This article reports on an ethnographic analysis of students who play chess at a mixed comprehensive school in England. The authors explore how children learn when playing chess and speculate about how the appeal of the game could be used by secondary teachers to improve English lessons.

Written by a petty bureaucrat and diplomat for Lorenzo de Medici, a member of one of the ruling families of Europe, Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince" is a slim volume concerned primarily with advising Medici on how to acquire, maintain, and sustain power over a state. Its difficult and often archaic vocabulary aside, at first glance it…

Describes the curriculum for undergraduates majoring in English at one of Oxford University's 35 colleges and suggests that it can serve as a model for high school students in the United States. (JL)

Describes how Athol Fugard's 1982 play "'Master Harold'...and the Boys" dramatizes the racial situation in South Africa by taking the concept of racism away from universal abstractions and making its causes and effects individual and concrete. Asserts that this play should be adopted in the high school curriculum. (MM)

Recounts the experiences of an American English professor who spent 10 weeks as an exchange professor at Odessa State University in the Ukraine. Compares the language and literature curricula in the Ukraine with that of American higher education. Suggests how such an experience causes teachers to rethink American higher education. (HB)

Gives an overview of the differences between American and Spanish educational institutions and practices. Draws upon personal experiences in both cultural settings. (HB)

Discusses the ways that one teacher undertook a "cultural safari" in an attempt to learn extensively about African culture and society. Narrates this teacher's experiences in Senegal, her research about Africa, and its impact on her teaching. Argues that such activities "connect" students and teachers to the world community.…

The high school and middle school English teachers consider the role of rhetoric instruction to be very important. Teachers in England teach English better than those in America as England has an extensive English Language Studies curriculum that provides the teachers the flexibility to approach their topics.

Describes five novels written by authors from Sierra Leone that English teachers might use in their classrooms. (HB)

Describes a unit of study called "A World Cultures Unit: Africa in a Nutshell," developed for ninth graders at the Hong Kong International School. Claims good literature has the power to make students more perceptive readers, more expressive writers, and more thoughtful speakers. Suggests teachers take literature across the curriculum to…

Compares the French school system's emphasis on writing with the American school system's lack of priority for writing instruction. Argues that teachers in France are effective because they are free to concentrate on teaching, without having to perform duties unrelated to teaching. (JAD)

Gives an overview of English educational practices in Russia. Focuses on the changes in the assessment of student achievement in English, with particular attention to high school English in Russia. (HB)

Gives an overview of English educational practices in the United Kingdom. Focuses on the changes in the assessment of student achievement in English, with particular attention to high school English in England and Wales. (HB)

Describes an innovative approach to teaching students how to "read" critically the various "texts" present throughout the mass media. Provides principles developed in England in relation to media education and concerned with teaching critical reading in conjunction with the study of newspapers. (HB)

Describes the history of the secondary school English curriculum in New South Wales, Australia since 1911. Examines the gradual shift from centralized control over curriculum development to an emphasis on teacher control over course content. (MM)