General education, or learning that should be common to all, is considered in five essays adapted from colloquium addresses and one essay, summarized in chapters 1 and 7 of this volume, that provided the colloquium theme. In "The Quest for Common Learning," Ernest L. Boyer identifies six essential objectives of general education. Wayne C. Booth's…

Social stratification in agriculture is a complicated process without a theoretical paradigm. Research to date has typically focused on the stratification of farms rather than the social stratification of farmers. Therefore, identifying social classes in agriculture based on a typology of farms clearly misses the social relations segment of…

A conceptual and theoretical framework is needed for the literature on newswork and to do this the relationship between skill and control which has been raised as an issue in the Marxist theory of industrial organization needs to be examined. A theoretical reinterpretation might help to understand how the notion of skill on the individual,…

Only by recognizing that class is not gender neutral can the processes of class formation and reproduction be understood. Class is defined as a process in which human beings take an active part, rather than a structure of categories into which individuals may be inserted. Gender organizes or structures class in many different ways. For example,…

Research on school reform efforts and reform evaluation and the recognition that individual students are in constant transition and are members of multiple groups whose dynamics differ over the duration of schooling were examined. A conceptual framework for developing design and analysis strategies for investigating educational reform efforts is…

Research on grades 9-12 in an elite, coeducational private school in an urban area examined the effects of the school's social organization on students' commitment to educational goals and their sense of academic purpose. The author gathered data through 2 years of participant observation as a teacher-researcher and through questionnaire…

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences found in areas with high delinquency rates in relation to the ecological structure in Los Angeles County, California. Previous studies suggest that delinquency was the consequence of the availability of low cost housing found in deteriorating residential areas, and that the housing matched…

A study was devised to determine why family planning communication in a Washington state village has been successful despite the lack of planned programs or focused attempts at directed change. Three major social organizational principles affecting family planning communication were analyzed: the occupational split between public employees and…

The strength of communities is defined by the ways in which people help each other, and provide information, emotional support or other resources to those who have problems or who want to change or improve their lives in some way. The Helping Network Study focuses on the the quality of community, on the parts of helping systems that people use…

The ecological theory of teaching views the classroom as a unit within which social and psychological interactions determine the learning patterns that will take place. Three fourth-grade classrooms were observed to test and clarify this theory. A description is given of the characteristics of the pupils in each class, the teacher's instructional…

EXISTING SOCIAL AND OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURES SHOULD BE REMADE SO THAT CREDENTIALISM DOES NOT ARBITARILY BAR NEGROES AND THE POOR FROM ECONOMIC WELL-BEING AND SOCIAL MOBILITY. GRADUATION FROM A SCHOOL SIMPLY IMPLIES THAT ONE HAS FIT INTO THE PROPER EDUCATIONAL STRAITS AND DOES NOT NECESSARILY SIGNAL QUALITY PERFORMANCE. CREDENTIALISM AND ITS…

THIS PARTIALLY ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SOCIOECONOMIC CHANGE IN PUERTO RICO LISTS WORKS ON PUERTO RICAN COMMUNITIES (MAINLY RURAL), SOCIAL PATTERNS, FAMILY PATTERNS AND PRACTICES, AGRICULTURE, ECONOMICS, EDUCATION, AND MIGRATION. ALTHOUGH THE BIBLIOGRAPHY CONTAINS JOURNAL ARTICLES, IT CONSISTS MAINLY OF BOOK-LENGTH RESEARCH STUDIES. DATES OF…

Many English language arts teachers consider the nonstandard English of their students as being "slovenly or nonverbal or inexact or lazy." These same teachers often have been trained in the "false assumptions of a single universally accepted norm of English." These positions, the author states, are both fallacious and…

What effects will racial and ethnic discrimination have on Puerto Ricans? Will Puerto Ricans go the route of previous immigrant groups? Or will they be like blacks? What bearings does all this have on other ethnic groups? On blacks? The examination of the historical context begins with a discussion of the origins of ethnic and racial prejudice in…

A Spanish American village economy as influenced by changes in its land base, land rights, and the introduction of mercantile capitalism during the U.S. Territorial period in New Mexico was analyzed. Attention was given to differences in village land tenure and exploitative patterns from those imposed with the advent of Anglo American political…