Considers how the creativity of individuals can best benefit the whole, without making others feel disenfranchised. Presents four assumptions addressing fragmentation, the reason for fragmentation, the role of the chair regarding fragmentation, and the role of individuality in a small vs. large institution. Notes the author's department has…

Using case study findings from two United Kingdom universities, explores the contention that the introduction of a devolved, formula-based system of resource allocation reduces the influence of strong forces within the institution. Found that micro-political activity and sub-unit power remain significant influences within such systems. Offers…

Discusses the power of petty politics to trump constructive leadership and thwart educational reform, using as an example the abrupt resignation of Philadelphia's school superintendent in the summer of 2000. Despite the fact that this superintendent was making significant accomplishments, he did not follow the path deemed best by local…

Describes the first college for home-schooled students, which requires that students adhere to a strict social code (including attendance at daily chapel services, a ban on alcohol, and limits on casual dating). An apprenticeship program during the junior and senior years revolves around writing policy papers on issues raised by politicians.…

Examines the golden age of American education, describing the historical work of the old school and the revisionist critique that followed, both of which failed to address the complexities of American education. Political discussions of education are natural, but political analyses that are disengaged from broader moral, ethical, and transcendent…

Notes that for most of the past decade, there have been rumblings that the National Reading Conference, the parent organization of this journal, should be involved in influencing educational policy making, but these discussions often seem grounded in one or more unwarranted assumptions. Challenges these assumptions through the use of descriptive…

Takes up Geneva Smitherman's call to renew the fight for language rights by situating the theory of language rights in composition studies in a brief history of rights rhetoric in the United States. Locates the language rights rhetoric of composition studies within larger struggles over the rhetoric of rights in public policy and perception and…

Addresses the questions of how literacy is defined, by whom, and for what purposes, using critical literacy as a lens of analysis. Considers the "normative assumptions" that are present within the language arts curriculum. Suggests that any methodological approach to what it means to be a "literate" person is based on an…

Traces the rationale for removing Sustained Silent Reading from reading instruction as implied by the Reading First initiative. Suggests that no one is accepting responsibility. Notes the authors are apparently out of step with their teaching because they recommend and use many practices that have not been validated by studies conducted by the…

Considers how silence has positive as well as negative attributes, and composition teachers can help students understand and use its aesthetic, ethical, and political resources in their personal writing. Notes that approaching silence in these ways can establish new alignments among the expressivist, psychoanalytical, and social discourses that…

The discourse of the Learning Society has a vocationalist/managerialist thrust, is oriented toward the global economy, and is market driven. A counter-discourse that rejects emphasis on "performativity" could clash with postmodernist objections to master narratives. (SK)

Mathematics education at every level is increasingly influenced by powerful bureaucrats rather than by the profession. Suggests that mathematical scientists should try to understand the political forces affecting mathematics education for the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) study on teaching and learning mathematics at…

Reviews "History and Educational Policy Making," which includes several essays written over time by one author. The general theme is history informing policy decisions. The essays provide capsule histories of particular federal programs, demonstrating how politics have intervened to dictate policies inconsistent with history or research results.…

Although the nature of knowledge is contested, "official knowledge" is promulgated in national standards such as New Zealand's National Qualifications Framework. Autonomy and accountability are used in the politics of official knowledge by competing interests. Critical theory provides guidelines for adult educators to deal with the…

Presents, in the form of a fable, a challenge to readers to expose the Emperor's new education as being more about getting rid of public education than about literacy. (SR)