in schools, this book shows practitioners how to go from adversarial approaches to caring and helping--without losing control of the situation. The book offers time-tested methods that counselors and therapists have used successfully for years, methods that can be modified for…

A full investigation into how and why the expression of potential benefits of computers in schools is hindered would need to consider many aspects, but one point that should be considered is the ever-tightening integration of educational institutions into the global economy. Evidence of the accelerating assimilation of schools into the economy…