This book grew from a collection of papers presented in the 1987-88 academic year at the University of Cincinnati. Some of the papers explore issues prevalent in the 1988 presidential election year. The issues are critical to an understanding of the relationships between social issues and political activity in U.S. society. Chapters examine two topics--understanding social and policy issues and initiating political action to confront or solve them. Following the preface, the chapters include: (1) "Educational Policy Dilemmas: Can We Have Control and Quality and Choice and Democracy and Equity?" (Catherine Marshall); (2) "Education for Change--Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Relationships between the Contexts and the Content of Learning" (Rhoda H. Halperin); (3) "Kinds of Schools" (Reba N. Page); (4) "Language, Schooling, and Subjectivity: beyond a Pedagogy of Reproduction and Resistance" (Henry A. Giroux and Peter McLaren); (5) "Visual Traces in Schools and the Reproduction of Societal Inequities" (Fenwick W. English); (6) "Thinking-in-Action: Lessons from the Field" (Robert J. Yinger); (7) "Access to Literacy for Young Learners" (Victoria Purcell-Gates and Terry S. Salinger); (8) "Price as a Lever of Higher Education Reform" (Charles H. Karelis); and (9) "Education and the Presidential Race: Looking beyond the Rhetoric" (Karen S. Gallagher and R. J. Gallagher). A subject and an author index are included. Two tables and 11 figures are included. (LMI)