This reply explores issues raised in comments by Myers (2012) and Saroglou (2012) on Galen (2012) regarding whether religiosity has any influence on prosociality. Areas of contention include (a) the distinction between religious belief and other influences, mainly the socialization effects of group behavior; (b) whether behavior largely restricted…

In this forum, I take a learning sciences perspective to examine the paper by Bellocchi, Ritchie, Tobin, Sandhu and Sandhu ("Cultural Studies of Science Education," doi:10.1007/s11422-013-9526-3, 2013) titled "Examining emotional climate of preservice science teacher education." I characterize their approach as a social…

This article presents the author's response to Robert Maranto's review of "Bad Students, Not Bad Schools". The author begins by thanking Professor Maranto for his thoughtful review of his "Bad Students, Not Bad Schools" (2010). Professor Maranto is the first professional educator to acknowledge the book's existence, a fact that says much about…

This account draws upon learning from an incident in an action learning set where an individual challenged a mandatory organisational requirement. As a facilitator I reflect upon my initial defensive reaction to this challenge. The use of critical action learning to inform ourselves as facilitators of the underlying tensions between set members…

Reflecting two students views on this summers riots, Tom Young locates the riots as a symptom of 20th century consumerism. Tracing the historical development of public relations and advertising with the rise of one of the 20th century's least known and most influential figures "Eddy Bernays", he asks the question--who's really to blame…

Recent works that assess whether development has been well-served, or served at all, by international aid, are overwhelmingly pessimistic in their assessment and in favor of the market as the antidote to international aid (Klees, 2010). The author finds that Steve Klees' essay focuses on the neoliberal and liberal frameworks that represent the…

In the Fall of 2009, the author participated in the sixth conference of Interfaith Youth Core, an organization and social movement devoted to building "mutal respect and pluralism among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others". On that occasion, Dr. Eboo Patel, founder and…

This article argues that under neoliberal casino capitalism there has been a wholesale attack not only on the social state but also on those public spheres that enable the formative cultures necessary to produce critical agents, engaged subjects, and the literacies necessary to make power and authority accountable. In this instance, the struggle…

This paper argues that sociological theory provides a sound basis for analyzing the social organization and reorganization of the college or university and for guiding the activities of the college dean. Frame analysis theory, developed in the study of social movements, and the attendant concepts of frame shifts and frame disputes, are drawn on to…

The present challenge for educationists and economists is to resolve pressing problems inherent in social choice and the technical framework of education. Among these challenges is the conflict between means and ends of educational production, the reliable development of human capital, and resolution to problems of social inequality. The authors…

In the post-World War II era, efforts to improve the accessibility and quality of higher education rose to prominence in US educational debates and policymaking. In retrospect, a confluence of factors helped to forge this growing social consensus about the need to create educational opportunity and to diversify the nation's colleges and…

In this article I respond to the analyses of "Educating the 'Right' Way" and "The State and the Politics of Knowledge" that were given by Stephen Ball, Russell Fox and Antonio Novoa. I situate the development of the kinds of argument that these books make, in the larger corpus of my work and in the growth of neoliberal, neoconservative,…

For greater effectiveness, attention should be paid to how group decisions are made. The process of consensus-seeking encourages appraisal of more information and provides a broader range of potential alternatives. (SK)

Analyzes proposition that scapegoat role emerges in small groups to permit member distancing from intrapsychic and interpersonal conflict through displacement. Describes small group scapegoating and its consequences. (Author/CM)

For a workshop to be successful, it must have characteristics such as organization, acceptable pace, well-defined objectives, and adequate facilities. Trainers court disaster if these are not present. Includes symptoms of dysfunctional behavior by participants, causes of this behavior, and strategies to deal with it. (JOW)