This article explores the potential uses and extensions of sociocultural theoretical perspectives for integrating and further developing research on race, culture, and learning. Two bodies of literature are discussed and synthesized: (1) sociocultural theory and (2) studies on race, culture, and learning. The article proposes how a sociocultural…

This paper reviews how sociocultural theory conceptualizes teaching and learning, fundamental constructs of the theory and methodology, and basic guidelines for discourse analysis. It applies these concepts to three research areas: the social construction of disability, contingent instruction between adults and learners, and miscommunication…

One of the most important myths in education is that of progress. The idea derives from a specifically Western messianic tradition and contains the belief in the growth and the development of an organism. That belief emerges from Greek and Hebraic thought, is modified in Christian theology, and then is secularized in science. The persistence and…

The academic achievement gap, particularly the mathematics achievement gap, between Black students and their White counterparts has been well documented with numerical facts. As mathematics education researchers attempt to develop theories and practices that assist in eradicating the gap, they would serve mathematics education well if they would…

Changes in homelessness since the 1950s and 1960s involve increasing numbers of homeless persons, striking differences in their composition, and marked deterioration in their condition. Beyond similarly high levels of mental illness and substance abuse, the new homeless are younger, poorer, often shelterless, and include more minorities, women,…

Contends that education was an important instrument of social change during the French Revolution. Argues that education became a way to speed up social modernization and, at the same time, hide the contradictions of modernization. (CFR)

This document includes two articles describing the failure of the international human rights movement to consider or remedy the situation of women outside of the basic demand for political rights of people in general. The first article, "Women's Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Re-Vision of Human Rights" (Charlotte Bunch), emphasizes the…

Suggests typology as initial framework for study of patterns of computer use in the home, along with four sets of independent factors--social status, technical features, sociocultural setting, and personal attributes. This approach integrates patterns of computer utilization with technological, social, and psychological factors to account for…

Reports on a study of student characteristics and the school organization to confirm the findings of previous studies on the importance of individual characteristics to track placement. Concludes that systematic differences among schools suggest that track placement is more complex than previous research has shown. (CFR)

The prevailing focus in gerontology is on services rather than relationships. Consequently we are less familiar with the prevalence of kinkeeping. In intergenerational family research, women as family kinkeepers have been described as the hubs of family solidarity, bringing their families together, corresponding with family members, and monitoring…

Contends that religion has played a significant role in the founding and development of higher education. Reports on a study of the sociodemographic and educational background characteristics of sociologists teaching in 31 colleges belonging to the Christian College Coalition. (CFR)

Despite theoretical weaknesses, postmodernism offers educators important insights that can be incorporated in a broader theory of schooling and critical pedagogy. Argues that the best elements of modernist and postmodernist discourses should be combined to create a pedagogy and politics that reclaim and reinvigorate the possibilities of a radical…

Maintains that surprisingly little attention has been given to secondary modern schools by historians. Maintains that a new approach is needed to examine the impact of social differentiation in English and Welsh schools. Asserts that a more current history of secondary schools will provide new insights into British social history. (CFR)

Before there can be an understanding of politics, policy, and action in education, there must be an understanding of the value systems of policymakers. Policymakers, in their talk, in their choices of symbols and metaphors, in their choices of strategies for dealing with conflict, reveal their own needs, their role orientations, their group…

Reviews research on interpersonal and moral development of urban and rural students and young adults in Iceland, the United States, Europe, Japan, and China. Asserts that knowledge structures used to make meaning in a socio-moral conflict situation are highly dependent on the culture. (CFR)