This paper introduces the reader to think tanks, institutes, foundations, and their roles in shaping U.S. educational policy. Quite simply, think tanks, institutes, and foundations are nonprofit organizations that both produce and rely on research and expertise to aggressively influence the public, political leaders, and policy. Via an analysis of…

Little of the scholarship that focuses on the professional lives of women faculty addresses how faculty women mobilize or how and with whom they create networks to work in academe. Women now make up more than 50% of the undergraduate student population, and just over 40% of Ph.D. recipients are women. Many campuses house women's centers and other…

Although there is abundant theoretical matter concerning the critical role that various interpretive communities play in making meanings of literary texts, most scholars do not take up the matter of the composition of these interpretive groups in their university classrooms. How may the interpretive strategies of groups of students change over the…

A speech in response to an individual's death is by nature a recurring form of rhetoric. Based on audience expectations and needs, certain generic aspects have emerged to characterize eulogies. The funeral oration has generally been recognized as a form of epideictic rhetoric. Modern scholars have generally broadly defined epideictic rhetoric to…

Intended as an accessible resource for students researching the Greek dramatist Sophocles (born 496 B.C.), this collection of essays contains an in-depth biography of the playwright and writings from a wide variety of sources. The essays are edited to accommodate the reading and comprehension levels of young adults; each essay is introduced by a…

Literature seeks to recover the "facts" and fill in the gaps of knowledge as it enunciates the truth of existence. Nowhere is this more apparent than in African-American literature, where history and art are inextricably linked, where the personal truly is political. Throughout the history of the United States, the institution of slavery…

The Christian Identity movement is a religious movement derived from the premise that the white race is the offspring of the lost tribes of Israel and that whites, not Jews, are God's chosen people. The "seedline doctrine," which is taught by Pastor Dan Gayman, a former high school principal, and other preachers of the Christian Identity…

This issue brief from the National Association of Child Advocates provides background on traditional child protective services (CPS) systems, including weaknesses of the traditional CPS model, and describes the underlying philosophy and practical application of the CPS reform models that are being implemented in a number of states. Key elements of…

In this lesson, grade 6-8 students analyze a variety of poets and their poetry by reading and listening to their work. Students then use information gathered from Internet resources to select a favorite poet and perform one of their poems for the class. During the four 30-minute and five 20-minute sessions, students will: analyze a variety of…

This book on educational standards describes how standards create more harm than good, and it takes to task the pro-standards movement. The volume opens with a discussion of what is wrong with standards, claiming that the push for standards generally results in long lists of facts that are freighted with cultural baggage and are typically the…

When teachers try to dramatically change the "pedagogic contract" - the prevailing classroom norms - their efforts are frequently met by resistance from students. My central question is: what do students' and teachers' voices tell us about breaking the pedagogic contract through the use of creative/imaginative writing in science classrooms? This…

As a glossary of basic terms for literature study and interpretation, this book draws on recent developments in literary theory and emphasizes the role of reading practices in the reproduction of literary meanings. As well as introducing new terminology relevant to this emphasis, the glossary reviews many traditional terms, such as…

Describes an introductory poetry course in which a variety of specific facts regarding periods, artists, and masterpiece works were used as examples to facilitate development of student skills in close reading, analysis, evaluation, and criticism. (TO)

Urges caution in adopting the literary response model developed by the Center for Psychological Study of the Arts. (See also CS 700 446) (RB)

The way in which historians have seen the American Indians of colonial Pennsylvania is representative of many of the problems and trends in the historical study of Indians in all areas of North America. (FF)