Outlines U.S. national initiatives for local governments over the last few decades. Offers a picture of what the implications of these policies would be if carried out fully in Britain. Discusses whether the U.S. system for addressing local economic development concerns offers a better model and what really are the requirements for its…

Considers educational values and the constraints placed upon the realization of these values in the workplace. Discusses how the abuse of institutional power undermines the responsibilities accompanying academic freedom. (KO)

Examines the current curriculum debate between revisionist (liberal) and revanchist (conservative) theorists. Argues that critical and self-critical interactions on both sides are needed to promote intellectual consideration of the problem of curriculum design. (MM)

Chelimsky's five-part continuum--a model for the practice of evaluation in a political context--is reviewed. The model's conceptual framework and a question for education are discussed. By focusing on interactions between evaluators and policy actors, this model should prompt debates about unsettled issues in education policy making. (SLD)

Certain educational reform proposals tend to crop up repeatedly for three reasons: (1) they fail to remove the problems they were intended to solve; (2) solutions were designed to correct different problems from those identified; and (3) the problems were persistent dilemmas involving hard choices between conflicting values. (TE)

Challenges the intellectual separation of interpersonal and mass media communication, arguing that this division rests primarily on grounds of historical convenience and university politics. Discusses the consequences of this dichotomy and suggests ways of encouraging intellectual exchange between the two subdisciplines. (MM)

Hans Weiler's conception of the political utilities of decentralization are applied to case study data of a school district's decision to enact site-based management. It is argued that site-based management may have considerable political utility in crises. (SLD)

Suggests that educational drama has its genesis in an alternative, globalized aesthetic performance tradition which complements, rather than excludes, the Euro-American theater tradition. Discusses the influence of performance theory and poststructuralism, the alternative tradition, and drama as the art of the moment. (SR)

Discusses the passionate philosophy of Robert Alexander, founder and director of living stage theater company and his views of art, creativity, the entire process of learning, politics, philosophy, and hope. Presents several excerpts from Alexander's presentations for artists and teachers during Living Stage residencies in cities around the…

Examines the content of the World Programme of Action (WPOA) for its tone, core tenets, and other issues it addresses. Reviews the negotiations and politics that led to acceptance of the WPOA at the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994. (LZ)

A community consists of people bound together by a common thread, such as shared learning, ethnicity, a common national history, professional identity, or social/political agenda. To maintain equilibrium, a democratic community needs more than psychological theories, group dynamics, or simplistic cultural descriptors. All persons come to…

Presents remarks from a keynote address given by the Senior Advisor for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the New England Conference on Community Service Learning (1994). The speech offers insights into the policy goals of President Clinton's Department of Education. (GR)

Describes the author's highest hope for the current National Board of Professional Teaching Standards Early Adolescence/English Language Arts certification process. Looks at factors that could undermine the potential benefits that a National Teaching Certificate can have on the profession. Encourages middle school teachers to support the project…

Draws analogies between the character Lydgate in George Eliott's "Middlemarch" and the medical profession on the one hand, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the teaching profession on the other hand. (SR)

Investigates factors in the development and implementation of two national literacy campaigns in the early 1970s, conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the British Association of Settlements. Identifies the influence upon adult literacy today of issues arising in the campaigns: definition of literacy, arbitrary estimates of…