In this article, William Ayers constructs his Phil Smith Lecture as a call to action. Grounded in democratic principles of equality and social justice, the author invokes a liberal conception of human worth and the universal right to educational opportunity. The author critiques the passivity of the American polity in the face of Barack Obama's…

Describes the development of evaluation within the United States and traces the connections between evaluation and the documents that founded the United States. Analyzes the demands placed on evaluation by modern democracies and comments on the importance of the selection of evaluation indicators and the necessity of systematic evaluation. (SLD)

Thomas Jefferson's elevation of the small landowning farmer to the guardian and bastion of democracy became the centerpiece for a later generation's struggle. Jeffersonian democracy, a philosophy based on the belief that "those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God" guided the rural insurgents that swept Minnesota and North…

The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to examine the process of transformation of education in the Czech Republic since the Velvet Revolution of 1989; and (2) to examine this experience within the framework of the educational change and reform literature, especially the work of Michael Fullan, to determine its utility within a Central European…

Educational planning is presently confronted by an identity crisis. As long as it was believed that educational expansion was a principal ingredient for securing economic growth, democratic political processes, and greater equality of economics and social participation, the tenets and practice of educational planning were rarely questioned.…

This document examines the definition of democracy and the political attitudes and values of the West German public and implications of these attitudes for future German politics and German-U.S. relations. The stability of postwar democracy in West Germany, it is agreed, is related to changes in the characteristics of the political culture over…

Reflecting and influencing foreign policy, the mass media are important, if nontraditional, diplomatic channels. The role the news media assume, ranging from neutral to participant, depends largely on the society within which it operates. Journalists in authoritarian governments, for example, who rely on press releases and briefings of foreign…

Two main ideas are put forth in this paper: a description of the struggle of African-Americans to become full participants in the democratic process both before and after World War II; and an argument posited that through these struggles African Americans exposed the imperfections and weaknesses of the democratic society and provided for…

A concise overview is provided of the history of evaluation, focusing on educational evaluation, followed by some observations on program evaluation in Spain and possible future developments. Evaluation was a new concept in Spain at the end of the Franco era, at a time when its development was beginning to gain momentum in the United States. The…

This collection of papers shows the significant achievements that can be made through collective strategies that empower the poor to become active partners in revitalizing their neighborhoods. The 12 chapters are: (1) "The Role of Social Capital in Combating Poverty" (Mark R. Warren, J. Phillip Thompson, and Susan Saegert); (2) "Social Capital and…

Targeted by the "California Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Affairs" in 1946, Frances Eisenberg subsequently was dismissed from the Los Angeles Public School System after 20 years of teaching. In 1947, the "Tenney Committee" introduced eight bills in the California legislature to prevent the teaching of controversial…

The purpose of the paper is to explore the relationship between the educational system of Sweden and its social class structure. The first section provides background information on Sweden's social democratic system which exhibits a strong tendency towards pragmatism, practicality, rationality, efficiency, competence, and educational planning.…

Compares the educational systems, particularly nonformal education, of India and China, and the impact on education of sociopolitical factors, history, government, ideology, languages, and cultures. Includes differences and similarities in educational facilities, personnel, methods, some national statistics, and charts of the education systems in…

This paper describes the general features of educational reform in Spain that emphasize increased school autonomy and teacher collaboration and professionalization and have been initiated since 1978 when a new constitution was democratically approved. The first section which offers background to the reforms describes the general impact of the new…

This sociological perspective on multicultural education focuses on racial and cultural groups, but accents class and power correlates. The results of the civil rights movement took the nation to visions of integration, and when these faltered, to the recognition of diversity in the form of cultural pluralism, which nonetheless implies structural…