This chapter discusses the difficulties associated with developing a social justice ally identity and provides practical suggestions to overcome them.

This reflective paper is an account and analyses of the change process forced upon a university's education department in the light of unexpected financial downfall. Rather than rehearse the well documented research on innovation and change it focuses on the process from the head of department's prospective. The issues raised highlight that there…

Formal curriculum guidelines reflect prevailing understandings and political will, and help to shape the resources available for implemented curriculum. The understandings embodied in such public curriculum reinforce patterns of social violence and injustice, yet at the same time may provide diverse students with opportunities to develop…

This article traces back to the time when virtually no educational research or policymaking takes integration seriously, when the courts regularly declare segregated districts unitary, when the rhetoric of race-blind social justice has been abandoned by the left and appropriated by the opponents of equality. This leads students' and other…

Public higher educational institutions, where about 80 percent of all college students and 65 percent of all four-year college students are educated, appear to be in serious trouble. In order to delve more deeply into this topic, the author invited a wide-ranging team of experts to examine changes in public higher education over the last quarter…

This study supports efforts by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to foster greater state accountability and establish data-driven planning and self-assessment processes that help states and schools to address provisions of the recently enacted Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act…

Whereas the new administrator will seek to become comfortable and effective in a leadership role, former administrators back on the faculty will find the change of position and pace unsettling again.

This paper explores changes needed in the focus and commitment of educational research to better reflect issues relevant to rural schools and their communities. Historically, educational researchers have focused on national or cosmopolitan concerns in efforts to develop widely applicable procedures for school improvement. However, improving rural…

This compilation of four journal issues on gifted education in California focuses on the following topics: (1) literacy for the 21st century; (2) technology; (3) reflections on gifted education; and (4) politics. Major articles include: "English Language Arts in California's Schools: A New Beginning" (Diane Levin and Catherine Barkett);…

This practicum was designed to empower a parents' organization through a unified effort. Primary goals for the parents' group were set. One objective was to defeat a small circle of politically astute students in the high school choir. In the previous year, those adversaries successfully influenced the school board on a parents' proposal for the…

Globalization of the political economy, and the attendant reductions in government funding, liaisons with business and industry, and marketing of educational and business services, has been changing the nature of academic labor. The first three chapters discuss the ways in which global political and economic changes have had an impact on higher…

This document provides an overview of the 17 universities in the Province of Ontario, describing undergraduate and graduate program offerings, sources of operating income and research funding, and linkages between the universities and the private sector. The first section includes a discussion of the appraisal process used to assess both graduate…

Recognizing that civic education is the school subject specifically dedicated to preparing students for democractic citizenship and that the school and classroom often have a less than democratic and value-loaded "political culture," this paper emphasizes the fundamental goals of civic education and then arrives at the ingredients of…

This report contains seven essays on current issues in higher education and a 1995-96 faculty salary report. "Faculty Salaries, 1995-96" (John B. Lee) provides an overview of faculty salaries, while "Faculty Workload and Productivity: Ethnic and Gender Disparities (Henry L. Allen) examines the ethnic and gender differences in…

This paper examines and critiques the Australian Federal Government's efforts to put pressure on universities to increase the links between business and universities and to adopt more business practices. Examination of the 1992 and 1993 World Competitiveness Reports reveal ratings which cast serious doubt about the effectiveness of Australian…