Should the 21st-century university have a core curriculum? The report of the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education said nothing about general education, the learning that educated Americans should share. Instead the Spellings commission report highlighted broad access and measurable "value added" as the major…

The humanist tradition in Western education systems is increasingly coming under critical scrutiny by posthumanist scholars, arguing that Enlightenment humanism accommodates a number of serious shortcomings such as being essentialist, exclusive, and unable to meet its own criteria of value pluralism, tolerance, and equity for all. This article…

Research shows that students' sense of belonging in their school communities is critically linked to academic achievement. This ninth and final book in "The Soul of Educational Leadership" series offers practical strategies for promoting socially responsible school cultures that foster greater student engagement and democratic values. A joint…

I focus on the role of learners in the governance of secondary schools. I seek to promote a voice for learner expression as guaranteed in the national Department of Education's guidelines for Representative Council of Learners as part of promoting democratic governance. The potential, limitations, constraints, consequences, and challenges facing…

Through a series of focus groups, this study explores how students, at the conclusion of a university-level media literacy course, see media's necessary role in democratic society. It is a narrative inspired by the core belief of the media literacy discipline that if people are effectively taught the critical skills to access, evaluate, analyze,…

The American public education system continues to be challenged by a myriad of persisting issues that have the potential to threaten the foundation upon which it was established--the principles of democracy. One of the recurring and most daunting is the continued slow or little progress that has occurred in student achievement, particularly for…

Although Azerbaijan's education sector has experienced intermittent democratization efforts since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, school leadership has remained untouched. This article argues that while Anglo-American models such as transformational and distributed leadership could benefit the schools, based on interview and…

This paper describes the attitudes, perceptions, and preferences of faculty at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI). Using the 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF-99) data set, the authors compared instructors of these minority serving institutions with instructors from similar institutions…

The new AASL standards clearly spell out ethical responsibilities, which school librarians strive to instill and model as they work with staff and students. In this article, the author presents the AASL standards together with some tips and lesson ideas which she and her library partner have put into practice within their library media program.

Democratic partnerships of universities, schools, and an array of neighborhood and community organizations are the most promising means of improving the lives of our nation's young people. Over the past two decades, many colleges and universities have been experiencing a renaissance in engagement activities. Universities, once ivory towers, have…

This study aimed at learning parents' ideas about the values aimed to be taught in Social Studies lessons in the 4th and 5th grades of the primary education and about values education. Study data were collected by administering "the Values Education I" and "Values Education II" questionnaire forms developed by the researchers.…

In Africa, as in many countries of the South, democratization is sometimes perceived as a process modeled upon outside--and specifically Northern--experience. Formal civic education programs in those countries arguably reflect the same bias and have not always been notably successful. Yet there are rich patterns of civic involvement and democratic…

The AsiaBarometer of 1,000 respondents shows that Hong Kong people have a great desire for materialistic attainment, and such an emphasis on materialism bodes ill for their quality of life. Negative assessments of the public life sphere, which encompasses the natural environment, the social welfare system, and the democratic system, also detract…

These are strange times for teacher education in a democratic society because globalization dominates economic, political, and technological interfaces among social institutions, nation-states, and the world. These are also dangerous times for teacher education in a democratic society because the expansion of neoliberalism as form of contemporary…

A number of dimensions of the democratic political process are important for understanding civic communities and civic engagement. While many of these aspects have been examined at the federal level, less is known about how these dynamics operate at the local level, especially in rural communities, and that, moreover, involve a specific issue. In…