Examines teachers' perceptions of school politics in a southeastern state. Teachers cited numerous examples of principal favoritism related to hiring, promotion, appointments, termination, evaluation, and other practices and attributed principals' need for protection and control to several factors. Favoritism negatively affects teachers, often…

Examines two criticisms of the politics of collaborative learning. Argues that consensus can be a powerful instrument for students to generate differences, identify systems of authority that organize these differences, and transform the relations of power that determine who may speak and what counts as a meaningful statement. (MM)

The education reforms of the 1980s may best be viewed as a single national reform with state variations. A brief overview is presented of five state education reforms which are described and analyzed in this issue. (JD)

Using data from a study of the National Curriculum Physical Education for state schools in England and Wales, the paper examines how the political right has attempted to regulate and control the remaking of the National Curriculum and embed the principles of cultural restoration in the physical education curriculum. (SM)

Uses a semiotic reading of nonverbal communication as a way to comment on the ideologies of various cultural contexts. Suggests that the semiotic approach offers a method of "reading" the metatextual meanings surrounding nonverbal behavior. Finds that a reading of the political leaders of different cultures reveals the connection between…

Discusses some of the complex and complicated issues surrounding the controversies about political correctness (PC) and multiculturalism in literature for young people. Provides some historical context for the debates about PC and children's literature. Suggests that debates about PC and multiculturalism are part of a larger struggle over…

Describes how a journalism instructor/newspaper advisor and her students fought a proposal (part of massive course cuts) to cancel a national-award-winning journalism program. Notes early warning signs, and suggests preventive measures to preserve programs. (SR)

Discusses changes that have taken place in children's theater in the United States during the past 25 years. Describes a few persistent problems that, despite striking and positive shifts, have attached themselves to the achievements and have refused to go away. (SR)

Discusses why a visiting authors' program is important. Offers suggestions on how to organize a visiting authors' program. Notes also the political realities of such programs. (SR)

Argues that the pursuit of success and stability, as conventionally measured, may be the undoing of writing centers. Reviews the history of three groups now firmly established in the university (American Literature, literary theory, and composition studies) whose power and status were purchased at great price. (SR)

Explores the emancipatory and oppressive roles adult education plays in the gay community. Demonstrates that mainstream adult education reproduces heterocentric assumptions, social relations, and beliefs, disenfranchising gay discourse. (SK)

Reprints a 1986 article from this journal on the complexity of "broad brush" educational reforms such as merit pay for teachers. Updates the article with an Afterword commenting on the earlier piece. (SR)

Although most textbooks teach federal and state political concepts effectively, they do not adequately explain the most popular form of direct democracy--the elected school board. Some boards are including students as nonvoting members; others have made communication a priority. An upstate New York district includes "school boarding" in a…

Discusses two related topics affecting film studies as an institution: questions concerning certain paradigms of contemporary theory (poststructuralism in particular) as they relate to politics; and to a greater extent, the relationship of this latter issue to the institutionalization of film studies in the academy. (SR)

Describes pressures applied to the Department of Speech Communication at Iowa State University. Discusses the shifting and ambiguous relationships with upper administration, and the resulting dispersal of the department. (SR)