This paper is a case study of a Chinese educational leader who was in charge of an institution when it was in the process of being upgraded from a secondary vocational school to a self-funded tertiary vocational institution. Using a life history approach, the paper furnishes an informative picture capturing the dual transformation process of the…

How do marginalized parents construct their role in promoting their children's access to educational opportunity? What lessons might their experience have for our understanding of parent involvement beyond the parameters of traditional models? This qualitative case study examined the beliefs, goals, and practices of 16 working-class African…

Dudley Allen Sargent, M.D. (1849-1924) was selected as the person whose life in physical education would best exemplify the theme of the three Cs--commitment, cooperation, and communication. Sargent demonstrated a life-long commitment to two purposes: to prepare those to teach physical education to others and to promote exercises for all people…

Describes Alice Barrow's activities in promoting the platoon school concept and presents a brief description and history of the platoon school movement. (MS)

This paper (in the form of a dialogue) tells the stories of two members of a remarkable family of nine children, the Flexners of Louisville, Kentucky. The paper focuses on Abraham and Simon, who were reformers in the field of medical education in the United States. The dialogue takes Abraham Flexner through his undergraduate education at Johns…

Ralph Beelke served the National Art Education Association (NAEA) as Executive Secretary and President; he was closely associated with the growth of a professional and organizational consciousness among art educators. In this interview, Beelke discusses his interest, trends, changes and work in art education, and the forming of the NAEA.…

A few Progressive-era educators sought to supplant the study of history in schools. The fundamental reforms that Harvard professor Albert Bushnell Hart and the History Ten recommended for history education in 1893--that the subject hold a central place in the curriculum--were those advanced by the Committee on Social Studies 25 years later. Hart's…

"Kappan" editors recommend Michael Ignatieff's biography of Isaiah Berlin and insightful novels by Barbara Kingsolver, Pat Conroy, Wally Lamb, Edwidge Danticat, and Doris Lessing. Neil Postman's "The End of Education" (1995) advocates exploiting diversity to define standards. Ernest House's "Schools for Sale" (1998)…

Mary Bidwell Breed predicted that midwestern universities would probably "pass through a stage of educational development in which the liberal arts are entirely feminized, the men are entirely commercialized." We can appreciate how close she came to pinpointing trends which did not begin to be reversed until sixty years later.…

Portrays a principal, district superintendent, and reformer, whose career lasted from 1872 to 1912. Whereas her career illuminates aspects of women's history and educational change, her conflict with the East Side community demonstrates the perils of simplistic thinking about race and ethnicity. (Author/JM)

Transformation of schools is the key to America 2000, an ambitious amalgam of ideas that Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander and his advisers have developed. The program's centerpiece is the creation of 535 "New American Schools" receiving a 1-time $1 million federal grant to develop exemplary programs. A sidebar describes the…

This article discusses the career of Mabel Carney, head of the Department of Rural Education at Teachers College from 1918 to 1941. Carney was deeply involved with African American and African education, traveling to Africa and the American South, teaching courses on "Negro education", and working closely with both African and African…

This study considers the influence on British education (particularly schools) of Alan Bullock, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1969 to 1973 and distinguished contemporary historian. It quotes extensively from Bullock's own writings, including his developing personal views on education, and reflections on his own experiences. Following a…

Celestin Freinet had a major influence on education in France. In 1917 he was critically injured during World War I and convalesced for two years. During World War II he was incarcerated by the Vichy government for his Communist tendencies, and, in the 1950s the French Communist Party harassed him for straying from their hard-line ideologies.…

Based on life story interviews with five women teachers, the current paper provides insight into the relationship between externally mandated change and teachers' self-renewal, as well as into the context facilitating this kind of association. Interestingly, the decision of the Ministry of Education to modify the teachers' area of teaching was…