Surveys 32 officials of federal agencies and educational researchers to express historically grounded judgments on issues in educational research, including the poor reputation of the field. Criticisms that recur are that it does not pay off, that the community is in disarray, and that the field is politicized. (SLD)

Latvians are among the ethnic groups dispersed to many parts of the world. The history of the Latvian diaspora is traced, and the maintenance of Latvian ethnic identity is explored, including the status of Latvian libraries. Latvian independence is expected to have an impact on Latvian culture abroad. (SLD)

An evaluation of efforts by the Carter and Reagan Administrations to reduce fraud, error, and mismanagement in social programs is provided, examining the food stamp program as an example. Data available do not make it possible to say whether these administrative and political efforts actually decreased fraud and error. (SLD)

As this yearbook shows, linking schools and social services has become a nationwide and international movement. To provide a discussion framework, this article outlines organizational, economic, and political issues and discusses two important themes--the necessity of clearly defining the ethos supporting school/social services linkages and the…

The cultural politics of the export of educational services by Australia to Asia are examined, focusing on tension between the persistent economic development perspective and an emerging market ideology that sees education as a commodity. Issues of postcolonialism, globalization, educational traditions vs. market orientation, educational aid and…

Globalization, referring to the formation of world systems, embraces finance and trade; communications and information technologies; migration and tourism; global societies; linguistic, cultural, and ideological convergence; and signs and images. Globalization does not negate the nation-state, but it changes its circumstances and makes education…

This project seeks to determine the effect of the mass media on political attitudes and behaviors in Chile between the years 1970 and 2000. The relationship between the media and "political socialization" is just now gaining recognition in scholarly research, and Chile offers an excellent case study. This paper traces these two variables…

As Taiwan's state apparatus began to democratise, the question arose as to how teachers' practices might inform the wider process of contextual changes, i.e. societal, economic and political changes. This article explores this issue through an examination of how teachers seek to alter the relations of authority by arguing for independent teacher…

This article contends that students whose discourses differ from the dominant academic discourses of school may develop negative writer identities as a result of their language struggles in the academy. Using Critical Discourse analysis, the study explores the writer identities of two college writers in order to understand how embedded ideologies…

This paper provides a new outlook on the charter school policy environment, however, by re-examining more closely the layers of legal provisions in states' charter laws. Consistent with the first wave of charter school literature which found charter school politics to be complicated and often working at cross-purposes, the authors provide evidence…

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which social, political, and economic factors impact the teaching and learning of mathematics in a small rural school in Georgia. Focusing on a charter school that seeks to educate approximately 275 pre-K through 12th grade students, the study was intended to give voice to the residents of the…

This book examines much of the large body of research on educational inequality in Britain since the Second World War, focusing on studies concerned with inequalities in the internal organization and functioning of the schools. A social constructionist approach to the study of social problems as a way of providing a reflexive perspective on the…

Critical debates about black expressive culture and black cultural productions within television are examined as a means of exploring processes by which questions about the American racial order, and blackness itself, are constructed, reproduced, and challenged. The central thread of the argument is that commercial culture operates as both a site…

The prominence of agenda items, the attendant controversy, and changes proposed in 5 areas of education reform were studied in 33 urban school districts during 1992 to 1995. Only a tiny fraction of the study of American politics has focused on school boards, their attendant bureaucracies, and the local political issues involved. This paper…

This paper discusses a number of interventions that are aimed at increasing educational opportunities of homeless students in the United States. Only a few of these programs have been locally evaluated, and the evaluation process is particularly challenging for local evaluators to undertake. At a state and national level, commitment to evaluation…