This report presents the content of the AERA colloquium, held in November 1968, to enable the educational research community to assess and deploy its resources, coordinate research efforts, and obtain more effective communication within the field and beyond it. Several outstanding scholars were invited to present papers on their studies of the…

This series of essays derives from an interest in communications, in media and their effect upon human intercourse. Primarily, this concern with the technology of the intellect centers upon the effect of literacy on human culture, especially in 'traditional' or pre-industrial societies. In most of the essays, the effects of literacy are considered…

This report is essentially a documentary outline of the events associated with the Newark teacher strikes followed by an analysis of the implications of those events for the future of education in Newark and elsewhere. The chronology provides a detailed delineation of the sequence of events before, during, and after each strike. The information…

This paper is concerned with conceptualizing from the human potential perspective the quality of life, poverty, the "good social system", service delivery, and social indicators. Theories of Maslow and other humanistic educators which stress the need for self actualization provide a framework to sociologists for improving human conditions by…

The paper examines the social structure of Canada's agricultural production. It argues that "the official development strategy is typical of state involvement in maturing capitalist economies and that, in so far as these policies are successful, they bring to an end small scale production of primary products by absorbing rural people into an…

Focusing upon the central problems of effective community practice in town and country areas, the four speeches in this collection emphasize some key analytical notions in what has been termed an interactional or activity field conception of community. Among the ideas emphasized are the complexity/integration and the coordination/integration of…

Notes that the most common educational research methods (large-scale surveys and field observations) have failed to examine the processes by which school participants create school structures. Advocates constitutive ethnography as a new approach and presents examples of its application in examining classrooms, lessons, educational testing, and…

The political perspectives of teachers are examined in the context of interpersonal relationships in schools. Teachers develop a sensitivity to being controlled and manipulated by administrators, parents, and students. Teachers develop protectionistic political interactions to each other. Knowledge of the politics and culture of work permit more…

Provides an overview of Japan's educational system, covering such topics as its examination system, curriculum, extracurricular activities, and typical school day schedule. Includes information on the role of the family in education, teacher training, and teaching conditions. (GEA)

Presents a prescription for a restructured postindustrial society without gender as an organizing principle. The potential nongendered social order is described in terms of nongendered reproduction, equally valued wage work and a gender-neutral wage structure, and gender-neutral access to authority and power. (SA)

Presents a structural framework for the sociological analysis of special education. Describes special education as one of the ways in which schools perform their reproductive task by differentiating children and allocating them to different educational treatments. Employs the framework to analyze the different histories of special education in…

Reviews an article by James G. Carrier on a social control theory of special education. Argues that Carrier ignores empirical data, and that special education programs in the United States develop cyclically, in response to specific social pressures--not, as Carrier contends, in response to a generalized movement toward a contractualist society.…

Although "A Nation at Risk" identifies many legitimate problems, the report misconstrues their causes and proposes inappropriate solutions. By blaming schools for America's economic, military, and moral shortcomings, it deflects criticism from education's social, economic, and political context, which we must analyze if we seek a more…

In order to facilitate entry of a new child into the classroom, the teacher of cognitively and emotionally impaired children should be aware of the class's hierarchical social organization. (CL)

Maintains that dropping out of school is more usefully interpreted in social structural terms rather than as an individual psychological event. Reviews research findings to support the argument that schooling reproduces a class-based society by legitimating the social role of the dropout and allocating students to that devalued status. (Author/MJL)