Identifies important elements of conservative tradition in education, contrasts these with liberal elements, and examines implications for relying on either or both philosophies in educational decision making. Conservatives recognize long-established practices, virtues of small communities and small groups, inevitability of hierarchy and…

Recounts some of the history of attempts to establish magnet and other voluntary, choice-oriented policies in urban school districts. Discusses the elements that must be included in programs established in those districts. (SR)

Celebrates life and work of British primary headteacher over past decade, using ethnographic conversational data. Stan Fast's intellectual and moral vision, his theories and practices, are set in context of recent (conservative) policy. Although his transformative "hidden curriculum" stressing three C's (caring, cooperation, compassion)…

Argues that easy claims about the relationship between language mastery and academic or economic access (made by both conservative commentators on education and mainstream writing teachers) are false and obscure real social and political boundaries, such as racism, sexism, elitism, and homophobia, that really do prevent access. (SR)

Maintains that racism sustains basic writing programs as Jim-Crow way stations for African-American and Latino students by insisting on a hierarchy of intelligence among races. Argues that the success of historically black colleges can serve as models for writing programs for inexperienced African-American and Latino students writers, encouraging…

In April 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued a 32-page report ("A Nation at Risk") calling for drastic educational reforms. A decade later, four top education reformers--John Goodlad, Henry Levin, Phillip Schlechty, and Ted Sizer--assess this document and its legacy. Most see substantial progress despite the…

Argues that much educational reform misses the mark by focusing on the schools, when substantive changes in the nature of the family are at the heart of education's problems. Advocates a "natural systems" approach to schools incorporating immediate and extended family characteristics. (SR)

Argues that high school American government classes should teach students the realities, not just the ideal, of government and politics in the United States. Gives suggestions for how to teach about elections, Congress, and economics and political parties. (SR)

Examines how relations of power are privileged or marginalized by ethnographers. Discusses how ethnography is judged by and subsumed within the ideological practices of academia. (SR)

A survey of 521 University of Toronto (Ontario) faculty investigated whether and how faculty attempt to influence government policy. Results indicate that over one-quarter had been politically active during the previous year. Faculty are involved in a number of policy areas, some personal and often related to their area of study. (Author/MSE)

Every decision made by successful school executives results in either a deposit or a withdrawal from their political capital. Paying attention to one's level of political support is essential for survival. To build capital, administrators must invest time in building good working relationships, concentrate on content, and emphasize accountability.…

A teacher relates his experiences in three South African high schools from 1979 to 1987, noting changes in classroom pedagogy from protest politics to awareness programs to people's education for people's power. He reflects on the directions that liberation pedagogy must take after apartheid. (DM)

Contrasts Black school politics from 1865 in Atlanta, where Blacks were almost always excluded since public office, and in Memphis, where Black citizens participated to a greater degree in political life. Schools in both cities were in the same condition by the 1980s, however; only massive federal aid brought improvement. (DM)

Discusses liberal and conservative foreign policy contributions to the end of the Cold War, as marked by the rapid liberalization of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Emphasizes that the collapse of the Soviet empire occurred at the end of a decade of sustained conservative government in every major country of the Western world. (FMW)

Considers institutional structures within the academy which suppress collaborative relationships and scholarship. Examines the discourses and practices of selected conventions of graduate level schooling, primarily at the University of Arizona. (HB)