Describes the "social action theater" approach to diversity training in colleges and universities. The method uses one-act plays to present diversity issues in a way that creates conflict among characters and promotes audience discussion. Issues in using social-action theater are examined, including benefits, determining level of campus…

Presents a breakthrough in the transition from the process of the expatriate-centered approach towards the development of indigenous education in Papua New Guinea. The indigenous people were encouraged to take an active role in establishment of their vernacular elementary school. They were able to syncretize Western values and indigenous values…

Proposes a new solution--creation of cosmopolitan civic universities to the Deweyan question of how to construct and maintain a radical new form of social organization (cosmopolitan neighborly communities based on enlightened, humanistic, universal values and relationships) in an age characterized by the information revolution and a global…

Under traditional Confucianism, China's school system became authoritarian, rigid, and undemocratic. In recent decades, China had one national curriculum and one unified set of textbooks. Now, text publication is more varied, curriculum planning and writing is becoming more democratic, and Western ideas are incorporated to spur economic…

Instead of inviting public engagement, the current educational system reinforces a hierarchical, bureaucratic pattern that gives neither students nor parents an official voice. Today's parents are demanding, more market-oriented, and organizing on the Internet. Strategies for fully involving parents in improvements for the common good are…

Top issues in service learning research include how service learning enhances subject matter; defining expected outcomes; identifying the processes of effective service learning; faculty involvement; effect on educational institutions; institutional policies, practices supporting/enhancing service learning; nature of effective community…

Presents excerpts from Stephen Toulmin's (1996 Jefferson Lecturer for the Humanities) works. The excerpt from, "Wittgenstein's Vienna," concerns the corruption of social standards, norms, and political authority. "The Return to Cosmology" discusses the role of philosophy in postmodern society and reveals surprising antecedents…

Proposes a conceptual framework based on attachment theory and parenting styles typology for examining the relationship between family context variables and the development of self-regulation skills. Also presents initial findings from a study of the parental practices and values associated with academic self-regulation in college students.…

Discusses the possibilities for pleasure, community, and collective meaning making among fifth- and sixth-grade students and various adults (teachers, parents, and school staff) during their prolonged engagement with a single literary work, Lois Lowry's "The Giver," as they read and reread the novel, annotating the text with their…

Education's greatest threat is the death of dialectics. In Malaysia, government censorship thwarts debate; in America, corporate brainwashing achieves the same result. Consumers have embraced computer technology with too little public discourse. Infatuation with television (screen shadows) distracts people from the puppet master's motives and…

Faculties must pass through several stages when becoming learning organizations: the honeymoon, conflict, confusion, messy, scary, and mature-group stages. Mature school communities have learned to view power differently, make learning more meaningful for students, and model a just and democratic society. Consensus is the starting point. (MLH)

This article discusses the complex belief systems and values affecting the perception of disability for families from culturally diverse backgrounds, including the influence of traditional and spiritual beliefs, beliefs about health and healing, religion, belief about folk medicine and folk healers, and expectations of a child's social roles.…

Efforts to desegregate schools since the 1954 "Brown" decision have only partly succeeded. Racial and economic segregation still limits minority and poor children's educational opportunities. A new educational civil rights movement must replace authoritarian, antidemocratic standards and tests with diverse schools, staff, pedagogies,…

Argues that the arts improve academic achievement and provide an emotional outlet which the Montessori classroom should work to integrate across the curriculum. Provides a case study of change toward a better art orientation, and discusses integrating art class with regular classroom work, and searching for and hiring a specialist in the field.…

Redefines professionalism in teaching as commitment to one's discipline and to students. In order to teach what they practice, the practicing of their disciplines should be a necessary use of teachers' in-school time. Commitment to students will require a defiance of the economic imperatives that drive the present system, so that students can be…