Turning towards history--to be contrasted with turning away from history--captures the Marxian sense of education. Marx worked out the elements of a theory of political education in relation to history by equating education with the coincidence of the changing of circumstances and people. This theory received its most comprehensive yet succinct…

By describing the activity theory of learning, this article presents the Soviet position on learning theory and ties psychological research in the USSR to the current Marxist approach to the solution of instructional problems. (BW)

Political and economic events in Africa have diverted the efforts of researchers from analysis along ethnic lines. Contends that the ethnic perspective is particularly valuable in understanding African affairs and that it should be revived. (DM)

Discusses Vygotsky's ideas in art psychology on the role of emotion in art, the nature of the aesthetic experience, the semiotic nature of psychological processes, and the foundation of a Marxist psychology and a Marxist aesthetics. Central to all of his ideas was his critique of Russian formalism. (MMU)

This paper contrasts two types of "autodidact" located in the UK in different historical periods, which utilised different learning/research technologies to different ends. From the 1920s to the 1960s some working-class activists committed to the Communist Party of Great Britain became "educated" in Marxism (and more) through…

A survey of Kenyan school leavers (200 responses) and 34 interviews show that the exchange value of school-leaving exams is predominant and the use value of vocational programs has little impact. Apparently, 80% of school effort has actual exchange value for only 20% of school leavers, whereas 20% of effort directed at self-employment has…

National Socialism, the German type of fascism, is analysed in this article with respect to the question of its ideological foundations, the ideology of the "Volk" community, and its consequences for a relevant type of social practice, "Volk" welfare. Under National Socialism the form of state social work intervention was…

Churches, and in a larger sense religion, should serve as the conscience of society. Hence Christian bodies have an obligation to condemn gross evils and to speak out on the great moral issues, but they should not give their full support to any political party or cause. The World Council of Churches (WCC) from its beginning in 1948 showed an…

Traces contemporary literary analyses of Latin American melodrama and the romance, looking especially at the work of Peter Brooks and Janice Radway. Suggests that the film "Lejania" produces a spectatorship of shifting positionalities, which mitigate against a passive spectatorship that would serve as a reactionary force. (RS)

The field of educational administration has a major credibility problem in academe because it is seen to lack a convincing theoretical base. In the practical world of politics, management, and teaching, it appears that educational values are easily rendered marginal in policy making and that team and institutional leaders lack a sophisticated…

This neo-Marxian analysis of Britain's Further and Higher Education Act and the White Paper that preceded it shows how adult education funding was steered solely toward vocational qualifications. The impact on local education authorities and nonvocational courses is addressed. (SK)

Suggests that scholars from eastern Europe and from the West have a lot to learn from each other. Explicates this generalization through three personal experiences with eastern scholars, scholarship, and students. Concludes that in eastern Europe, history has not ended: the past and the future are being struggled with still. (RS)

Analyzes previous interpretations concerning the French Revolution. Discusses several weaknesses of the Marxist views in light of recent philosophical and sociological thinking about social change. (RKM)

This article synthesises the social and economic dynamics of both non-market and market production in national education systems, drawing primarily on Marx's analysis of the commodity and Hirsch on positional competition. Market production has six principal aspects: a defined field of production, protocols governing entry/exit, the production of…

Discusses the state of the Soviet economy during the period of perestroika. Includes the level of output, rate of inflation, privatization, and proposals for economic reform. Assesses the stabilization program and possibilities of restructuring. Concludes that neither Mikhail Gorbachev nor perestroika are likely to survive the trials of inflation,…