Explains four theoretical concepts: power, interests, negotiation, and responsibility. Combines them into a theory of program planning that encourages adult educators to nurture a democratic process, taking into account the power relations that support or threaten it. (SK)

Explores why Office of Educational Research and Improvement and educational research in general has low status and remote connection to educational reform. Educators should reexamine assumption that such research is sole domain of experts, give increased attention to Wirth's democratic sociotechnical model, emphasize development of values uniting…

Discusses the role of advocacy in the educational system, including advocacy from within, teacher to teacher, teacher to community, student to parent, and advocacy from without. (SR)

A British management scholar critiques Greenfield and Ribbins'"Greenfield on Educational Administration" (1993), considering the book's contribution to educational administration theory, relevance to practitioner vision, pertinence to administrative science, and connection with political philosophy. This book of selected works reveals…

As state legislatures have become increasingly involved in establishing educational policy, state boards' authority has diminished. Presently, there are no clear demarcations between rule making and implementation. Most state boards handle administrative and regulatory tasks rather than policymaking. Cumbersome and expensive to operate, state…

If teachers perceive their principals as "closed"--inaccessible, unsupportive, and insecure--they are wary of efforts toward increased collaboration. With closed principals, teachers resort to micropolitical strategies, including avoidance, excessive rationality, ingratiation, confrontation, coalition-building, and deliberate noncompliance.…

Focuses on the deep understanding conveyed in two books (Mike Rose's "Lives on the Boundary" and J. Elspeth Stuckey's "The Violence of Literacy") of exactly what is at stake in the literary crisis and how literacy is used to ratify the status quo. Considers their different, but complementary, suggestions about what writing…

An analysis of newspaper reports, political policy papers and social science investigations, uncovers a coherent world of beliefs concerning minority-majority relations. These beliefs, centered around stable but vague notions of culture, nation, state, democracy, and human rights, reveal a society profoundly troubled by the idea of diversity,…

Scarcely two weeks after Joan Kowal became superintendent of Volusia County (Florida) County Schools, the state legislature sliced $6 million off a $220 million operating budget, effective immediately. Kowal responded by convening a broad-based stakeholder's conference and asking participants to decide where cuts could be made. Other decisions…

Explores notions of what democracy might be at the university. suggesting that university autonomy and democracy need never be in opposition, though limitations on autonomy are sometimes defensible. The university's interactions with a surrounding society are viewed as potentially part of a democratic process. (SM)

Questions whether the benefits of separating basic writers into homogeneous classes continue to outweigh the disadvantages. Proposes that teachers gather data about success rates of current basic writing courses (using "mainstreamed" volunteer basic writers) and revise first-year composition courses to ensure they will respond to a wider range of…

Changes in the structure of Chile's higher education system resulting from major reforms in 1980-90 and a shift to elected government in 1990 are chronicled, and the major objectives and approaches of the new government are outlined. Establishing the nature of relationships between state, system, and society is currently a central issue.…

Discusses background of congressional passage of $22 billion in funding to help low-income families get care for their children while adults work. Bipartisan support for funding increased in 1988. In 1989, debate about finances stalled legislation until Children's Defense Fund and child care advocates across country formed national grassroots…

Whereas democracy institutionalizes distrust, professionalism relies on trust. Responding to Berbules and Densmore, this article identifies strong normative reasons, grounded in the interests of children, for promoting teacher professionalism. Exorcising the evils of classic professionalism will eliminate neither equity nor quality problems.…

Early education reformers attempted to take the schools out of politics and turn over educational decision making to professionally trained school administrators. Postpositivist epistemology, however, suggests that all knowledge is political. This article reviews the knowledge/politics linkage, reformulates program evaluation according to a…