Discusses cultural wars in academic disciplines and among populations within college and university campuses. Examines multiculturalism and the curriculum, ranging from reform of basic curricular requirements to the persistence of ethnic and gender studies programs, and considers opportunities for effecting change in academic libraries.…

Explores the status of the librarian in the Canadian university. Discusses the lack of peer status; the value of cross-national research; patterns of university restructuring, including libraries and librarians as targets for reductions; and the possibility of establishing Discipline Research Librarians, or Research Bibliographers, to improve…

The structure that best develops a discipline's core has a high density of positive network ties within the discipline, relatively weak subdivisions, and a lower density of ties to outside institutions. Theoretical insights about interactional dynamics that weaken this optimal disciplinary structure may help sociologists deal productively with…

Education developments in science and engineering can be based on a reasonable set of elements, such as knowledge, know-how, skills, and understanding. The basic assets of graduating students must be transportable between disciplines and countries in view of dynamics and the international nature of modern industry. The success of the ERASMUS…

Adapted the scoring matrix, a method used to facilitate community participation in planning and monitoring development projects, to a university course in participatory resource management. Suggests the matrix is an example of how discipline-specific tools can be adapted to serve the dual purposes of promoting experiential learning of…

Muses on reasons why the education community seems to have an inherent inferiority complex when compared to other university fields. Contends that this is the result of refusing to adopt the position that educators must engage the need to control and ethically use the power that comes with their knowledge. (DSK)

The reception of some major psychological theories in the field of education is traced in this discussion of educational psychology as an applied discipline. The focus is on aspects of development and learning. Educational psychology may be best thought of as an interdisciplinary field of research than as a subdiscipline of either education or…

Describes action research conducted at two universities in the United Kingdom to discover how students learn in different disciplines. Results of questionnaires and focus group interviews are presented that discuss how learning takes place; different learning outcome demands of different disciplines; and differences in knowledge structures,…

Examines the view that research writing is a modest, self-effacing task that involves authors eradicating themselves from their texts to gain acceptance for their work. Focuses on use of self-citation and exclusive first person pronouns in a corpus of 240 research articles in eight disciplines. Through analysis of texts and interviews with…

Reviews the problems of benevolent misdiagnosis in the mental health professions. Misrepresentation of research or diagnosis now has the potential to affect the health care services delivered to large segments of the population. Data that will be the basis of new delivery systems must be accurate and responsible. (SLD)

Examines the scope of African American studies, its origins, and its development and autonomy as an academic discipline. The meaning of Afrocentrism, the concept of centrism that lies at the core of the discipline of African American studies, the Africalogical method of criticism, and what constitutes the mission of Africalogy are discussed. (GR)

Considers Ernest Boyer's 1990 declaration that the work of the university centers on four areas of scholarship (discovery, teaching, application, integration) in the context of recent social and educational changes, concluding that while the four areas of scholarship are still necessary, they are no longer sufficient for survival and development…

Reviews surveys concerning the attitudes of San Marcos (Texas) school children toward geography in 1983 and 1993. Shows that they generally ranked geography low on their list of favorite subjects; however, discerns statistically significant improvement in the popularity of geography over the decade, tentatively associated with more active learning…

Describes a medieval history access course at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) in which non-traditional teaching methods were used, specifically collaborative group work and embedded rhetorical training for essay writing. Questions the idea of discipline-specific pedagogical practice. (Author/DB)

Sketches the institutionalization of the school subject pedagogics, the situation of the didactics of pedagogical instruction, a short survey on the recent differentiation of the field of discourse. Reports on studies that are characteristic of recent discussion on pedagogical didactics. (CMK)