In the positive theory of public bureaucracy, the prevailing view is that the structure of public agencies is designed from the top down by political superiors. Faced with bureaucrats who may disagree with them on policy and who are advantaged by private information, superiors choose rules and procedures to try to ensure that agencies do what they…

It is a well-known fact that one way to a better life is through education. Individuals who have a college education will earn significantly higher income that those who only have a high school diploma (McGlynn, 2001). Having a college degree is not only beneficial to an individual, but a community with an educated work force can acquire…

The central focus in this article is that how language is used can constitute the basis for power relations. In the first place, power functions through linguistic expressions in relationships of superiority and subordination (commands, reprimands etc.). Secondly, language acts can appear as representations of discourse, i.e. linguistic and…

A study into the relevance of cultural factors in predicting condom-use intentions among Antillean migrants in the Netherlands is described in this article. The association between the intention to use condoms with a new sexual partner and a perceived taboo on discussing sex, beliefs about sex education and machismo beliefs on gender and power…

Community service learning offers students the opportunity to cross socially constructed and epistemological borders of power and privilege, allowing them to come into contact with groups of people who are different from themselves and to learn in different ways. Peer facilitators, undergraduate student instructional leaders who guide others…

When Botswana gained independence from the British in 1966, a political decision was taken to designate English as an official language and Setswana, one of the indigenous languages, as a national language. This move disregarded the multilingual nature of Botswana society. Furthermore, although not explicitly stated, the use of other languages…

This article considers the ways in which educators and learning societies in Zambia and Zimbabwe have had to struggle to create independent, democratic and critical curricula in difficult circumstances over the last 50 years in the context of historical shifts in power, a declining British Empire and the re-emergence of reactionary forces at a…

This book provides practical information about the complexity of school change, with an emphasis on the role of time and its impact, along with other variables, on the change process. The other interacting variables in school change include vision, history, leadership and power, the use of support and pressure, capacity building, consensual…

This book presents different ways of viewing the teacher supervision process, based on a study of supervisors and teachers in a graduate program for beginning teachers sponsored by a college of education in the northwestern United States. Data were obtained through interviews, observation, and conversation analysis. Chapter 1 examines beliefs…

This essay explores higher education governance and resource allocation and makes a case for a new system of governance that goes beyond the traditional belief that all fields of knowledge are always and everywhere equally valuable and the mystique of department-centered governance. In an opening section the essay argues that the decline in the…

This paper examines the teacher's role in elementary and secondary school writing workshops--the teacher as Dostoevskian novelist creates a classroom novel and takes up relations with student-characters. The paper focuses on: the rejection of traditional relations among novelist and character, teacher and student, and the embrace of new ones; how…

Over the past few decades, educators have witnessed a slowly growing but significant change in the way they approach their work. Professional curriculum debate now tends to be over procedures, not over what counts as legitimate knowledge. This book aims to reintegrate the ethical, personal, and political into curriculum discourse and decision…

This study examines how Latino families in Carpinteria (California) are building a community among themselves and with the school in support of the students. Parents who are knowledgeable about the school's expectations and the way in which the school operates are better advocates for their children than parents who lack such information. Research…

This case study examined how representatives of one high-profile partnership worked to influence their associated school. Analysis drew from the "power-influence" perspective of educational policy analysis, a "microcosmic" approach that illuminates the political dynamics of an organizations by analyzing how people in organizations interact…

Development must offer people not only release from poverty but also social esteem and political freedom. While knowledge production has exploded, its distribution and use is still limited, especially in the Third World. Literacy is the most promising means of bringing information and technology to common people in developing nations. Each country…