This brief address was given by a Australian dairy farmer, who served as a parent representative on a committee of teachers at a local school. The speaker draws his observations from his experience "bridging the gap" between teachers' understanding of school operations and the views of rural parents. Rural values, or "peasant…

Researh in motivation and learning has demonstrated that differences in instructional practice influence the salience of learning and ability goals for students. This study considers several factors that may influence teachers' emphases in instructional practices--teachers' pedagogical beliefs, their achievement goals for their students, and their…

Discussion of the role of non-Russian languages in the Soviet Union (USSR) focuses on the history of ethnic group languages and language policy in Estonia since the collapse of totalitarianism. A historical overview of Soviet Union language policy is offered, with attention given to the ideological goals influencing policy, and their realization…

A case study was done of Central Park East Elementary School (CPE 1), in New York City, a school with a reputation for extraordinary work with students and their families in a student-centered environment. The study includes an overview of CPE 1 culled from the school's descriptions of itself and other public documents; a descriptive narrative of…

Efforts to reform and improve the nation's schools have encountered serious roadblocks, often in the form of parental opposition. This document describes findings of a study that investigated parents' expectations of America's public schools. Data were derived from a national telephone survey with over 1,100 Americans, including 550 White,…

The papers in this volume begin with an editorial by Patricia L. Stuhr, "The Changing Faces of the Arts and Learning Research SIG and Its Journal". It is followed by 11 articles: (1) "Novice-Expert Differences in Understanding and Misunderstanding Art and Their Implications for Student Assessment in Art Education" (Judith Smith…

The Women in the Workplace Vocational Education Project, an 8-hour workshop, was presented in fall 1986 to 15 women between 17 and 25 years of age who were enrolled at either Elizabethtown (Kentucky) Community College or Vocational School and who were at or below the poverty level. A spring 1987 workshop, "Sex Bias in the Workplace,"…

This paper identifies three different historical perspectives about citizens with developmental disabilities and their relationships to their fellow citizens and to state and federal governments. These perspectives are compared and contrasted as a basis for thinking about the future. A chart illustrates the perspectives of a distant past, a more…

The core civic ideas that helped form a consensus around a United States Constitution in 1787 are the seeds that produce the civic culture of the United States today. Constitutionalism, republicanism, communitarianism, and classical liberalism were related ideas at the center of U.S. civic culture in the 1780s. Two hundred years later, with some…

The paper examines the relationship between teacher empowerment and educational philosophy, noting questions regarding the corporate and technological demands on schools as well as questions about liberal education, cultural literacy, pluralism, perspectivism, and multiplicity. It stresses the importance of teachers reflecting on their work in…

The economic decline of rural communities and the accompanying trend toward rural school consolidation are intimately connected to the American liberal and individualist world view. In general, liberalism has meant having a representative government, an economic arrangement that maximizes the freedom of accumulation, and an educational system that…

A study was conducted to determine the relationship of work orientation, as measured by a 45-statement instrument, to family background and socioeconomic condition, work history of the student, and participation in school-supervised work experience. The study used data collected as part of a longitudinal study of 1,063 high school students in 1989…

This book offers a model of value sharing in organizations concerned with Catholic higher education and backs it up with statistics and narrative. It summarizes the core values of five Catholic colleges and universities (Barry University, Trinity College, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Santa Clara University, DePaul University) as found in the…

In the tradition of critical ethnography, this study demonstrates the development and use of a structured approach to the qualitative study of an urban alternative public high school. It responds to the need for research that begins to connect the language of possibility in critical educational theory with an emerging language of possibility in…

Being an African-American parent in White America is an issue that becomes complicated simply by the difference in cultural values and traditions passed down to African-American families that are generally contradictory to contemporary White American culture. This guide addresses a number of issues for African-American parents in the following…