This article demonstrates how using feedback mechanisms or "loops" as heuristic devices can help ethnographers explain the interior logic, robustness and contradictions within complex educational assemblages. After reviewing the use of feedback mechanisms in the natural and social sciences, particularly practice theory, the article…

Our research reflects a long-term professional dialogue and inquiry with teachers to develop and refine curriculum to address the needs of students in a high poverty, predominantly African-American school. Through our collaboration, we identify both institutional and personal barriers to changing and implementing a more student-centered…

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH GENERALIZES TOO FREELY ABOUT THE EFFECT OF LOWER-CLASS CULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE MIDDLE-CLASS SCHOOL ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THE DISADVANTAGED CHILD. IF INSTEAD EDUCATORS CONSIDERED THE RANGES AND VARIATIONS OF EACH OF THESE INFLUENCES, AND THE VARIABLES ACCOUNTING FOR THE DISADVANTAGED CHILD'S ACADEMIC SUCCESS…

Investigated effects of academic and psychosocial variables on the academic performance of minority and nonminority college student athletes. Found higher levels of competitive trait anxiety and negative life stress were associated with lower fall-term grade point averages for certain nonminority athletes. The academic variable related weakly to…

Contains the major findings and recommendations of a study of ability grouping by investigators associated with the College of Education, University of Georgia. (JM)

Since the 1950s, parenting and childhood in America have changed dramatically. Childhood as a period in which to grow at one's own pace in a protected environment largely removed from adult supervision has given way to a new era in which the parent acts as supervisor and director of the child's development. Such involvement, especially by middle…

Oppositional culture theory is a widely accepted explanation for disparities in academic performance between middle class Whites and middle class African Americans. The authors make the case that oppositional culture theory has its roots in cultural deficit theory popularized in the early 1960s and present a significant body of evidence to refute…

This study investigated whether the lower class student preceives a "conflict of subcultures" between his home environment and his middle class oriented school. Data were collected through interviews with 12- to 16-year-old lower class students in New York City and Baltimore. The 110 students on whom the findings are based were divided…

This study of a middle-class housing estate in Great Britain shows how the women of the community foster a collective culture conducive to the academic success of the children. This reinforcement of social stratification inhibits working-class advancement and calls into question the efficacy of school reform in achieving equity. (SK)

Analyses of standardized test scores reveal that nonurban schools are not meeting the educational needs of Black and Hispanic students. While individual nonurban schools may be superior to urban schools in preparing the majority of their students to perform well on state standardized tests, the standardized test scores of nonurban minority group…

This paper describes a study comparing the development of children reared in a communal environment with that of children from upper-middle-class home environments. Variables considered were cognitive development and academic achievement. Subjects consisted of 39 children, 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 years of age, reared communally from birth, and 39…

Discusses how self concept and its adaptations to academic success and failure are related to each other and to "cultural therapy." Analyzes research with a German agricultural community undergoing industrialization, and Menominee Indians adapting to majority culture using the Instrumental Activities Inventory (IAI). Extends the analysis…