In this paper, I made a historical and philosophical reflection on the social scientific categorization of "rural children" (nongcun ertong) in contemporary Chinese discourses of educational equality. The empowerment discourse about them as an educationally marginalized group based on scientific inquiry into their problems reflects a new…

This paper considers those factors that have been at work shaping educational policy at the state level in New Jersey. For simplicity and to permit a degree of comparison among the states, five questions are addressed: (1) What have been the effects of court intervention, (2) Are "new" political coalitions being formed and how effective…

The purpose of the study described in this paper was to determine the facilitators and barriers teachers in middle-school mathematics classrooms faced when trying to implement equity and reform objectives. The study is set in the context of the Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI) in Ohio known as Project Discovery. In 1995, a major evaluation of…

This collection of six presentations is by no means a complete summary of the College Board's Annual Meeting and National Forum, but it represents the major subdivisions of the forum theme. Barbara Jordan, U.S. Representative from Texas, stresses the need for cooperation between educators and legislators in achieving the goal of equal opportunity.…

The most pressing problems of research on minority groups have not received adequate attention. One such problem is that of identification and understanding of the mechanisms of learning facility and learning dysfunction and the implications of both for the optimum development of heterogeneous populations. Secondly, in contrast to the body of…

The 94th Congress tends to view education as a bridge, a bridge that will make the labor market more accessible to the ignorant, the unskilled, the poor, the unemployed, the handicapped. Each of these groups constitutes a constituency in and of itself. The magnitude of education appropriations especially for vocational and higher education is…

This research explored the politics of educational choice through a case study of one public school testing the limits of difference in the British Columbia (Canada) school system in the 1990s. The Fine Arts elementary school was created by the school board based on pedagogical ideas from teachers. This fine arts magnet offered teachers a great…

Investigations into the Brazilian education system indicate the system's inadequacies in democratizing education. Instead, education is accessible to those who can afford it and not to those who most need it. Although research evidence consistently shows the positive relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and school access and…

This paper examines proposals to integrate regular and special education. It offers an overview of pertinent regular and special education-reform efforts, discusses recommendations for unified schools that include all students, and reviews literature on political culture theory. Elazar's (1966) theory of political culture is used as a framework…

New Zealand shares with other Southeast Asian nations two sets of problems which stem from the presence of several distinct communities in one geographical/political area: the first relates to treatment of linguistic minorities, indigenous and immigrant; the second is that of social or regional dialects which, while not totally distinct from an…

This paper first analyzes the situation of special needs education in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) and then reports on qualitative research on three inclusive education initiatives in the province involving children with Down Syndrome at the primary school level. Current developments in the province include the continued existence…

Educational purpose, policy, and practice in America have changed in important ways since World War II. For example, there have been three time periods with different educational purposes during the last forty years. For each of these periods, there were implicit assumptions made about why we educate, how we educate and where we educate. The first…

Discusses declining Federal support for educational programs under the Reagan administration and identifies inconsistencies in Federal arguments to support current educational funding policy. Challenges researchers to provide an analytical framework within which policymakers concerned with the financing and direction of education would be…

This paper reviews four decades of research on race and education in Great Britain and discusses the deficit theories of underachievement that serve as the structure of most of the studies. Focus is placed on black youth of Caribbean origin and how they perform in British schools. Consideration is also given to constructive frameworks from gender…

The existence of Federal laws and policies supportive of educational equity for women was challenged with the election of President Reagan in 1980. The Reagan Administration's philosophy of providing block grants to States threatened to eliminate the Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) and Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, both designed…