This report of a hearing on the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (U.S. Department of Education) focuses on programs that may help the plight of black males in the country's educational system, i.e., ways in which educational research and reform can address the problems of equal education, high dropout rates, poor student attitudes,…

The social stratification process is analyzed from a theoretical point of view, with assumptions tested with empirical evidence from the International Institute for Educational Planning project in developing countries or with information obtained through the researcher's prior studies on industrialized countries. The significant, and often…

This study compared parent stress, family functioning, and social support in 55 families with a developmentally handicapped child (ages 0-7) and 55 families with a nonhandicapped child. Findings indicated that a young handicapped child did induce greater stress in his parents than did a nonhandicapped child. Parents of handicapped children…

Collaboration between university and public school educators is a strategy which has recently gained support as a part of the teacher education process and as a viable area in which to conduct research. This paper defines the concept of the culture of educational settings and asserts that school-university collaboration occurs in the intersection…

Steve Garnett, a senior teacher in charge of Teaching and Learning at Garibaldi College of Maths and Computing in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, shares some of the techniques that he uses to involve different kinds of learners in his post-16 lessons, and explains how he arrived at these approaches after reflecting on problems in his own early…

This collection of papers grew out of a response to the need for a more adequate theory of educational equity to guide research and public policy. Section one argues that there is a need to shift the educational policy focus from frequency rates to the conditions of opportunity. In the second section, three theories of distribution of…

The ramifications resulting from a social system organized on a male hierarchy which devalues and is insensitive to the female experience are keenly felt in the professions of psychiatry and psychology. Borderline personality disorder which, over the past decade has gained popularity in the literature and in clinical circles, is predominantly…

In an attempt to gain a better perspective on the relationship between education and the modern state, this paper reopens the theoretical debate on the key role of formal rationality in Max Weber's interpretation of the capitalist economy and the modern bureaucratic state. Against the background of an extensive review of the development and the…

A study was conducted to determine how research by faculty members is responsive to uncertainty or inadequacy in the environment. The interrelationships among four variables were studied: perceived environmental uncertainty, complexity, boundary spanning activity, and environmental adequacy. It was proposed that the nature of the…

Traditional Marxist approaches to the state relegate superstructural institutions like the school to a minor role in the process of social change. More recent theories like those of Gramsci, Althusser, and Poulantzas raise the state and the class struggle in the state apparatuses to a much more prominent position: superstructure, including the…

This paper presents an alternative to the predominant equity theory for studying the concept of fairness in social relationships. According to the equity theory, or merit principle, fairness in social relationships occurs when rewards, punishments, and resources are allocated in proportion to one's input or contributions. The basic problems of…

This guide, the second of four, is intended for persons involved in planning new schools or new programs; that is, comprehensive change projects, especially those that have a new, innovative thrust and where past practice cannot be easily relied on. The guide examines means by which to clarify goals and methods of designing social systems before…

Portuguese immigrants in America and Canada have certain institutions in their traditional socio-culture which are considered to act as preadaptive mechanisms in the migrant's settling-in process. This paper discusses one locale which has a large proportion of recent Portuguese immigrants, and emphasizes how women, in particular, are important in…

Increased United States involvement in world affairs has been accompanied by an increase in the number of Americans living abroad in numerous American enclaves. Most of the commentary on such "overseas American communities" is impressionistic, superficial, and stereotyped, and tends to foster the notion that Americans are peculiarly ethnocentric.…

A 2-week laboratory learning experience was held for a group of 35 strangers who were to comprise the entire staff of a new high school. The general objective was to promote an effective social system characterized by (1) a high degree of proficiency in communication, decisionmaking, problem-solving, and conflict management; and (2) an atmosphere…