Recent developments in language policy and educational reform in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia have opened new possibilities for indigenous languages and their speakers through bilingual intercultural education. Use of the term "intercultural" is examined in official policy documents and in short narratives about intercultural practice by…

This collection of papers focuses on what is known and practiced in professional development. Part 1, "The Purposes of Professional Development," includes (1) "Educational Purposes and Teacher Development" (Maxine Greene); (2) "Going Public: The Imperative of Public Education in the 21st Century" (Carl D. Glickman and…

An educator of special education teachers reflects on his childhood, the current conservative political movement as it affects people who are poor or disabled, the current inclusionary reform movement in special education, and how to best serve youth with emotional or behavioral disorders. General education is seen as inherently inadequate to…

In its second year, the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) invited 2006 state superintendents of the year to gather in Denver, Colorado, for a rare opportunity to spend three intensive days talking and learning with their colleagues about leadership's impact on student achievement, public schools and the global economy, and about…

Most educational reform initiatives of the past 20 years are geared towards ensuring that the United States dominates the emerging global economy. What is lost in this rush to the top of the materialist heap is an education for the more enduring human values: creativity, intellectual development, care, social justice, and democracy. In this book,…

The evolution of the programs and curriculum at Palo Alto College (Texas), a community college in which minorities form the majority and nontraditional students are the norm, is described from the perspective of a teacher. Focus is on strategies for acculturating nontraditional students to the culture of the academic classroom. (MSE)

A 5-year study of one-teacher schools was conducted by a single researcher in the remote North West Region of New South Wales, Australia. A personal narrative discusses problems of longitudinal research, peculiarities of gathering data in the chosen region, the close relationship of these isolated schools and their communities, and problems and…

Staff at a small elementary school in Quebec collaborated to develop a three-year improvement plan that outlined specific goals in implementing change and focused on the introduction of cooperative-learning strategies. Cooperative learning increased student self-esteem and positively influenced teachers' attitudes toward their careers. (LP)

Portuguese schools in urban areas became multicultural during the 90s. Some students are quite distanced from the school culture. Many repeat grades. The curriculum emerges as a means of (re)organizing school practice, so that it is designed to foster inclusion. It is a tool for social mediation between the culture and knowledge of teenagers, and…

Five-and-a-half years ago, against the advice of his wife and his academic colleagues, Samuel C. Stringfield stepped out of his ivory tower. The then-50-year-old education researcher, a nationally known expert on school improvement, became a member of the Baltimore city school board. Until the time came when he left the board and the Center for…

This study investigated how teachers described current decision making structures, culture, and the power/micropolitics of their work, examining how they used their agency to accomplish work and make decisions together under Florida's reform. Data came from interviews with 1996 and 1997 elementary educators selected as teachers of the year. The…

Recounts experiences of a Canadian curriculum consultant in moving from viewing small groups as a survival strategy to identifying cooperation as the key to their effectiveness and finally accepting cooperation as an orientation that moderates the teacher's output so that children can shine. (SLD)

This journal contains the following articles pertaining to education in rural areas: (1) "The State of the Association" (William Peter) reviews the mission and progress of the Southern Rural Education Association; (2) "Arts Enrichment Programs in Middle Tennessee Rural Schools" (Howard Brahmstedt and Patricia Brahmstedt)…

Early efforts at multicultural education have largely been compensatory attempts to address inequities in cultural representation. What is needed is a rewriting of the entire master script of curriculum to eliminate implicit racism, classism, and sexism. Examples from U.S. history illustrate the scope of revision needed in education. (SLD)

In a series of three papers, I examine the identity development of three Chinese women teachers as they moved back and forth between Eastern and Western cultures and languages amid the rapidly changing events of the last four decades. I use a river metaphor to explore three phases in the cross-cultural lives of these women: in the first paper,…