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…

Highlights excellent practices and precautions regarding teacher learning communities gleaned from research on diverse collegial efforts during difficult reform processes, noting that simply placing teachers in teams does not necessarily generate collegiality. The paper examines the content of professional discourse, sociocultural resources in the…

A free mind is the first step in the pursuit of liberty, but African Americans have been hampered in that pursuit by both the Eurocentric dominant culture and by the lack of consensus among blacks on the nature and goals of black education. Conflicting trends in the history of black education include the following: (1) opposing Eurocentric and…

The article examines problems in the U.S. public school system. It describes the factory and corporate models of education and suggests that, despite the conservative origins of the current wave of school reform, progress is possible. The article also discusses sociocultural factors and the importance of theory in school reform. (SM)

The growth of women's studies is an American higher education success story, but now scholars are confronting the questions and dilemmas that come with the field's maturity, including debate over the concept of gender and over the acceptance of white, middle class women as the universal standard of womanhood. (MSE)

This article explores the realities of community financing of state and private schools in Zimbabwe. It reviews the implications of historical influences and lists present efforts to redress past injustices. (JDH)

Discusses multicultural education and some of the confusion surrounding the philosophy, and explains how multicultural education fits into environmental education. Multicultural education respects diversity of ideas and experiences. The broadness of culture as a concept makes cultural factors key components in environmental issues. Includes…

Since the second world war, significant changes have come about in the sense of Australian identity and historical self-consciousness. The nature and extent of these changes can be seen in an analysis of racism and conceptions of culture, and how the "other" is defined. The main interest of this paper is Australian popular culture, and…

Discusses the criticisms of multicultural education. Reviews the history of multicultural education and discusses changes in its social context over the past 25 years. Explores how multicultural education can be a form of resistance to oppressive social relationships. Suggests ways of developing political resistance through education. (JS)

With the lowest per capita income in the nation and a higher dropout rate than any other state, Mississippi is struggling to remediate deeply entrenched educational problems. Despite a statewide education reform effort that predated the national movement, educators are finding a century of poverty and illiteracy difficult to reverse. (AF)

The fact that an achievement gap between White and African-American students exists is undisputed. The reasons for this gap are many and complex. Evidence does exist, though, that this gap can be narrowed and potentially eliminated. Evidence also exists that demonstrates that when the gap in academic achievement becomes equal African-Americans are…

Discusses traditional models found in teacher education and multicultural education to better understand the union of these two fields. Explores the implications of multicultural teacher education for future research in the field of multicultural science-teacher education. Proposes several ideas for multicultural science-education inquiry for…

For Kung hunter-gatherers and Fijian fishing people, healing is a central community ritual with significance beyond the cure itself. An enhanced state of consciousness, experienced most intensely by the healer, but also shared by the community, is at the core of Kung and Fijian healing. Although in contemporary Euro-American culture the spiritual…

The effectiveness of agricultural/vocational New Secondary Schools as an instrument for change in the Pacific Solomon Islands is examined. (f=fiche numbers). (CP)

An educator reflects on preservice teachers in his class who were concerned with issues of interpersonal relations and classroom dynamics but not with socioeconomic, intercultural, and political contexts of education. Nevertheless, there were some faculty and students involved in urban schools bringing reconstructionist ideas of education for…