Discusses some of the complex and complicated issues surrounding the controversies about political correctness (PC) and multiculturalism in literature for young people. Provides some historical context for the debates about PC and children's literature. Suggests that debates about PC and multiculturalism are part of a larger struggle over…

Describes how a journalism instructor/newspaper advisor and her students fought a proposal (part of massive course cuts) to cancel a national-award-winning journalism program. Notes early warning signs, and suggests preventive measures to preserve programs. (SR)

Discusses changes that have taken place in children's theater in the United States during the past 25 years. Describes a few persistent problems that, despite striking and positive shifts, have attached themselves to the achievements and have refused to go away. (SR)

Discusses why a visiting authors' program is important. Offers suggestions on how to organize a visiting authors' program. Notes also the political realities of such programs. (SR)

Argues that the pursuit of success and stability, as conventionally measured, may be the undoing of writing centers. Reviews the history of three groups now firmly established in the university (American Literature, literary theory, and composition studies) whose power and status were purchased at great price. (SR)

Explores the emancipatory and oppressive roles adult education plays in the gay community. Demonstrates that mainstream adult education reproduces heterocentric assumptions, social relations, and beliefs, disenfranchising gay discourse. (SK)

Reprints a 1986 article from this journal on the complexity of "broad brush" educational reforms such as merit pay for teachers. Updates the article with an Afterword commenting on the earlier piece. (SR)

Although most textbooks teach federal and state political concepts effectively, they do not adequately explain the most popular form of direct democracy--the elected school board. Some boards are including students as nonvoting members; others have made communication a priority. An upstate New York district includes "school boarding" in a…

Discusses two related topics affecting film studies as an institution: questions concerning certain paradigms of contemporary theory (poststructuralism in particular) as they relate to politics; and to a greater extent, the relationship of this latter issue to the institutionalization of film studies in the academy. (SR)

Describes pressures applied to the Department of Speech Communication at Iowa State University. Discusses the shifting and ambiguous relationships with upper administration, and the resulting dispersal of the department. (SR)

Analyzes government and print media portrayals of the Reagan administration's policy during Irangate. Finds that the print media continued to fulfill its "watchdog" function by providing critical portrayals of United States policy despite the Reagan administration's attempt to "spin" its own version of Irangate. Examines the…

The right to create and reject new forms of knowledge and challenge received wisdom is becoming the privilege of a shrinking professional elite. Glib adoption of liberal rhetoric can disguise antihumanist objectives, wherein empowerment could merely mean choosing competencies defined by others and personal development means becoming economically…

Suggests that academics in English studies should frankly acknowledge that they are promoting those values that seem best to them, as liberal arts educators have always done. Offers Steven Mailloux's book "Rhetorical Power" as an example of the difficulties of retreating behind method. Suggests a theoretical path out of the dilemma. (RS)

Adult and continuing education should move beyond traditional, production-oriented views of leadership toward reconceptualizing work, learning, and leadership in terms of programs, policy, politics, people, and the profession. (SK)

The failure of U.S. politicians and citizens to respond to the plight of U.S. children living in poverty is discussed. Efforts of the National Association for the Education of Young Children to build a collective commitment to basic principles regarding young children, in both the early childhood profession and the culture at large, are described.…