The concept of equal educational opportunity in Germany has been limited by traditions of class rigidity and elitism. Faced with inordinate demand for admission, the German response has been to institute a limited admission policy. Generous financial aid and a policy of unlimited time for study have exacerbated admission pressures. (MLW)

Traces the development of new research approaches to the history of elementary education. Examines the impact of the 1870 legislation that instituted compulsory education on the elementary school system. Assesses this impact on the school system in the context of the wider social structure. Includes quantitative studies on school attendance, age,…

Presents an analysis and personal reflections on social and political changes in Russia between 1970 and 1994. Discusses how the social and economic changes have had a profound impact on elderly Russians. Concludes that the changes in Russia are a microcosm of those taking place throughout the world. (CFR)

Discusses formation and implementation of educational policy in an era of financial shortages. Presents four principles essential to understanding policy operation in any social setting. Concludes that there is promise for the development of policies favorable to the arts within school cultures. (CFR)

Maintains that most students learn how sociologists study social stratification in introductory sociology courses. Presents a content analysis of 15 introductory college textbooks to determine whether they use distributional or relational approaches as the basis for their treatment of social class. Finds that depictions of class are…

Public obsession with issues of measurement, early intervention, promotion, suspension, education, age of exit, and alternative education dominates discourse on what can be done about high school dropouts. Additional controversial issues of societal structural interdependence are examined for their importance in education reform for minority and…

Presents ideas concerning the development of an approach, or conceptual framework, for studying, teaching, and researching the "black experience." Using systematic and thematic principles, this approach consists of the interaction of external objective forces on social structure with internal subjective forces on cultural sensibility…

Violence is a part of daily life in the United States, the world's leader in the number of homicides, rapes, and assaults. This working paper examines the issue of violence in the United States from a gender equity perspective. Gendered violence is reinforced by cultural beliefs that allow individuals and groups to use violence to establish and…

This report examines recruitment and retention of Aboriginal teachers in Saskatchewan (Canada) a decade after principles of equity were voluntarily adopted by some public school divisions. Data were gathered via questionnaires completed by 25 teachers of Aboriginal ancestry, 17 graduates of the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program,…

This book examines how early parenthood differs historically, cross-nationally (in Korea and Sweden), and by class, race, and age in the United States. Contributors discuss how consequential is early parenthood for the future social and economic well-being of parents and children, whether postponing childbearing beyond the teenage years would…

Inherent, interrelated, and structural biases against excellence in education that operate at the university and school levels in the American educational system are discussed in this paper. Structural constraints of the American secondary system include universal secondary education, comprehensive school organization, downward coupling, local…

The social stratification process is analyzed from a theoretical point of view, with assumptions tested with empirical evidence from the International Institute for Educational Planning project in developing countries or with information obtained through the researcher's prior studies on industrialized countries. The significant, and often…

Focusing on the point of contrast between the library, whose primary role is the preservation of knowledge, and other dimensions of an information society where knowledge has become increasingly fragmented and exteriorized, this paper begins by defining leadership and reviewing various meanings assigned to the term "discourse." Several…

A program for adolescent American Indian girls, under the auspices of the Social Work Division of the Minneapolis Public Schools, evolved to become a linkage model between human services and American Indian families, focusing upon interrelationships among structure, behavior, and cultural pattern maintenance. Growth and development among Indian…

This ethnographic study of two kindergarten classes in a racially-mixed "magnet" school investigates three issues: (1) the extent to which teachers' definitions of appropriate behavior in an instructional context are shared by children in free play context, (2) whether or not classroom social structure differs when teachers have contrasting…