Reports the findings of a study conducted to determine the influence of various dimensions of organizational structure (bureaucratic, collegial, political, symbolic, and systemic) on college student learning. Findings indicate that dimensions of the structure of the colleges and universities as organizations exert both positive and negative…

Notes a response to any discussion of trust is itself in danger of repeating the very problems that Helen Nicholson raises in her article "The Politics of Trust: Drama Education and the Ethics of Care" (2002). Agrees in part with the elaborations of her thesis, but admits to some serious hesitation regarding any discussion of trust as a guiding…

Identifies inaccuracies and distortions in the research supporting the No Child Left Behind legislation, as well as in government documents and the National Reading Panel "Summary Booklet." Offers alternatives to the limitations of the Reading First initiative through five major sections. Presents 12 recommendations regarding Reading…

Considers how critical texts confront difficult topics. Argues that students need to read, write, and talk about these relevant issues. Suggests that reading literature can be an ethical as well as an intellectual process, and as such it can assist adolescents in coping with their tumultuous lives. Focuses on Laurie Halse Anderson's novel "Speak."…

Comments on Fensham's (2002) suggestion that 'societal experts' are better situated than academic scientists to decide what knowledge is worth having. Suggests that Fensham's proposal lacks the educo-politics needed to counter the customary devious educo-politics expected from those who support the status quo, particularly some academic…

Explores the growth of positivism and its influence on freemasonry and popular education in France. Discusses its adoption as an educational reform ideology by the Radical Party and, through its conception of class harmony, its influence on the development of the welfare state. (Contains 20 references.) (SK)

Discusses the impact of the Treaty of Waitangi on the Maori people. Asks questions about whose reality is accepted as valid and whose voice is being heard. Addresses implications for adult and community education in New Zealand. (SK)

Gives an overview of the current socioliniguistic situation of the Sami language in Northern Scandinavia, focusing on the situation in North Norway in particular. Describes the historical development and discusses issues, problems, and practices relating to Sami language politics and planning in reaction to the use of this language in…

Recounts and analyzes how e-zines were used in first-year writing courses to enhance students' rhetorical sensitivity to considerations of audience. Concludes that through the use of e-zines, students, on their own initiative, began exploring ways to use writing to provoke an audience to consider alternative views, a project which encouraged some…

Analysis of educational reforms and policy debates in 1976, 1988, and 2001, including recent government working papers in England and Wales suggests that the two regions are now following different routes. In England, policy rhetoric emphasizes discourses of modernization and market forces; the Welsh paper is more allied to universal, free local…

Discusses the sudden unification of the systems of higher education in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), with the resulting assimilation by the former GDR of many of the problems of the FRG system. Suggests that more than 10 years after the reunification of Germany, it is time to bring about a reform…

A Czech emigre scholar reflects on his return to his homeland after the 1989 Velvet Revolution; as an advisor to the Czechoslovak Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports; and in general on the question of the influence of foreign (Western) advisors in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe undergoing transition. (EV)

Considers how translations of indigenous folktales form a large proportion of South African children's books. Notes that at first those who published them were influenced by Social Darwinism, and later the folktales played a role in promoting the ideology of apartheid, but they were mainly the product of white paternalism. Notes that the folktales…

Proposes that in addition to entertaining, film offers up subject positions; mobilizes desires; influences its audience unconsciously; and helps construct the landscape of American culture. Notes that film can provide a pedagogical tool for offering students alternative views of the world. Concludes that as a form of public pedagogy, film combines…

There are two approaches to multiculturalism in the college curriculum, the formally academic and the political. Few proponents of either have defined with precision what their multiculturalism would be in practice. The challenge is to describe the common culture while preserving integrity of cultures not yet part of traditional conformity. (MSE)