Designed to determine how children acquire beliefs about institutional roles and authority associated with them, this study focused on schools and the teacher's role. Students from France and Scotland aged between 7 and 11 years with contrasting socioeconomic backgrounds were interviewed, and class and national differences in beliefs were found.…

This book compiles abstracts of presentations from a symposium held in honor of Dr. Bernard Spodek, a leading scholar in early childhood education, on the occasion of his retirement. Topics addressed are as follows: (1) culture in early childhood curriculum; (2) developmental and cultural appropriateness; (3) kindergarten in Japan; (4) pressure…

The purpose of this bulletin is to present a selected working bibliography of practical usefulness to students and others interested in the education of native and minority groups. The field is a relatively new one in American education, and so far as information is available, this is the first effort to formulate a bibliography concerned with it.…

Implementation of educational innovations is considered from three policy perspectives: the political, the organizational, and the interactionist. In periods of educational decline, in terms of enrollments and expenditure, there is need to know how to support and encourage capacity building for change. (RL)

Describes a small school in the Ural mountains that has institutionalized an innovative pedagogical and administrative structure. The school has developed a close relationship with the parents and students and incorporated a great deal of local culture, folklore, and literature into its curriculum. Discusses the creation and implementation of…

Using the High School and Beyond Survey, explores the impact that 10 organizational features have on teachers' sense of efficacy, sense of community, and expectations of student performance in 353 public high schools. Finds that when background variables are controlled, school organizational features had a major influence on all three…

Reviews the following historical phases of the recent home school movement: (1) parents' contentions about public schools; (2) home school parents' confrontations with schools and the courts; (3) cooperation between public schools and home schools; and (4) consolidation of home schools. Introduces the other articles in this issue. (BJV)

The professional development school (PDS) movement may reflect a paradigm shift in clinical teacher education. By altering power and role relationships in preservice practicums, PDSs provide a way of overcoming conceptual and structural obstacles to student teacher learning in practicums. (IAH)

One of five articles on professional development schools in this theme issue. Describes the experiences of University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a collaborative, internship-based secondary teacher education program--Math English Science Technology Education Project (MESTEP)--and the university's collaboration with a high school science…

The national educational research agenda outlined in the National Academy of Education's report focuses on the following areas: (1) active learning over the lifespan; (2) assessment; (3) bolstering achievement of underserved, minority, and impoverished groups; (4) school organization; and (5) connection to teachers/teaching. Recommendations are…

Presents findings from this condensation of major studies of the differences among U.S., Chinese, and Japanese education. Explanations for the superior performance of Chinese and Japanese students are explored in the areas of home and parents, effort and ability, organization of schooling, and teachers and teaching. (SLD)

Offers 10 suggestions for organizing the flow of a family day care program's day. (BB)

Reports on a study of the impact of attending restructured schools on the achievement and engagement of 8,845 eighth graders from public, Catholic, and independent schools. Finds modest, but consistently positive, effects on both achievement and engagement. Also finds that students attending smaller schools demonstrated more academic achievement.…

Explores teachers' reactions to changing management cultures and argues for a complex reading of their responses. Utilizes data from several ethnographic studies that examined primary school teachers' reactions to the fact that the strictures and obligations of their vocation have become more professional. Many older teachers left whereas younger…

Presents a theory of workplace control in American high schools based on the assumption that school workplaces contain potent systems that control the everyday work attitudes and conduct of teachers. Posits the formation of teacher types, each comprising distinctive attitudes toward work, as the link between control systems and behavior. (MJP)