Ensuring all students have opportunities to engage in scientific argumentation is a key goal for K-12 students. While research has shown that teachers' beliefs about argumentation can impact their classroom instruction and that students in low socioeconomic status (SES) schools are less likely to experience challenging science learning, there is…

Discusses guidelines proposed by the Internal Revenue Service that would revoke the tax exempt status of schools sponsored by fundamentalist Protestants. Describes schools visited and holds that (1) skepticism toward the religious orientation of these schools is unwarranted, and (2) the effort to attribute their emergence to racism is an…

Discusses the major concepts of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's work, emphasizing the ways that other contemporary theorists influenced his work. Examines the application of his comprehensive philosophical systems to questions of pedagogy. (RW)

Reviews the role that philanthropic foundations have played in educational support, research, and reform since 1900. (GC)

Discusses how private schools differ from public schools, noting how private schools create meaning via cultural attributes and suggesting potential pitfalls in eschewing tradition in response to external pressures. Private schools must understand the balance between tradition and innovation to avoid losing their roots or becoming obsolete. (SM)

Discusses the deterioration of reading culture in Hungary over the past 15 years. Notes increases in television viewing, decreases in achievement and in reading comprehension, and changes in amount and types of materials read. Notes hopeful evidence of relative improvement of reading. Characterizes some important trends (practical, commercial, and…

Presents the term empowerment in historical context, reviews empowerment's disciplinary and theoretical sources, establishes a framework for studies that discuss empowerment in the context of programs for minority groups, and cautions against loose, uncritical use of empowerment in social action and pedagogy (which can create further…

Describes the economic, demographic, social, and emotional status of rural Americans at the end of the twentieth century, noting accelerating forces that are changing the nature of that sector. The article looks at what the future holds for the 6.6 million students who attend rural schools. (SM)

Outlines neoconservative, neoliberal, and liberal views of what works and what's good for children in reading education. Notes how each vies for the seminal role in defining the goals, means, and outcomes of reading education; but none discusses the complex social contexts of literacy learning and how unequal conditions in society might cause…

Traces the history of the relationship between business and public education from the 17th century through the depression, the war, and the post-liberal era; and notes the contributions of Eli Whitney, Andrew Carnegie, and other philanthropists. The article also examines the efforts to achieve social transformation through the schools. (SM)

The article examines problems in the U.S. public school system. It describes the factory and corporate models of education and suggests that, despite the conservative origins of the current wave of school reform, progress is possible. The article also discusses sociocultural factors and the importance of theory in school reform. (SM)

Examines the tenets of postmodernism and nature of educational theorizing as informed by postmodernism, suggesting renewed attention to the dynamics of education and society that demand concerted action in public spaces. Such attention requires communal identity that respects differences, builds solidarity, and formulates moral imperatives to…

Considers the professionalization of progress and educational expertise among Iceland's teacher educators and other education reformers in the 1980s and 1990s as an example of how the creation of learned discourse is linked to the phenomenon of professionalism. Reform discourse is interpreting using the conceptual framework of Bourdieu. (GLR)

This book provides an overview of bilingualism and bilingual education by examining historical and recent literature, presenting firsthand observations, and demonstrating how both popular views and scholarly research actually mirror larger social issues. Following the first chapter, a brief introduction, chapter 2 reviews the historical…

Examines data gathered from a survey of literature, observations, and interviews conducted during a 1985 trip to China. Specifically focuses on changes in Chinese education as influenced by politics, economics, and social values. Includes a comparison of similarities and differences in current Chinese and U.S. education. (BSR)