Fifty-five teacher candidates explained their ideas about the purpose of education, controversy, and balanced instruction. In a quarter-long course that focused on effective teaching methods, these future teachers experienced a civic engagement project based on Socratic discussion about the Pledge of Allegiance. This qualitative study argues that…

History praxis can transform perceptions of the "other" by reshaping ideas about events transpiring between groups. Nevertheless, peace education research has rarely examined history teaching. This article addresses the potential for teaching peace through history teaching. After laying out a conceptual framework for understanding the…

Academia is under attack from those who believe that college professors are uniformly leftist politically, which creates an environment of bias against conservative students and professors. Advocates have proposed an "Academic Bill of Rights" that may lead to policies to achieve intellectual diversity in faculty hiring and tenure decisions.…

Drawing upon the large national surveys conducted in 1969 by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, along with data collected more recently, the authors provide a basis for understanding distributions of political attitudes among political scientists. Political science is one of the more left-of-center academic disciplines. (Author/DE)

The primary purpose of "National CrossTalk" is to stimulate informed discussion and debate of higher education issues. This issue contains the following articles: (1) The M Word: "Marketing" Has Changed from a Dirty Word to a Buzzword in Higher Education (Jon Marcus); (2) A Contrarian View of the Testing Industry: FairTest…

Describes a study designed to determine political attitudes and knowledge of prospective and practicing Arizona teachers and to ascertain how this correlates with reported teaching styles. Results indicate the sample was knowledgeable and capable of providing citizenship education, the separate samples differed in teaching style and attitudes, and…

A study investigated the political socialization patterns of politically active vocational educators. Six groups of vocational educators were examined: agriculture education teacher educators, agriculture administrators, home economics teacher educators, home economics administrators, trade and industrial education teacher educators, and trade and…

Research indicating significant differences between men and women as they function as agents of political socialization in the social studies classroom is provided. (Author/DE)

Forty teachers attending a summer institute in East Germany in August of 1987 were given a questionnaire concerning their attitudes towards the German Democratic Republic and their opinions, perceptions, and misperceptions of Canadian students. The questionnaire was applied in Zwickau, East Germany at a small pedagogical college. Teachers were…

Describes a project to assess the impact of teacher unemployment in the United Kingdom and the United States on teachers' attitudes toward the political system and on perceptions of the political self. Findings indicate that status deprivation results in awareness of political forces and tends to make unemployed individuals somewhat more…

Faculty surveys of the honorific academies and of American professors indicate that the former are more liberal politically than the latter, including those at the most distinguished institutions. Theories of intellectual creativity and political socialization are applied to these findings. Available from Elsevier Publishing, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue,…

This article describes a study in Pennsylvania which examined three political attitudes of public school teachers: alienation, political cynicism, and commitment to democratic values. Data analysis shows that teachers hold political beliefs supportive of the established political order. (Author/AV)

The political perspectives of teachers are examined in the context of interpersonal relationships in schools. Teachers develop a sensitivity to being controlled and manipulated by administrators, parents, and students. Teachers develop protectionistic political interactions to each other. Knowledge of the politics and culture of work permit more…

Orientation toward global and national issues of 332 Canadian and American preservice social studies teachers was assessed using the World Affairs Analysis (WAA). A sample hypothetical problem illustrating WAA and discussion of study implications for teacher training and K-12 instruction are included. (IAH)

Investigates the conditions of teachers under the age of 35 in 14 universities and colleges in Beijing, China. The study measured the young teachers' attitudes pertaining to educational responsibility, political ideology, living conditions, and needs. Suggests that teacher unions help resolve problems through democratic and supervision management.…