The author reviews a book that explores the liberal assumptions about progress, freedom, technology, and equality that underlay the policy of liberal, twentieth-century educational reformers. (GW)

Describes the historical process through which certain social meanings became particularly school meanings and a study of kindergarten experience that documents the potency and staying power of these particular social meanings, and raises the question of whether piecemeal reforms can succeed. (Author/MLF)

The dominance of curriculum evaluation based on achievement test results is challenged, and a set of strategies that are more responsive to the socioeconomic reality of schools are suggested. Because evaluation places value on an outcome, alternative methods can be developed only by including ideological and economic "functions" of the…

Discusses the need to relate an understanding of the experience of schooling to the cultural and economic conditions of society. The work of Paul Willis is used to exemplify the processes by which a dominant class establishes ideological hegemony and legitimates and maintains an existing social order. (Author/MLF)

Shows how encounters with unresponsive local school districts can lead parents to affiliate with conservative movements, describing cultural assumptions and fears underpinning the cultural and religious right, examining a textbook controversy that led to the formation of rightist sentiments, and discussing attempts at countering the growth of…