In the June "Kappan," Marc Tucker summarized the "Tough Choices" report, the sequel to a report issued in 1990 by a predecessor group, which attributed the nation's low productivity growth in the 1970s and 1980s to inadequate American schools. The authors critiqued it and charged Tucker with trying to stampede policy makers into adopting reckless…

This study examined how parents influence sex differences in young children's physical risk taking behaviors. Eighty three- and four-year old, mostly middle class and Caucasian children climbed across a five-foot high catwalk and walked across a three-foot high beam under their mother or father's supervision. Based on average preschooler gross…

This article identifies some discursive processes by which White, middle-class, native-English-speaking, U.S.-born college students draw on a monolingualist ideology and position themselves and others within a language-race-nationality matrix. These processes construct the speakers' Whiteness and nativeness in English as unmarked and normal; mark…

This paper has arisen from a concern that much recent policy-related research on markets displays misogynistic tendencies. In both the media and academic accounts it would appear as though the blame for social and educational inequalities can now be laid at the door of women--particularly middle-class mothers. Through examining competing…

This report presents the results of a study examining the effects of rapidly rising tuitions at the nation's "elite" private colleges and universities, and the impact on the enrollment of middle-income students. The paper traces the income background of Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) schools and shows how students from…

Brazil's education of its emerging middle class is compared in this paper with the U.S. community colleges' education of their middle and lower class constituency. First, introductory comments argue that, just as there are stratified technological levels within the labor market, levels of knowledge can also be distinguished, pointing to access to…

Children's socialization environments reflect cultural models of parenting. In particular, Euro-American and Chinese families have been described as following different socialization scripts. The present study assesses parenting behaviors as well as parenting ethnotheories with respect to three-month-old babies in middle-class families in Los…

This case study addresses a middle class family's role in their son's literacy development through an investigation of the socio-cultural practices that support his literacy acquisition. Rogoff's socio-cultural framework, which proposes three planes of analysis for observation of human development, is used for the analysis. The literacy practices…

This article reports on case study research of seven- and eight-year-old children's discourse about reading. The case studies were selected to provide classrooms in contrasting neighbourhoods within a white "working class" town in the North of England. Mixed methods were employed, but primarily the case studies were ethnographic in…

This paper draws on an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research project on men (aged 18-54) participating in pre-university access and foundation programs in four London further and higher education colleges. Men's educational choices and decisions are analysed and discussed within current policy debates about widening…

EDUCATORS ARE NOT ADEQUATELY FINDING WAYS TO DEAL WITH THE DISADVANTAGED IN AMERICA. THEY ASSUME THAT THEY MUST MAKE THE DISADVANTAGED CONFORM TO AND FUNCTION IN THE DOMINANT MIDDLE-CLASS SOCIETY. HOWEVER, WHILE THE MIDDLE CLASS SEEMS TO FAVOR A HOMOGENIZATION OF ALL CULTURES, SOME MINORITY CULTURES RESIST THIS PRESSURE AND FAVOR A SOCIETY IN…

Data from many governmental and nongovernmental sources are gathered to emphasize that many people now are kept out of college because of student charges, especially tuition; and that a major effort is needed to help reverse the trend toward higher student charges and lower enrollment rates. It is shown that the rate of full-time college…

Fiestaware, the brightly colored dinnerware first introduced in the United States in 1936, has been a cultural phenomenon from its inception. This paper seeks to explain the extraordinary popularity of Fiestaware and to understand the role the ware occupies in U.S. popular culture. Fiestaware achieved enormous success, in spite of its introduction…

The relationship of social class and racial prejudice to the home management skills of black Americans was the focus of this study. A questionnaire (a copy of which appears in an appendix) was used to interview a sample of 100 people divided into four subgroups: low social class blacks, low social class whites, middle social class blacks, and…

Assesses the relationship between the childrearing attitudes of 93 adult subjects and their perceptions of their parents' attitudes toward them during childhood and adolescence. Implications of the varying patterns for males vs. females and parents vs. nonparents are discussed. (SDH)