Addresses questions about how old social causes get revived, and how small, politically insignificant interest groups mount viable campaigns against dominant political views. Examines the strategies of two multifaith religious coalitions in Ontario, Canada, that are gaining political ground by reframing traditional arguments for religious…

Strikes a new educational path through the politics of identity and multiculturalism by arguing for the need to equip young people with an understanding of how culture, race, and nation have been constructed. The paper discusses two multicultural and antiracist initiatives in Canada and examines the beliefs and politics of Simone Weil, Charles…

Based on the author's teaching/counseling experience, describes the micropolitics of race and privilege manifest in one elite independent school that threatened academically gifted African-American high school students' success. Privileged education must be reexamined before advocating it for students currently ill-served by public schools.…

Examines an exchange between the author's eighth-grade daughter and her teacher (regarding a writing assignment on the phrase "responsibility is freedom"). Discusses the political elements of reading found therein. Examines implications of these elements for the daughter, the teacher, the parent, and the school district. (SR)

Fighting against school failure has become a priority in Italy. This paper examines criteria for reorganizing the problem of school failure, and its incidence in Italy's primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools. Discusses some initiatives for fighting school failure that are contained in current legislation and pilot projects. (SM)

Asserts that the forces of globalization have overwhelmed the historical political-cultural mission of adult education today by focusing exclusively on productivity. States that world summits have resulted in declarations disabusing the ideas of profits above people, but the resulting policies have not reflected these. Urges adult educators to…

Examines mechanisms that influenced access to federal vocational programs in the pre-desegregation U.S. South. Explores how local political conditions affected training opportunities. Shows that access was shaped by racially segregated labor markets and that African Americans' access was shaped by the political dimension of the southern racial…

Examines answers supplied by 341 15- to 19-year-old Argentinian adolescents about their relationships with their parents. Argentinian findings coincide with findings from several developed countries. Parents are the most important persons in teenagers' lives. Although they disagree on issues involving school performance, timetables for outings,…

Argues that inquiring must be the dominant feature of education. Notes that traditional education has treated children's thinking and inquiring as of little pedagogical worth; yet education that prepares for the exercise of judgment rests upon teaching students to cultivate the thinking process. Argues that schools must accept responsibility for…

Contributes to rhetorical scholarship by exploring the rhetorical implications of presidential travel spectacles. Finds that travel spectacles enable administrations to marginalize verbal eloquence, visually simplify complex political issues, narratively interpret presidential agendas, synoptically reify presidential personae, and construct or…

Discusses the state of access to higher education among disenfranchised students, considering the systemic attack on economically impoverished students in higher education. Describes a group of students enrolled in the University of Minnesota General College under a pilot welfare reform program which was terminated abruptly for political reasons.…

Notes that the debate about required composition courses like Basic Writing has taken a new urgency, given recent decisions and inclinations to eliminate such courses at four-year colleges in City University of New York and elsewhere. Revisits that debate (some of which occurred in this same journal in the 1990s) and argues for movement beyond a…

Explores and problematizes the author's colleague's teaching performance, using the colleague's own performance theory and an Initiation-Reply-Evaluation (IRE) framework of pedagogical principles. Reconsiders the author's own assumptions about IRE and teaching. Finds the colleague's teaching to be a model of what political struggle should enable:…

Evaluates a three-year pilot project in mainstreaming basic writers at the City University of New York. Suggests that the social and political contexts of a project need to be taken into account in the earliest stages of evaluation. Claims the empirically verifiable account that researchers sought was compromised by the socio-political forces…

Drawing on insights from Albanian teacher educators and government representatives, this paper examines processes of change and types of reform (modernization, structural, and systemic reform) in Albania. It also discusses the initial implementation of one of the reforms, which was directed at the balance and role of school experiences, analyzing…