Describes the deficit theories and skills approaches shaping how teachers, administrators, and students conceive of basic writers. Critiques research on cultural conflict in the classroom and the theory that students must be initiated into academic discourse. Explores John Ogbu's "oppositional culture" theory to better understand basic…

It is generally supposed that a curriculum should engage students with worthwhile knowledge, which requires an understanding of what it means for something to be worthwhile: a substantive conception of the good. Yet a number of influential curriculum theories deny or undermine one or another aspect of the key assumption upon which a meaningful…

Curriculum theory has long acknowledged the presence of a hidden curriculum in schools. Whereas the formal curriculum is explicit and documented, the hidden curriculum involves those attitudes, experiences, and learnings that are largely implicit and unintended. This article compares the hidden civic lessons found in public and private schools.…

This study focuses on the visibility and acceptance of alternative family compositions in public schools. A total of 35 parent/caregivers and 24 teachers from three elementary schools in Vermont were surveyed. A review of school textbooks, curricula, and school contact forms was undertaken to determine the degree to which they represented…

Analyzes the social knowledge, or "practical ideologies" implicitly transmitted by classroom procedures and ways of formulating course content in two contrasting high school history classes. Discusses the attitudes and behavior of "conformist" and "nonconformist" students in terms of socioeconomic class. (MCG)

Attempts to make some sense of the Byzantine matrix of governing agencies, accreditation boards, and the objectives and goals of teacher education programs in England. Significant ideological differences exist between the academic accrediting boards and the governing agencies. Discusses the implications of this for higher education and educational…

Criticizes the conservative movement's dismissal of class inequities in the British school system. Maintains that any critical analysis of social democratic alternatives to the current system must address the ways that class identities and social destinies are reproduced through state schooling. Doubts the efficacy of managerialist technically…

This article offers three interrelated arguments for the adoption of a cultural approach to the study of learning. It then presents some early analyses of data from a case study of one learning site, concerned with the assessment of learning in the workplace. These analyses show how the shape of the learning site--for example, the nature of…

This book attempts to engage theoretical questions of ethnicity, ideology, and identity as they are lived out by Aymara students in a small teachers' college in rural Bolivia. A year of fieldwork at the Escuela Normal Rural "Kollasuyo" focused on the experiences of Aymara students during their intensive training to become rural teachers,…

Life is more complex than ever for adults in the 21st century as a result of technological advances; the changing nature of work, workplaces, and working relationships; international economic competition; the changing demographics of workers, families, and communities; and longer life spans. Learning to cope with all these changing…

Illustrates the ways that a cultural studies approach to teacher education can expand the vision of democracy and citizenship. Analyzes the development and subsequent breakdown of the economic foundations of 20th-century life and offers new understandings that can be used to inform a democratically aware teacher education program. (MJP)

Provides an overview of the main theories, developments, and literature of critically-oriented sociology. Pays particular attention to the politics of meaning including critical discourse analysis, identity politics, racial formation, and political economy and the labor process. Concludes with a discussion of the tensions between postmodern and…

Discusses the existence of three curricula in medical schools (formal, informal, and hidden) and suggests that educators and administrators investigate the hidden curriculum by examining four areas: institutional policies; evaluation practices; resource-allocation decisions; and institutional "slang." Needed reforms in accreditation standards are…

This action research study examines student reactions to a sixty-hour community service graduate requirement at an all-girl, Catholic high school; identifies reasons for the apathy and disdain with which students view the requirement; and suggests creating a service learning environment that will increase students' investment and interest in…

This article presents the authors' ongoing research into two different pedagogical projects within teacher credential courses: one in critical multicultural education and the other in foundations of education. The data were gathered in Northern California and in Colorado. Both projects were designed to help students-teachers become more aware of…