Current debates about test-based accountability policies revolve around questions of how to ensure that all students have access to high-quality schools and teachers. Whether and how one can meet this goal depend, in part, on the nature of the arguments that policy proponents and opponents mobilize in these debates. This article examines these…

This article draws on the concept of experiencing to highlight a positive connection between resistance and agency, and its potential for teachers' professional development and educational change. The article examines teachers' discourse during a Change Laboratory intervention aimed at developing teaching practices. The intervention was initiated…

This dissertation provides a comprehensive critical analysis of six main arguments for religious accommodation, with a specific focus on fundamentalist religious groups and the accommodation of their practices within liberal democratic societies. This analysis reveals that the types of practices that these arguments aim to accommodate primarily…

Draws a connection between Gallie's essentially contested concepts and Aristotle's account of rhetorical argument by presenting a definition of Essentially Contested Argument which is used as the connecting term between rhetoric and essentially contested concepts and by demonstrating the value of making this connection. (JF)

The study of conflict and its management is diverse in that it involves many academic disciplines, sub-disciplines, and specific situations. One aspect of this diversity can be found in the revelations regarding television evangelists such as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Oral Roberts, and Jimmy Swaggart. The effects arising out of the publication of…

Argues that movements are a kind of ritual conflict whose most distinguishing form is confrontation. (MH)

Fantasy Theme Analysis was used to examine the rhetorical clash of incongruent world views during the 1978 controversy over a gay rights ordinance in St. Paul, Minnesota. Fantasy Theme Analysis considers the individual and collective dramatizations of a group's goals, scope, and activities--the group's conceptualized reality, or fantasy theme--in…

Academic humanists have been hearing that too much of their research and teaching was politicized, trivialized by a fascination with popular culture, and preoccupied with questions of race, gender, and class. The most frequent target of critics are literary theorists and others farthest from traditional subjects and approaches. (MLW)

The countermovement to the women's liberation movement has been varied both in origin and organization and has been slow in making its impact. Presented in this paper is an analysis of several countermovement strategies which focus upon the issues of opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion law reform, and arguments about the nature of…

The focus of the contributions to this journal issue is communication theory and research. Following an introductory article that deals with the need for quality control in the criticism of communication research, eight articles offer discussions of the following topics: the nature of criticism in rhetorical and communicative studies, some issues…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The nine titles deal with the following topics: (1) the theory and application of presumption in public debate; (2) the rhetoric of transcendentalism; (3) speechwriting in rhetorical criticism; (4) the conspiracy argument as…

Discusses the coercive controls imposed upon Blacks during slavery, including regimenting their lives, restricting their learning experiences, limiting their opportunities to communicate, and prescribing demeaning role behavior. Rhetorical strategies employed by Blacks included a defensive posture of accommodation and a more aggressive behavior of…

In 2000, the Arizona Proposition 203 campaign gained overwhelming public approval by claiming that Arizona's bilingual education programs impeded English-language learning of language-minority students. Established within a context of educational and social antipathy, it is necessary to look at the impetus for language policies like Proposition…

Offers a rationale that can be used to defend the assignment of Alice Walker's controversial novel for class reading. Indicates four issues that might evoke calls for censorship: (1) subject matter, (2) vocabulary, (3) grammar, and (4) the epistolary form of the work. (RBW)

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 10 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the television sermons of Jerry Falwell, W. A. Criswell, Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggert, James Robinson, and Howard Estep; (2) the preaching of Wallace E. Fisher; (3) Theodore…