The Politics and Mass Media section of the proceedings contains the following 14 papers: "Voter Learning in the 1990 Off-Year Election: Did the Media Matter?" (David Weaver and Dan Drew); "Televised Political Conventions as Pseudo-Events: Proposals for More Substantive Campaign Coverage in 1992" (John M. Arwood); "Media…

Few researchers who study political socialization have examined the attitudes, values, and beliefs of low ability, at-risk students. This seems unfortunate if, as is often claimed, the goal of civic education is to deal with all students in such a way as to motivate them to play their part as informed and effective members of a modern democratic…

This paper reviews political symbols aimed at the United States found in "Granma Weekly Review" and in Fidel Castro's speeches to see if they have changed in a predicted manner over an 18-year period and whether changes in symbol content of "Granma" and Castro's speeches correspond. The paper first explains the functions of the…

After three years in power, Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, has emphasized that he intends to carry out a restructuring of the Soviet system in an effort to make the Soviet economy capable of assimilating the opportunities offered by contemporary science, technology and methods of management. Chapter 1, a brief introduction, stresses that…

This ERIC Digest on teaching about the Bill of Rights in the schools examines the status, the deficiencies, and means to improve citizenship education. Currently, the Bill of Rights is taught at least four times during the elementary and secondary grades. Constitutional rights and liberties are stressed in K-12 curriculum goals for social studies…

This examination of political and social attitudes of American youth in the 1980's begins with a comparison of the youth of the 1960's with the youth of the 1970's. Results from four major studies are presented and a composite picture of youth in the eighties is presented. Findings show that the personal and professional values of American…

A survey of public concerns about the state of children, child care systems, and the need for political action was conducted with a sample of 2,009 parents with young children and 2,041 without young children. Findings indicated that most Americans believe children in the U.S. are neglected and that the situation has grown worse. Americans are…

The general background, views of the university, career and educational plans, academic skills, and personal development of incoming international students at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), were surveyed. Students were also given the opportunity to indicate their social and political attitudes and their specific concerns about…

The purpose of this paper is to use data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to describe changes in performance within the subject area of social studies and citizenship education. The items from the citizenship and social studies national assessments illustrate that trends over time are not uniform within these subject areas. The…

The paper examines the varied cultures of Appalachia in terms of the cultural images currently being projected by tourist and land development advertisers in the area. Because these industries have not clearly defined the culture they are trying to sell, they promote conflicting public images and thereby violate the ethnic and cultural heritage of…

Unique economic, social, and cultural conditions explain why Japan, as one of the leading industrialized nations, has no organization which specializes in or is concerned with development education. Contributing factors are: (1) economic success is so recent (late 1960's) that people are involved internally enjoying hard won affluence; (2)…

This study examines the role of the high school as a political environment in which students may acquire experiences which contribute to the development of their political competence. The paper explains the objectives of the study, discusses the methods used, describes the schools in which data were gathered, reports the findings, and identifies…

Student characteristics, opinions, and projections for fall 1981 entering freshmen at the University of South Carolina (USC) were compared to national norms, based on administration of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program questionnaire of the American Council of Education. Twelve areas of interest that were selected for analysis from the…

By examining the attitudes and perceptions of 1625 fifth grade students in North Carolina, this study tested the hypothesis that the way teachers treat their students can have an effect on their political attitudes. It was found that when teachers treat students fairly and show interest in their ideas and problems, students are less politically…

The late 1970s can be characterized as an era of practical concerns in civic education. There is a trend toward useful applied learning which can be evaluated by the actions or skills it produces. Current civic education programs are similar to curriculum reform efforts of the 1930s in that they are committed to educating citizens to function…