Certain dissatisfactions emerged as a universal theme among 200 teachers observed and interviewed during a study of school environments. Teachers are charged with increased responsibility, while they suffer from a loss of authority. Reasons for the loss of authority and its effects on teacher morale are discussed. (PP)

Societies know how to create material wealth and physical health, but their ultimate success lies in creating a human culture conducive to happiness. Positive and negative adaptations to technololgical change are discussed. Educators must prepare for the future by providing creative education for all age groups. (PP)

Explored the crisis of respect needed to establish authority in two urban public high schools. Data from observations and interviews indicated that in classrooms, battles for respect involved defending the dominant educational regime and control over the daily regimen of pedagogical practice. In corridors, students moved between mainstream…

An alternative to the consumptive approach to reform is a productive model which utilizes practitioners' knowledge and seeks ways to enhance this knowledge. A dialogical evaluation method, such as horizontal evaluation, is one way to encourage teachers to recover what they know and to articulate and assess this knowledge. (IAH)

This article focuses on the variety of cultural meanings students articulate when asked about their experiences within the special context of a multiethnic California high school. The article presents excerpts from verbatim accounts in which four Black students, part of a three-year study, describe their worlds in their own words. (IAH)

Interview data from a study investigating perceptions and attitudes of teachers toward their work provides the basis for this article which examines the metaphorical language teachers use to describe their experience and sketches an outline of the meaning of work as perceived by teachers, school systems and society. (IAH)

Describes an experienced first grade teacher's efforts to create her place in what was defined by others as the change process. Researchers observed in her classroom and conducted interviews over one school year. She viewed herself not as changing, but rather as part of a slow, continuous process. (SM)

Considers the relationship between teacher development and the workplace, examining the effect of individual characteristics and significant others. Researchers interviewed beginning teachers about workplace relationships, teaching situations, high/low points, critical incidents, obstacles, and opportunities. The article looks at rethinking…

Discusses the importance of school-community relationships and the role of schools and education professors in working to better society and end racism, sexism, and poverty. The article stresses the need to change the practice of ignoring social problems by searching for a language of compassion and communication. (SM)

Examined the dynamics of organizational change in higher education institutions and whether chartering a higher education organization would lead to increased faculty responsiveness and involvement in reform efforts. Data from interviews with school faculty, administrators, and other involved parties indicated that faculty work changed, work…

In discussing Donna Kerr's recommendations for improving teaching through better preservice training (Teachers College Record, Spring 1983), Sykes points out the need to enhance the quality of a teacher's work life in the schools as a requisite for reform. Specific changes at the school level are suggested. (PP)

Paper illustrates how a prominent Chinese educator (and former student of John Dewey) experimented with Dewey's philosophy in Chinese teacher education, creating a normal school in rural China that prepared rural teachers, enhanced village renewal, encouraged school-community relationships, and met China's unique challenges and needs. (SM)

This paper uses a qualitative study of children's symbolic and social use of superhero stories to examine the children's images of power and gender within an urban elementary classroom. The article discusses ways to help children deal with contradictory pressures of growing up in a multicultural society with inequitable power distribution. (SM)

Paper argues that racelessness is a concept that symbolizes efforts to deconstuct historically constituted relationships between African-American and whites, including intrusion into the notion of academic adequacy and African-American students' enrollment in private schools. The paper discusses implications of racelessness for African-American…

Describes a first-year teacher's efforts to become a teacher and her experiences of the complex relationships among control, subject matter, and teaching. The article stresses the importance of the institutional context within which the beginner works, noting her relationship with her department head and mentor. (SM)