This guide is a combination of very up-to-date English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) standards and curricula text and a radical, community organization and action guidebook. The guide's aim is to help people learn English so that they can participate actively in American democracy and to assert their rights and extract a larger share of power and…

Direct payment of teacher salaries by the federal government is one means of achieving uniform financial support of education, local tax relief, resolution of many professional problems and improvement of quality instruction and instructors. No change is proposed in local control of hiring, firing, seniority, tenure, or merit practices. (Author)

Describes an audiovisual literacy educational method (Fotomontaje), based on the consciousness-raising technique of Paulo Freire called "conscientization," used in Lima, Peru, slum communities to develop social consciousness and commitment to social justice. Questions using consciousness-raising for such participants and suggests…

Defines one aspect of liberation theology as emphasizing its own particular social experiences to question universal claims of theology and to unmask oppressive particularities of those universal claims. Argues that religious educators can answer the culture of disbelief with calls for greater tolerance and understanding of diverse belief systems.…

Traces the growing concern and sporadic efforts to address problems of exploitation, education, and neglect among child performers in turn-of-the-century England. Victorian social reformers and the press made the working conditions of English theater children a public issue. True reform, however, only occurred later. (MJP)

Examines educational resistance to nature study, focusing on the subtle resistance evident in the vicarious approach that limits nature study to books and videos, while ignoring the sensory richness and kinship developed through direct connection with the natural world. Suggests that environmental science, citizen education, inquiry learning,…

Describes two computer communication projects: PeaceNet, devoted to peace issues; and Public Data Access, devoted to making U.S. government information more broadly available. Discusses the potential of new technology (computer communication) for grass-roots political movements. (SR)

Argues that the belief that black English is bad English or ungrammatical is inconsistent with empirical linguistic evidence to the contrary and discusses some of the sociolinguistic, educational, and political aspects of the debate over the role of black English in educational settings. (34 references) (MDM)

Examines why a literature-based multicultural curriculum failed to engage students from a predominately white, working-class middle school in the South in discussing racism. Results from an ethnographic study indicate that this failure was primarily the result of dominant mainstream beliefs embedded in the institution of schooling and in the…

Examines educational policy formation in Sao Paulo, 1989-92, under the leadership of Paulo Freire. Explores theoretical and policy controversies surrounding the diminishing role of the state in Latin America, the impact of social movements on educational policymaking, and the limits and possibilities of democratic-socialist perspectives in…

Reviews data on child poverty worldwide, providing statistics on 20 poverty-related problems. Examines effects of economic factors (i.e., unemployment, wage stagnation, inflation, and internal migration) and political policies (i.e., military spending over health and education) on child well-being, arguing that families and children themselves…

Describes a middle school program that focuses on creating educational experiences that foster life-long learning for all students. The Discovery Program provides a range of differentiated teaching/learning activities, including research competitions, language-arts studies, social-action projects, art exhibitions, mathematics projects, and…

Despite the profession's historic commitment to poor people, little advanced social work practice is reported in work-enhancement programs. Outlines employment-related needs among poor people in the context of economic and policy change. Discusses successful work programs. (Author/JDM)

Shares the responses of seven urban, male, African-American fifth graders to contemporary realistic fiction, discussing how the tying of this literature to the events in the boys' lives had the potential to move them toward social action. The paper examines the following: literature as a catalyst, reader responses to texts, critical literacy, and…

Focuses on the influence of language on economic, social, and political change in postrevolutionary Cuba. One of Cuba's primary postrevolutionary objectives was the eradication of illiteracy. Linguistic policies with respect to both Spanish and foreign languages were seen as a means to build human value and to establish a strong base for future…