A current movement in qualitative research is a preoccupation with representation of the "other" (Denzin and Lincoln 1994). Feminists, critical theorists and postmodernists have questioned the dominant, legitimized social order and remained sensitive to the multiple issues related to and emanating from power. This paper briefly reviews the…

Recent discussions of teaching composition in the context of cultural studies have begun to consider the condition of the writing subject in society, yet these discussions construct student-writer S(s)ubject(ivitie)s at the poles of modernist-identity and postmodern-difference binary opposition that is politically problematic. The identity of the…

This paper argues that case-based and problem-based approaches to teaching educational administration are inherently anchored in positivist notions of science. Both approaches are embedded in prepartitioned landscapes, or "metanarratives." The metanarrative world view rejects the premise that there is one way to view the discipline and…

Recent decades have brought to the fore a coalition of writers on education who identify themselves as postmodernists, a designation that encompasses such vaguely allied groups as critical educators, radical educators, feminists, postcolonialists, anti-imperialists, poststructuralists, postpositivists, and neo-Marxists. A common characteristic…

The gap between the theory of democracy and its practice is nowhere more evident than in the classroom, where the teachers charged with transmitting democratic values to the next generation of citizens can only repeat democracy's failures. Some people would like to separate liberalism from the concept of democracy, since they believe that the…

This paper asks whether postmodernist thought is helpful or harmful to education. It critiques postmodernist theory in both a favorable and critical light and studies the phenomenon within the context of historical and contemporary socioeconomic, cultural, and political developments. The author argues that postmodernism is best understood in…

A brief phenomenology of meaning and values must be addressed by any theory of adult learning and by any theory of lifelong learning. These phenomena are characterized essentially by process, change, and alteration. However, these processes, changes, and alterations are not linear, modular, or determinable and predictable. These phenomena are…

Journalistic practice in the United States has gone through a number of changes in recent history, much of it because of television. The significance of these changes might be better understood with a theory on the social function of news and its relationship to the postmodern culture. News is considered in some way as the ground material of…

Significant differences occur between the philosophies of the academic curriculum, the professors, and the students. Currently, curriculums tend to be predominately modern, while students prefer postmodern education theories. Academic institutions can respond to this cultural change by establishing integrated and interdisciplinary honors programs.…

This paper integrates several contemporary issues, all of which focus on the teaching of human developmental theories. These issues include postmodern thought, higher level thinking processes, introducting conceptual conflict and arousal, motivation, and integrating the writing process into the psychology curriculum. Each issue is briefly…

This paper suggests that teachers and curriculum planners should offer an overview of American fiction that presents the recurrent archetypes of American fiction and yet also deals with the unique aspects of individual works of fiction. The major pattern of experience in American fiction is explained as the transaction of the innocent self with…

This call for fundamental changes in the university makes the case that the modern university actively participates in the breakdown of human communities and the destruction of the natural world. The book suggests the way a new kind of university can strengthen human communities and repair the natural world. The chapters are: (1) "A Social History…

A discussion of language testing addresses three questions: why good test construction seems to be increasingly difficult; what forces are shaping the practice of test construction; and what lies ahead in testing. It is proposed that practitioners are constantly redefining what "good" tests are, and those who develop tests are facing greater and…

The work of English specialists is taking place in a changing context, exemplified in a fusion of elements from new technology, personal growth, and critical theory. Rather than replacing the old with the new, English specialists are incorporating the best of the past with the most interesting and productive pedagogical implications of the…

Elliot Eisner has sketched the outlines of the move toward plurality in educational research in an essay that embraces, perhaps unintentionally, a postmodern orientation that has the potential to disrupt the historically monolithic character of educational research. Eisner's discussion is expanded to suggest that qualitative research in…