Targets key areas in need of reform in the Soviet educational system: (1) career guidance for students in line with social production needs; (2) greater parent-teacher cooperation; (3) student self-government and decision-making power in schools; and (4) creative teaching methods. Notes how bureaucratic resistance to change has hampered reform…

Discussion of FLES (foreign languages in elementary schools) programs in the United States looks at their history, current status within and outside the United States, important FLES issues (long-range planning, teacher qualifications and recruitment, delivery models, mandated programs, research needs, teaching methods) and importance to the…

Analyzes and compares two contemporary curricular responses to the need to redefine what constitutes "the American character:" (1) multicultural education; and (2) global education. Uses four cultural ethics (democracy, equal opportunity, fraternity, and consent) to establish a cultural mindset and to provide a lens through which both…

Chapter three ("Development of the Theory of Upbringing and Instruction in the Period of Completing the Socialist Reconstruction of the National Economy and the Building of Socialism in the USSR) from Ele Monoszon's "The Establishment and Development of Soviet Pedagogy" is excerpted. Examines the issue of Communist child…

Traces the development of teacher certification throughout the century, and discusses the current alternative certification movement. The discussion provides a context for the remaining articles of this special issue. These studies indicate the feasibility of alternative certification in teacher recruitment. (SLD)

Maintains that computers have provided a creative device for image creation and enhancement for visual arts educators. Traces the development of educational technology in art education from the 1940s to the present. Describes a four-part "visualization center" that will be the center for art education programs in the future. (CFR)

Because problems are studied more often than possibilities, educators tend to report bad news. Some studies that bring good news for education are reviewed in a call for more balanced reporting and the assertion that trust and confidence are the basics in effective education. (SLD)

Profiles music scholar Charles L. Seeger and his contribution to U.S. musical life. Seeger played a significant role in introducing vernacular music to schools, extending the definition of U.S. music in the curriculum, presenting music as a cultural subject, and promoting musical diversity in the classroom. (MJP)

The history of distance education, traditionally a peripheral university activity, is chronicled, beginning with the advent of the British Open University and through developments in technology that are rapidly blurring the distinction between traditional and distance education. Distance-learning techniques are described that will change students'…

In this essay, the author explains not only how she came to write her classic text "Literature as Exploration," but she also describes the path of her own professional journey. A conviction about the difference between "literary" and other reading led to her writing "Literature as Exploration" in the first place. In this book, she argued that…

Hong Kong's economic fortunes have always depended on trade with China. By the mid-1980s, the colonial higher education system was catering to only 6% of the 18-20 age cohort and there was a backlog of adult learners who had been denied access. The Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong was launched in 1989 to overwhelming public response. It…

This article examines open-distance learning in Nigeria and the role it plays in personal, community, and national development. Following consultation with existing literature, a qualitative survey was conducted using questionnaires, interviews, and participatory experience. Although particular emphasis was paid to the Nigerian context, the…

This article examines the need for preparing highly qualified teachers and the challenge of preparing future generations of citizens. Examining the historical antecedents of "highly qualified," beginning with the 1954 "Brown" decision, I ground my position on the role of schools and colleges of education in preparing educators…

This article investigates the function served by embarking on a teaching career in the Latin school system for recruitment to the clergy in early modern Sweden. The study is restricted to the eighty-nine teachers serving at Pitea Grammar School in Northern Sweden in the period from 1650 to 1849. The investigation pays considerable attention to the…

Beginning in the year 1568, American Indians were thrust into an alien educational environment in which their languages--the very expressions of their tribal cultures--had no relevance or validity from the perspective of their teachers. The evolution of educational policy as it has affected Indians was initially tied to land transfer and…