Far from being the lone voice for a new social order, Harold Rugg was one many educators throughout the United States who believed that education should offer more to the American way of life than graduating students with some form of common knowledge, but with little ability to effect necessary change. And in 1934, few Americans would disagree…

Relationship abuse is among the most challenging topics sexuality educators have to address in their classrooms. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, it is important to allow time for content (which is to be provided in a subsequent session) as well as an exploration of one's own values and beliefs. This full-session activity is designed to…

Teaching about intersecting, fluid and historically contingent identities has been taken up extensively within the sociology of race, class and gender and women's studies. Oddly, the case of Jewish women has been virtually left out of this robust literature. This article explores the challenges raised through teaching the course "Jewish Women in…

During the Vietnam War, and the years following the conflict, history teachers were often hesitant to examine the war in the classroom for a variety of reasons. This article explores some of the factors that prohibited the effective teaching of the Vietnam War. Implications regarding how these inhibiting factors might affect teaching about the…

This paper examines the shifting nature of Further Education (FE) professionalism through the lenses of the Transforming Learning Cultures in FE (TLC) project. Despite over a decade of market and managerial reform professionalism in FE remains an elusive and paradoxical concept. With some notable exceptions there exists little official data or…

Background Context: There has been much recent discussion on the role of spirituality in higher education, and much emphasis in the past 20 years on the importance of attending to diversity and equity concerns, though for the most part these discussions have been separate. This paper takes up the suggestion of scholars such as Barbara Wallace who…

This article presents a learning cycle with the aim of helping students understand the evidentiary basis of scientific claims. Students consider data and interpretations as used to support contradictory views in the debate surrounding the causal relationship between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).…

In a test-driven society such as ours, the reasons not to take on the time-consuming and controversial topic of critical literacy are many; however, this article hopes to convince educators at all levels that the benefits of engaging students in questioning, reflecting, and taking action are well worth the effort. The article begins with a…

Two teachers have brought gay and lesbian literature into their American literature courses at a large university near a major metropolitan area. The decision to introduce the works in traditional courses, rather than newly minted ones, was dictated by the university's fairly rigid institutional setting and the relative conservatism and timidity…

There is a paucity of research on racism in communication studies in spite of the fact that racism continues to be a social problem which plagues the United States. This paper reviews evidence which points to the existence of institutionalized racism. This evidence is further supported by Carl Rowan's (1996) "The Coming Race War In America" in…

One of the most interesting controversies in the theory of teaching composition--and one that has profound consequences for classroom practice--is the debate over "ideological" or "radical" pedagogy. In the minds of most mainstream Americans, an ideological education is associated with dictatorship and state control of…

One version of a first year seminar in rhetoric examines the President Kennedy assassination controversy as seen by several writers in a rhetorical framework that stresses the difference, particularly in regard to the writers' approaches to truth, in intellectual and imaginative discourses. The assignments, three major writing projects, introduce…

This paper is concerned with placing conflict resolution and nonviolent alternatives firmly at the center of peace education. A brief review of theoretical tendencies in peace education in Australia is offered, and how this is consonant with, and different from, what is actually taught in Australian schools. Some discussion also is given about the…

Homophobia is accepted and encouraged by society, particularly in the sterile world of academia which allows, promotes, and creates homophobia by not providing lesbian/gay specific texts, examples, assignments, and role models. Composition teachers can make the classroom a safer place for lesbian/gay students, teachers, texts, and issues by: (1)…

The debate over teaching evolution has once again reached a fever pitch in the United States. Earnest nineteenth-century clashes between scientific and religious worldviews have given way to the politically charged arguments of creation science and now intelligent design. The Web site of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE;…