A gathering at the Executive Mansion in Washington, D.C. of approximately fifty leaders from a wide range of major policy-making groups involved in the nation's education programs examine basic aspects of quality arts education, identify factors that hinder such an education for all citizens, and recommend strategies for overcoming obstacles.…

Criticizes the New Zealand approach to outdoor leadership, which relies on teaching risk assessment and management from manuals and checklists and which asserts that risk-management skills are transferable between risky sports. Suggests that sound outdoor practice involves more than "legal duty of care," and recommends reliance on…

The traditional pastoralism of American higher education has interfered with efforts to develop an urban mission for the university. In addition, current open-door metaphors of access, political trends, and media coverage are promulgating closed-door, wall-building rhetoric and policies. Now is the time to counter antiurban attitudes by reviving…

Since World War II, American higher education has cultivated a culture of skepticism and detachment rather than one of affirmation, and that the current sense of crisis in America is due more to the perception that we have developed than to objective reality. Paralleling this is an unprecedented capacity for thinking, communicating, and changing,…

Discusses the plight of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, and the University of the District of Columbia, both historically Black universities that are fighting for their existence due to declines in enrollment and funding and administrative problems. Individuals at each institution discuss the current crises and outlook for…

This follow-up study surveyed earlier winners of the St. Petersburg (Russia) mathematical Olympiad in 1991 (n=58) and 2001 (n=30). Findings are detailed concerning respondents' academic degrees, employment, publications, schools attended, and perceived quality of mathematical education. Respondents' views about education were conservative and…

Focuses on the problem of cultural stereotyping in work on intercultural communication. Describes recent interest in culture in relation to language learning and the problematic nature of the concept of culture. Concludes that Chinese attitudes toward academic study are diverse, and argues that culture is a contested area of discourse. (15…

Provides the results of a statewide survey of 600 registered voters in Washington state that focused on attitudes toward educational diversity. Found that nearly two-thirds of respondents agreed that colleges should prepare graduates to get along in a diverse population, and that more than half thought that every college student should have to…

Explores children's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in Sunderland (United Kingdom), Eastern Kentucky, and St. Petersburg (Russia) by surveying parental perspectives. States that findings from these three regions reinforce earlier findings about British and U.S. complacency and the more demanding nature of the Russian context. (BT)

Argues that the situation of adjunct instructors, particularly those who piece full-time employment from part-time appointments, is appalling and that there is responsibility to be meted out to all the various interests connected to the academy that benefit from it. Explores how adjunct instructors and graduate student can make decisions about…

Focus groups with 43 British preservice teachers preparing for the postcompulsory sector revealed their concerns about facilitating learning for "second-chance" students and some emancipatory and social justice ideals. However, they tended to express technicist ideas of teaching and constructions of "good" and "bad"…

To test the predictive utility of the theory of reasoned action, 110 oral surgeons completed a questionnaire regarding participation in continuing education. Multiple regression analysis showed that the theory accounted for over 41 percent of variance in intention to participate. Intention appeared controlled by attitude, determined by strength of…

Rebutting responses by Guglielmino, Long, and McCune to his earlier criticism of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale, Field reviews the effect of homogeneity in the scale's factor structure and of negatively phrased items and concludes that the scale does not measure readiness for self-directed learning. (SK)

Addresses the issue of pedagogical professionality. Analyzes the process of professionalization and the concomitant theories that have arisen in various categories of educational work. Maintains there is not an adequate definition of pedagogical professionality. Suggests a content-oriented definition based on the hermeneutics of educational…

College student interpretation of the messages conveyed by the formal examination process are discussed. It is proposed that while students will most often interpret the spaces, props, equipment, and people involved in examinations as they were intended, sometimes the message is misinterpreted or challenged, making it dysfunctional. (MSE)