Addresses a "critical" or "reflective" visual literacy. Situates visual representations and their interpretation (the construction of meaning) within a context that raises questions about benefit and power. Explores four main topics: the image as text; analysis and meaning construction; visual literacy as a liberatory practice;…

Explores cynicism and its institutional and pedagogical impact on cultural studies composition by discussing how cynicism in contemporary emotion culture can be understood as an effect of the shifting emotional identifications in postmodernism, particularly in light of mass-mediated consciousness. Argues that it is through cultural studies'…

This volume reflects the impact of postmodern critical thinking on models of human service practice. It demonstrates the values of practice informed by critical theory but does not present adequate empirical support for its effectiveness and Stringer's model is not illustrated through a case study. (SLD)

The relationship between the philosophy, theory, and methods of different research paradigms is explored in this article. Specific theoretical perspectives, critical theory, postmodernism, critical race theory, queer theory, and feminist theory are explored in the context of their political values and implications for qualitative research.…

Investigates how disability is discovered, constructed, and performed in a certain type of cultural practice, that is, in a postmodern, undergraduate college classroom. Argues that the implementation of an autobiographical pedagogy must extend beyond the dimensions of race, gender, and sexuality and must include disabled persons in these…

Urges a repositioning of higher education away from postmodernist mindsets. Proposes that the future of mass higher education lies in attracting adults from a wide social spectrum and in defending the public nature of truth and values. (Contains 56 references.) (Author/SK)

Explores the inescapable, irreconcilable role of virtue in rhetoric and writing instruction and the (im)possibilities of ethical response to student writing. Considers the place of values instruction in contemporary education by examining its historical precedents in classical rhetoric and its relationship to the liberatory, multicultural mission…

Discusses transformatory change in consciousness and the limitations of modern Western curricula. Considers hierarchicality, participating consciousness, a global systemic view, temporal balance, and reflexive awareness as aspects of a nonreductionist paradigm. Suggests that the rationalism now characterizing curriculum discourse inhibits a world…

A Polish youngster's school, as "read" in her imaginative composition about classroom anarchy, bears many characteristics of a postmodern institution, with its power relations permeating everyday practices, its rationalism undergoing subversive critique, and its mixed message of subjugation and emancipation. An 11-year-old's "ritual…

Documents and criticizes the idealism and relativism of the materiality of discourse idea in postmodernist and post-Marxist rhetorical theories. Illustrates the critique with an extended critical analysis of Persian Gulf War news coverage, and defends materialist ideology criticism as an alternative to a critical rhetoric that has become…

Presents a postmodern discussion of the playful recreation of Chinese New Year "cards" by Chinese students using the Internet. Signifies the increasingly popular practice of incorporating festive symbols from other cultures into electronic greetings. Notes that users must often install Chinese-language software before these encoded texts…

Postmodernism is an articulation of a tension between contingency and commitment. Since this commitment is typically pedagogical, education has a strong reason to stay within postmodernism. The paper reviews the feminist debate on postmodernism, examining how postmodernism contributes to the emancipatory interests of education. The public-private…

Offers a perspective on the scholarly activity of Neil Postman, a major analyst and critic of contemporary education, politics, and culture. Offers insights into Postman's perspective on media and technology by framing it as a theory of the postmodern. (SR)

In Jungian terms, society is shifting from modern "Promethean" to a postmodern "Hermetic" culture, in which the narrowness of adult education ideology is disabling. Instead of polarities, ideology and methodology should be pluralistic, combining the qualities of a number of mythological archetypes. (SK)

Examines authenticity in the study of communication by tracing its treatment by recent social theory, particularly Critical Theory. Suggests that the search for the authentic has been a historically grounded intellectual concern. Concludes by acknowledging the need of Critical Theory to address the challenges of postmodern thought and the…