While a college student in the early to mid-1960s, the author decided to become a college professor because her own teachers excited an intellectual respect unequaled anywhere else in her life. And because she respected them and their judgments, their hard-won high evaluation of her work gave her a strong sense of her own value and self-respect.…

In this article, the author shares his experience being the "chair" of the Department of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He also shares how this department proved to be an "ordinary" department at an "ordinary" liberal arts college. However, to conclude…

Juxtaposes different contexts in a teacher educator's life as kindergarten teacher, doctoral student, and beginning teacher educator, illuminating how these elements shaped her understandings of learning to teach within different contexts and noting how this story can help educators integrate narrative and paradigmatic ways of understanding…

Relates the experience of students and a teacher in an alternative high school in designing a biology curriculum based on Foxfire practices. Describes student efforts to gain approval from school officials to study evolution and creationism and the conflicts in values and belief systems among the students. (LP)

A first grade teacher recounts how she applied findings in the literature about effective organizations and leadership to build more responsible, self-sufficient, and empowered young citizens. The account is organized around seven "realities" such as: "if something enters the curriculum, something usually exits the curriculum,""determine what is…

This monograph contains reflections by current and former deans of schools of education on their experiences in providing leadership for change, their attempts at reform, their perceived successes and failures, and the lessons they learned. It opens with a preface by Larry S. Bowen describing the conference that led to the monograph, the…

This book presents a historical overview of higher education trends, political climates, and social and cultural movements, as well as anecdotal reminiscences of campus life at Kent State University (Ohio) between its founding in 1910 and 1992. Essays by six faculty members and administrators provide their personal insights and memories of the…

This book describes the teaching experiences of Stella Gipson Polk, who taught in one-room schools in rural Texas. She was 16 at the time she took her first teaching job in 1918. After high school graduation, she had intended to enter a 4-year college or university. However, World War I left numerous schools without teachers as many were called…

Describes science educators trying to effect systemic change as actors in a cultural field struggling to change it. Uses a conversational hermeneutic analysis of autobiographical writings to examine some of the salient features of bringing about change in science education. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/WRM)

This paper represents a brief history of rural education in Fayette County (Texas) from 1918 through 1975. The paper focuses on the personal narratives of Harry Loeb, the last official superintendent of Fayette County and Emma Diedt, a 50-year Fayette County teacher. The narratives describe Fayette County schools, school politics, and the…

Changes in the structure of instruction in schools may affect a variety of participants in the educational system. These first-person narratives from teachers, staff, parents and students detail how each was affected by the change to mixed-age programming in kindergarten through third grade. Participants came from a number of schools in three…

Explores the significance of listening to multiple voices in constructing the conversation that distinguishes our culture. Pluralism and multiculturalism are discussed in terms of concrete engagements with persons who have historically not been acknowledged. Learning to look through multiple perspectives helps young people build bridges to…

Two Dartmouth Medical School (New Hampshire) medical students and their faculty sponsor collaborated to develop an elective course in women's health. Development and implementation of this course and the process by which it was later made part of the required curriculum are described. The success of the effort highlights the crucial role students…

Through a personal narrative, this chapter describes the history of the Gomez Farias-Pajaro Valley Project, which was renamed Project MEDIR and is now known as the Binational Program. The Binational Program is administered by the Migrant Education Programs in 10 U.S. states and all 31 Mexican states and the federal district of Mexico City. This…

Three papers on the outlook for second language teaching and learning introduce the conference on second language curriculum and evaluation. "My Story of Language Teaching" (Andrew Wright) describes a variety of personal and professional experiences in the course of 50 years of language teaching, each highlighting emerging social values…