Puts four poems written by Vladimir Mayakovsky into social and historical context by performing a content analysis. Discusses the revolutionary nature of the poetic and typographic communication and the circumstances surrounding the poems' publication. (KEH)

Examines within Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" two representative orientations (reasons and experience) as indices of popular attitudes about the rhetorical arts during the eighteenth century. Argues that, as a satire on rhetorical pretensions and excess, this novel is an important document in the venerable battle between the…

Offers a practical curriculum for the composition classroom which takes into account a socially informed sequence of work. Argues that every student possesses a socially constituted generic lexicon which functions as a complex code of verbal behavior. Urges teachers to establish mediating links between familiar and unfamiliar generic contexts.…

Investigates interpersonal communication in a high tech organization to test the association between high tech organizations and Western styles of symbolic interaction. Takes a diagnostic, rather than prescriptive, approach to organizational change. (MM)

Presents a case study of the interpenetration of the paradigm discourses of science, religion, politics, and law and public motive structures as demonstrated by the controversy over scientific creationism. Argues that the discursive populist commitments of journalism indirectly legitimate the populist discourse of creationism. (RAE)

Uses Martin Jamison's "Rivers" to illustrate a reader-response approach to poetry. Describes the process of students creating their own "poems," while analyzing the author's poem. Concludes that this approach encourages the necessary personal connection required for poetic involvement. (JAD)

Explores the social circumstances of academic writing. Looks at student and professional academic writers and readers as participants in a complex literary genre, with its own conventions, ideological assumptions, and epistemological implications. Argues that academics must become cultural critics. (RAE)

The influence of cultural practices on the cognitive development of largely unschooled children was investigated among 23 candy sellers and matched non-vendors between 10- and 12-years-old who resided in northeast Brazil. Findings are interpreted as supporting a model of cognitive development in which children construct novel understandings while…

Describes retraining of Russian teachers in Vygotskian perspectives as an educational innovation. Contextualizes movement toward Vygotsky in Russian education and begins assessing its implications for the Western context. Implications include rethinking the teacher's role in the classroom as socially constituted and reconsidering the nature of…

A discussion of why change is needed in second-language teacher education considers five problems that plague the profession: lack of consideration of first- and second-language interdependence; fragmentation/isolation of language arts fields; view of language as "object;" focus on methodology; and failure to connect language and culture. (80…

Given the fact that many Peace Corps volunteers have a conflict between what they have been trained to do (i.e., teach English) and what they want to do, this paper examines cultural issues such as learners' values faced by language teachers. Strategies are suggested. (LB)

This study examines the contexts of cultural interaction and the development of cognition and language among language minority children who brokered for their limited-English-speaking parents. Nine subjects who brokered for their parents as children were interviewed to determine the effects of brokering. (JL)

To address American Indian underrepresentation in New Mexico's gifted and talented education programs, the Santa Fe Indian School investigated Keresan Pueblo communities' perceptions of giftedness within their own cultural context. In contrast to the mainstream individualistic concept of giftedness, the Keresan Pueblo concept focuses on the…

The current debate about the future of health care has obscured the impact of democratization on social service organizations. This article advances some preliminary notions about democratization of health care, in terms of financing services, community-based agencies, client-based intervention, citizen advocates, and cultural supports. (DR)

Examines the relationship of masculinity and femininity to self-esteem and environmental pressures for each of these sets of behavioral characteristics. Results indicate a stronger pressure for masculine characteristics than feminine characteristics. The person-environment interaction suggests that a masculine environment may place women who are…