Discusses the life and work of Marian Wharton, a socialist and feminist who helped shape the English curriculum at the People's College in Fort Scott, Kansas. Develops a rich, historical-situated conception of how the rhetorical activities of women and other marginalized people are a complex interweaving of alliance and antagonism, of free choice…

Discusses possible reasons why Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat" does not go over well with students or the author's colleagues: (1) students cannot identify with the scenario of the story; (2) the story is a "guy" thing; (3) the teacher's enthusiasm kills the story; and (4) the story is intrinsically unteachable and dull. (RS)

The powerful pedagogy of experiential programming is used too often for entertainment, not education. So many people have participated in situations where the techniques have been misapplied, that they have become resistant to their life-changing powers. Experiential professionals should educate their clients to the potential of well-applied…

Examines the child protagonists of "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" as they move within their own culture. Concludes that what could be a novel of understanding and acceptance turns out to be a terrific adventure story, but rather typical in that any culture that is not the protagonist's own is dangerous and inferior. (SG)

Presents an examination of the metaphorical language used by President George Bush about educational reform, specifically with regard to "America 2000," his proclaimed education strategy for the nation and the major educational reform bill he sent to Congress. Concludes that his discourse did not come together to constitute a coherent,…

"Critical" sociology of education has abandoned equality of educational opportunity as an imperfect objective, recognising it as one fully compatible with the competitive ideology of liberalism and, in as much as it is not even realised, one that serves principally to sustain the myth of equality in an unequal society. In this article, the author…

In the years following Paulo Freire's death in May 1997, there has been no shortage of published material on his work. From brief tributes and biographical accounts to full-length critiques in academic journals and books, much has been written about this influential scholar and activist. Part of the explanation for this ongoing interest lies in…

Independent reviewer evaluations of the Ministry of Education (MoE) funded Principal Professional Learning Community (PPLC) programme for experienced principals in New Zealand (NZ) suggest a highly valued and strongly supportive programme. My own critique of the programme, against criteria for "strong" professional learning communities…

Background: When developing a domain-specific academic self-concept, students are not restricted to social comparisons; they may also make temporal or dimensional comparisons. Aims: The main purpose of this study was to examine whether these different types of comparison trigger paradoxical effects of praise and criticism in the sense described by…

In this paper, I reflect on the education that is being conducted in two Israeli schools, often held up as exemplary, that have the declared educational aim of cultivating tolerance and recognition of otherness. What is "going on" with those presumed to be the primary beneficiaries (the children studying at these schools) of an…

This article is concerned with the founding purposes and justification of natural science in the statutory school curriculum. It offers a critique of the strand of argument and the proposals for reform which have developed after the report "Beyond 2000" focused on a particular usage of the term "scientific literacy". Two lines of argument are…

This paper outlines a case for the reconfiguration of the public sphere as discursive space, arguing that such a reconfiguration better enables investigations into public debates on education. The paper focuses on one such investigation, which studied one newspaper's reporting of a review of the school curriculum in Queensland, Australia. It…

Educational theorists should engage more deeply with normative religious traditions because people often consult their traditions for guidance about education. Projects that work within such traditions, however, often seem irrelevant or irrational to those on the outside. In contrast, I argue that there are at least three intellectually…

This issue introduces a new feature to appear regularly in "History of Education". A compelling aspect of education history and one that is drawing new writers and readers in the field is the increasing diversity of sources on which education historians draw. New forms of admissible evidence challenge us to adopt different approaches to…

HRD evaluation models are recommended for use by organizations to improve decisions made about HRD interventions. However, the organizational decision-making literature has been virtually ignored by evaluation researchers. In this article, we review the organizational decision-making literature and critically review HRD evaluation research through…