Describes the "relevant" curriculum, that students feel is related to their lives, in a high school history class. Traces how "relevant" lessons work on students, how students in turn "work" relevance, and whose relevance is consequential. Argues that the school successfully imposes "relevance," but alienates students in the process. (DSK)

Proposes that one goal in teaching stratification is to illustrate how powerfully stratification shapes society. Discusses an effort to stimulate critical thinking through student research projects. Lists three goals: involve students in research; show how race, class, and gender impact everyday life; and clarify the importance of these issues to…

Examined elementary students' evaluations of decision-making procedures in different social contexts. Found that consensus was preferred in peer and family contexts and authority-based procedures were preferred for school curricular decisions. Older children were more likely than younger to consider how children's limited knowledge and competence…

Investigated how school superintendents defined and used power. Interviews with 47 superintendents nationwide and two other people from each school district indicated that the more strictly superintendents' definitions adhered to power as coming from or with others (rather than power over others), the more capable they were as collaborative…

Reflects on a social studies teacher's experiences during a Fulbright professorship in Ghana. Relates how, as an outsider from the United States, she learned about Ghanian perspectives of history, economics, women's issues, and culture, and was reminded of the dominating power of Western cultural and economic imperialism. (DSK)

Reports on a distance-independent class taught at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and examines the challenges this course posed to existing academic culture. Topics include logistical issues, including scheduling, workload, and credit hours; changing personnel and roles; and changes in power and…

Examines whether school-expenditure theory can be described in terms of Thomas Kuhn's punctuated-equilibrium model: long periods of theoretical stasis interspersed with brief periods of revolutionary change. Current researchers, influenced by organizational behavior theories, believe that finding a global money/student outcome relationship is an…

Portrays authors' work as external change agents involved in numerous comprehensive, school-based reform efforts in the United States. Concerned with schools' micropolitics, focuses on efforts to develop democratic school cultures and on various issues (victimization, leadership, and authenticity) related to these schools' internal governance.…

Examined the effects of socialization and participation in community activism on female social work students' development of skills in leadership, influence, power use, and collaboration. Surveys and focus groups indicated that women had few opportunities to develop leadership skills until college and were uncomfortable with their power and…

Explores the roles of parents in three urban high schools engaged in the reform of mathematics education, focusing on teachers' perceptions of parents and parents' perceptions of their children's mathematics education. At all three schools parents were involved in only a limited and passive fashion. (SLD)

The Candora women's collective uses a participatory model in developing community-based programming for women. Such grassroots organizations are faced with ethical dilemmas in negotiating the interests of funding agencies, organizations, and the women served. (SK)

Society is not meeting the needs of most children in U.S. urban schools. Although the articles in this special "Educational Policy" issue are provocative, contributors fail to recognize the subjectivity of knowledge accumulation. They advocate tactics to reinforce existing power imbalances in society, rather than suggesting ways to…

Reasons for conflict between college faculty and administrators are discussed, focusing on the differences in roles and authority structures, persistent daily interpersonal conflicts, unclear standards of judgment, different decision-making intentions, mutual lack of understanding of power status, and irritations common in the boss-employee…

Describes a study examining the effect of race and organizational level on the use of social power by African American and White female community college administrators. Indicates that although organizational level had a significant effect on scores on an inventory of power use, race was found to have no effect. (12 citations) (MAB)

Describes a study seeking to develop a theory of instructional leadership grounded in interview data from practicing administrators and their teachers. Effective elementary instructional leaders engaged in various strategies designed to balance power inequities in their school community. They exemplified the use of collaborative power based on…