Compares two board members' educational philosophies and motivations, highlighting typical power struggles with patrons, teachers, and administrators. Both board members hold traditional educational values and a "back to basics" approach to curriculum development. Whereas Tom considers his unwillingness to compromise a positive…

Discusses the dynamic nature of the struggle between desire and discipline in an elementary school setting. Emphasizes that these competing forces and the ensuing struggle profoundly affect a child's secondary socialization. Findings reveal that even very young children acquiesce to and resist authority in many ways, learning complicated lessons…

Questions the ethical use of conflict mediation in situations where opposing parties with unequal power address social or institutional injustice, examining informal aspects of teaching and learning that occur when those with unequal power struggle for equal opportunity in public schools. Presents examples from an urban elementary school. (SM)

Market dynamics have always shaped our institutions. Now the dynamics have changed, and the hierarchical organization is giving way to a new organizational model based on fulfilling human potential through networking, teamwork, diversity, full access to information, and flexible schedules. (Author/TE)

Inspired by idealistic beliefs in the state's benign, just nature, women seeking to influence public policies on gender issues have tended to rely on gentle persuasion. Similarly, feminists have failed to realize the true importance of schools as the state's ideological agents supporting the status quo and requiring major transformation of power…

This paper discusses theoretical issues surrounding the creation of new departments at universities and presents a case study of how the Institute for Media and Communication at Oslo University (Norway) was created. It examines the effects of status, resource allocation, and power relations on the creation of university departments. (MDM)

This article addresses issues of multicultural education and feminist pedagogy in the context of knowledge and its transmission, self-understanding, cultural and individual beliefs, and transformation of the teacher and the college curriculum. (DB)

Reports results of research on the effects of open education on student outcomes, using classroom authority structure analysis. Maintains that student outcomes are contingent on the congruence between formal and informal authority structure. Concludes that more congruent authority structure was related to higher reading comprehension and…

Describes planning backwards, the Coalition of Essential Schools' educational policymaking strategy for high schools. The article discusses five possible dilemmas in planning backwards: outcomes or exhibitions, local or remote authority, rigid or flexible standards, apartness or authenticity in assessment, and curriculum scaffolds built of courses…

Compares theories of knowledge and strategies for cultural transmission in Pohnpei (Micronesia) and U.S. models of education. Extensive interviews and observations demonstrate the awareness of the people of Pohnpei of the potential of U.S. education to transform their traditional chiefdom hierarchy and the content and nature of traditional…

Uses social exchange theory as a conceptual framework for developing the sociological imagination. Explains this counters a trend toward an emphasis on social forces as behavioral determinants and the omission of values in the classroom. States exchange theory emphasizes how individual action collectively changes the social structure. Applies…

Discusses ways of approaching text and textbooks as embodiments of a larger process of cultural politics, focusing on the analysis of the relationships involved in their production, contexts, use, and reading. Newer forms of analysis that emphasize the politics of how students actually create meanings around texts are reviewed. (SLD)

Describes a study of the challenges to female university students at Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands in 1987 and 1988. Female students were critical of their studies, although most completed their degrees. The university teacher represents a gatekeeper to the academic community holding knowledge as a key resource. (JB)

Compares what 15 white women from Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and 15 African-American women from rural backgrounds remember about being in school for what it tells about the relationships among gender, knowledge, and power. The distinct memories of teachers' pets illustrate the ways schools can influence self-concepts and social roles. (SLD)

Argues that the power arrangements existing in schools before integration were the same as those existing after integration, with only the pathways of articulation different. One modality supporting segregation was replaced with another; both were supported by the discursive practice of grouping students by native intelligence. (SLD)