Questions whether English teachers have the responsibility of instructing students to think politically as citizens. Claims that English teachers must focus more on the primary skills of critical reading, talking, and writing. (HB)

Outlines the situation in the United States regarding national goals and standards, the development of national standards and assessments, and points of agreement and disagreement about national standards. (SR)

Analyzes the usage of four metaphors (school, medical and industrial, military, and banking) that commonly appear in the United States' media and in public speeches that dramatize illiteracy. Argues that educators need to be aware of the strategic use of language in this adult literacy context. (SR)

This critique of the current educational system challenges educators to examine potentially dangerous educational practices that foster specialization while ignoring the need to develop critical thinking. Examples demonstrate that, without the ability to interpret the world critically, people are subject to political manipulation, a state…

Narrates the experience of one graduate student in English at two universities as she prepared for a career teaching composition and literature. Describes the student's experiences as a religious conversion to a proscribed world view. Argues that graduate education should foster critical evaluation rather than dogma. (HB)

The Richmond (Georgia) County School Improvement Program, Models of Teaching, combines four related innovations: teacher study groups, an instructional council, provision of over 100 training hours in 4 student learning models, and trained teacher cadres to assist colleagues. Criticized by some as a top-down approach, the program has maintained…

Antiapartheid forces' unleashing of the "liberation before education" revolution among school-age children, coupled with the negative effects of years of apartheid education, resulted in a generation of students losing years of schooling. These young people are a daunting challenge to the new South Africa beginning to emerge. (CJS)

Presents a transcript of an interview with the American feminist and cultural critic bell hooks. Covers aspects of her various writings. Relates her thought to the field of composition studies. (HB)

Discusses the profound implications for journalism and mass communication education resulting from transformations in the communications industry and the evolution occurring in higher education. Recommends actions to reassess and reestablish journalism and mass communication education for the twenty-first century. (SR)

The president of the school board in Crockett, Texas, claims that the programs employing affective education and values clarification approaches have actually increased the behaviors they were designed to prevent. Admonishes school board members to listen to and investigate the concerns of parents. (MLF)

Academic achievement of historically oppressed groups is affected by the societal power relations reproduced in schools and by the "deficit" perspective. Culturally responsive education and strategic teaching are humanistic approaches that respect and use the culture, history, and perspectives of the students in educational practice. (SK)

Argues that technology necessitates that composition instructors gain the ability to shift perspectives and to look at the use of technology in composition instruction from as many disciplines as possible. Discusses some aspects of what it means to read and write in hypertext in two (normally mutually exclusive) perspectives: technology criticism…

Discusses the poststructural impulse to displace authority over texts and their meanings from the author. Questions whether poststructuralists practice an anti-intentionalist impersonalism regarding their own writings. Describes the reactions of Jacques Derrida to readings of his own work by other critics. (HB)

Racism and sexism are apparent in adult education in the composition of graduate faculty, curriculum content, and faculty-student interactions. Only by challenging power relations in graduate programs can racism and sexism in the professionalization of adult education be addressed. (SK)

Traditional professionalism and reflective practice are inadequate and less than empowering models of teaching expertise. Teacher expertise will be more open and foster democratic relations in education if professionalism takes seriously social antagonism and social difference. (SK)