Spanning the years 1932-1982, this book details the history of the National Conference on Research in English (NCRE) in terms of members' activities, research directions taken, and accomplishments. The first section of the book, "The Founding," reviews the initial efforts to establish the organization; examines its early programs;…

An overview of the academic profession in America is presented, and many of the studies of this topic are categorized into a coherent framework. A search of the research literature on college and university faculty appearing in the post-World War II period was conducted. The two preemptive sources of knowledge about faculty were doctoral…

The current state of social psychology is assessed in light of its historical and social context. The discipline is viewed as a social system, and it is argued that the properties of this system have influenced the research techniques, substantive content, and theories of contemporary social psychology. (Author/RD)

The authors trace and critique various thrusts operative in British educational sociology since its beginnings in the 1950s: structural functionalism, school-level analysis, the interactionalist "New Directions" approach, and the Neo-Marxist perspective. They also comment on the place of educational sociology in teacher training. (SJL)

Reflects on researchers' conceptions about psychological growth over the last century. Discusses five themes relevant to developmental research: (1) the selection of phenomena for study; (2) the use of continuous dimensions or categories to describe children's characteristics; (3) continuity versus discontinuity in development; (4) the influence…

This report on the background and motives of Welsh volunteers in the British Brigade during the Spanish Civil War demonstrates how free-ranging discussions with the volunteers, their families, and friends provide a rich oral history despite the lack of written accounts of that period. (AM)

In the 1930s, the best known and most heavily funded effort to reform American secondary education was the Eight Year Study. This article examines the study not only for what its results showed but also because it prompted a debate over curriculum innovation that is still relevant. (Author/SJL)

The author identifies these as the most important changes in general educational theory over the last 25 years: a movement toward cross-disciplinary perspectives, a widening of perspective to include the social context of schooling, and a swing from positivist research methods toward more qualitative and holistic approaches. (SJL)

Earlier generations of developmental psychologists, seeking to make their discipline a normative science, stressed experimental study of children, method over subject matter, and fundamental laws underlying behavior. By contrast, the generation of psychologists after 1970 is inclusive in its research methodology, concerned with the connection…

Reviews the controversy surrounding the work of Cyril Burt on the genetic contribution to mental ability and argues that the disparagement of Burt's results provides one of the most extraordinary cases of counterfeit charges in academic psychology. Suggesting genetic differences in brain size or intellect is politically incorrect. (SLD)

The history of the study of human mental ability is an example of the dialectic in social science between those who interpret data within the framework of existing social inequities and those who look for perspectives that might eventually dissolve inequities. The dedication of Henry Herbert Goddard to a belief in the scientific proof of…

The use of promotional films by the Hampton (Virginia) Normal and Agricultural Institute between 1900 and 1917 is examined in this paper. The paper first traces the problems faced by Hampton and other private southern black schools during the early twentieth century and describes Hampton's extensive promotional efforts designed both to improve…

The many methodological contributions of Raymond B. Cattell to multivariate analysis are discussed in terms of contemporary issues in structural equation modeling. His factor analytic approach is compared with current modeling practices. A critical evaluation finds much of Cattell's work still innovative, technically advanced, and valuable to…

In order to give a draft picture of the church- and school-based literacy campaigns in Sweden, some of the historical sources, problems, methods, and preliminary results from a broad research project on the two campaigns are discussed. (IAH)

This paper provides a biographical study of A. Robert Rogers, Dean of the School of Library Science at Kent State University from 1977-1985, with a focus on his writing, teaching, and study of international librarianship. The following sources of information were used: (1) materials kept in the Department of Special Collections and Archives in the…