Describes the socioeconomic and political context of the formation of the government's free primary-education policy in Malawi. Assesses the impact of the policy on educational access, equity, and quality. Reviews and critiques policies related to free primary education. (Contains 22 references.) (PKP)

Rural school district reorganization and school consolidation are put into perspective by reviewing the large population increases that fueled small-school growth in the Great Plains, 1870-1930. Since the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, population losses, improvements in transportation, and arguments advocating economies of scale and increased…

Mainstream education forces an adult-centric agenda onto young children which is developmentally inappropriate and educationally unnecessary. Parents can nourish their children's love of learning by challenging current educational practices and by letting their children play and experience nature. The 3 R's should be replaced with the 3…

During a 1998 National Rural Education Association symposium, participants indicated that urban-style standards improve rural schools with adequate resources, cause confusion and concern, and conflict with local decision making. To match education standards with rural communities' values, many questions must be resolved in public political forums.…

Presents a collection of articles on current issues related to African Americans in higher education. Some of the topics include the following: Congressional opponents of educational opportunities for blacks, the harm in college rankings, important news events of the 20th century, black faculty, actions of white supremacists, aspirations of…

Policy makers are turning away from individual performance pay, favoring school-based rewards that expand curriculum or fund other improvements. Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Texas have adopted performance-based rewards and sanctions. Policy makers must balance state and local control and align performance indicators with school…

Analyzes competing legal issues and requirements regarding California's English language learners. Because of legal wording that attempted to hold teachers and administrators personally liable in noncompliance civil suits, many districts interpreted the new law as conservatively as possible. Other districts made changes site by site depending on…

Describes a national study on the dissonance between superintendent roles and school board political configurations and the need for field-based application of knowledge in superintendent in-service education programs. The paper discusses how school superintendents prefer to operate as professional advisors and decision makers. Recommendations for…

The author summarizes and interprets data collected while he was a visiting scholar in a foreign language (FL) department at a large U.S. public research university. This qualitative case study focuses on: (a) the process of developing widely acclaimed Web-based beginning FL teaching software, and (b) the political implications of the development…

Education is not a neutral area and can never be neutral, because it is always socially constructed, culturally mediated, and politically intervened. Education in Indonesia has been used for a long time as a political vehicle to preserve and strengthen the New Order (1965-1998) regime. The policy of the NKK--BKK (Campus Life Normalization--Student…

This article builds on qualitative research with 13 women (9 from Canada and 4 from Asia and Africa) doing international adult education in the Global South. The author examines the cases in light of the postcolonial literature of Bhabha, Spivak, and Khan, giving special attention to their theory of third space. The 13 participants are third-space…

A substantial number of individuals serve as interim chairs each academic year. This chapter addresses their unique needs and provides suggestions on serving in this difficult role.

Discusses how the author used administrative skills learned as a school library media specialist to meet the demands of a university department chair. Topics include the influence of decisions that are made; budgeting; evaluation concerns and responsibilities; determining guidelines and goals; political concerns; and the flow of information. (LRW)

The author summarizes trends in infant-toddler child care before 1960 and describes how interdisciplinary meetings on early development at the Mental Health Study Center of the National Institute of Mental Health in the 1970s led to the founding of The National Center for Clinical Infant Programs (now ZERO TO THREE) in 1977. Periodic legislative…

In 1990, Australia implemented an employer training levy, the Training Guarantee Scheme. The Training Guarantee was abolished by the incoming Coalition federal government in 1996 after much negative publicity about its impact, particularly on small business. Recently, there have been calls to revive the notion of an employer training levy as a…