Public school principals encounter a sizable gap between the autonomy they believe they need to be effective and the autonomy that they actually have in practice, especially when it comes to hiring, firing, and transferring teachers. That is a key finding of this report from the Fordham Institute and the American Institutes for Research, which is…

Eduardo Galeano's "Memory of Fire: Genesis" raises a number of questions concerning the "politics of location," a term that may be defined as the intersections, tensions, and complications that people of color bring to space and what space means in terms of hierarchies and power, racial and gender stratifications. Text can also…

This paper presents findings of a study that explored effective school-based budgeting practices within effective school-based management (SBM) contexts. The sample was comprised of 18 schools across 9 school districts (7 in the United States, 1 Canadian, and 1 Australian)--that had used SBM to improve school performance. During onsite visits,…

As long as profit can be made from ignoring or cultivating the ignorance of working people, education for their children in the best sense will remain a difficult goal. This book delineates in three case studies how American myths of emancipation and upward mobility work as images of delusion. The frontier of space, the arena of sports, and the…

Seventeen people from various parts of South Africa gathered at the Workshop for Gender Trainers to enhance their training and to focus on the gender and development approach. Sessions 1-2 on the second day dealt with gender training nightmares. During session 3, participants discussed what could have been done either to avoid the problems that…

Some of the major dimensions and subtleties underlying issues of race and culture and the impact these can have on counseling and psychotherapy relationships are explored. The context is British, but many of the issues and concerns are applicable to therapists in other societies. Chapter 1 describes the climate in which the discussion is set, a…

A study analyzed the dinner-table discourse in a Caucasian-American, upper-middle-class two-parent family with children aged seven (female) and eight (male) for evidence of how family narrative practices socialize children into family, social, and cultural membership. It is also proposed that discourse in families both indexes and constitutes…

"New wave" gender theorists (those who ascribe to feminist post-structuralist theory) caution that nonsexist work with young children is likely to be unsuccessful in the long term because theories of gender and the approach to gender in the curriculum have, until now, ignored one key issue: the question of power. This booklet explores…

This paper presents the results of a factor analysis that identified five emerging constructs of power from surveys administered in two southeastern states of residence: Florida and Alabama. The five constructs were named the "Five Dimensions of Power" and are: autonomy, resources, responsibility, political efficacy and expertise, and…

Since 1898 the work of defining and realizing development in Puerto Rico has been carried out within the context of a political-economic relationship with the United States under colonialism. This book focuses on an assessment of the relationship between the history of educational reform policies in Puerto Rico and the issue of economic…

"Politically correct" is a pejorative label applied to activities that in some way question, subvert, or threaten the dominant power structure. In discussing how best to educate students, some composition professionals assume that the composition classroom can be made apolitical. Freshman English, like all classes, is politicized…

Schools across the nation are experimenting with new forms of decision-making intended to facilitate the restructuring process. To discover whether two of these new forms--school governance groups and formal affiliation with a restructuring movement--affect traditional patterns of influence and authority, the Indiana Education Policy Center School…

The content and assessment of the curriculum is under discussion in many educational systems. Because the curriculum is a product of authority relationships, the role and position of several actors executing the authority relationships in the education system are under question as well. Traditionally, inspectorates, as part of the authority…

To deal successfully with the French people in business, the American must first be conversant with his own culture. The French have a tradition of firm opinions and take an intellectual view of the world. Thinking is hierarchical, as is the French society. Education emphasizes strong command of the French language and all formal aspects of French…

This report describes four schools (two elementary, one middle, and one senior high) whose administration and faculty made longterm commitments to curricular and organizational change to meet the needs of a diverse student population. Data sources included observation of meetings; conversations with staff members; and informal interviews with…