We can identify black culture in terms of certain institutions and values which they share as members of an ethnic group, while recognizing that individual families and communities identify in important respects with other groups. The ascription of a humanistic character--defined as those values and institutions which black Americans have in…

Data from a national study of college student attitudes, values, and political and academic preferences are examined for significant trends, and their implications for change in higher education are discussed. (MSE)

To determine the public's responses to the 1988 presidential debates, the System for the Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG) was used to analyze how values positions connected to interpersonal styles. Subjects, 157 students from either a mid-sized Southern university or a large Midwestern university and 21 non-students drawn from people…

The concept that conflict generates rhetoric prompted this collection of 11 essays on three critical conflicts--war, race, and education--which are arranged to present an historical understanding of the rhetoric of each conflict and to include a variety of techniques. The four selections on war are by Woodrow Wilson, Walt Whitman Rostow, and…

The argument that liberal education leads people to substitute intellectual tolerance or ambiguity for righteous indignation is criticized, with reference to Harriet Beecher Stowe's portrayal of Thomas Jefferson, his liberalism, and democratic manners. (MSE)

Presents an overview of Turner's thesis that the migration westward produced a unique democratic tradition and a distinctive American character. Discusses Richard Hofstadter's and Ray Allen Bellington's reactions to this thesis. Notes the concepts of Bellington in support of Turner' thesis and those concepts of Hofstadter that oppose Turner's…

Data from an annual Higher Education Research Institute survey of college freshmen (n=275,811) at 469 institutions are summarized, including student demographic and educational characteristics, educational and career plans, majors, principal social and extracurricular activities, political and social attitudes, and personal objectives. (MSE)

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) database based on the American Freshmen Survey provides data for use in making marketing and management decisions in colleges and universities. This paper describes an operational cooperative model for managing and exploiting the data that CIRP makes available. The paper also offers an example…

The influence of the "activist decade" (spanning the early 1960s through the early 1970s) on Briar Cliff College (Iowa), a small midwestern liberal arts college affiliated with the Catholic Church, is discussed. Forces such as racism, the Vietnam War, and student unrest elicited concern and activism at Briar Cliff College, although there…

Based on 3,522 one- to two-hour personal interviews conducted in 1973, this study compares the 1973 views and attitudes of American youth to a survey conducted in the late 1960's. As a result, significant trends are traced through an era filled with events that deeply affected the lives of young people, such as the peak and ending of the Vietnam…

The objectives of this Conference included an examination of new approaches to citizenship education and an evaluation of the teaching materials produced by the Charles P. Schwartz Citizenship Project (CPSCP), and an examination of the attitudinal studies on citizenship values conducted under the auspices of CPSCP. Major sections of the Report…

Presents a hypothesis about what is characteristically North American in social theory, proceeding from three concepts that recur throughout the theology and cosmology of aboriginal Americans: individual conscience, universal kinship, and the endless creative power of the world. Concludes that from an aboriginal American perspective, industrial…

Explores the gap between what young conservatives espouse and the ways they actually lead their lives. Even in this time of cultural anarchy, the single most conservative cohort in the nation is married couples between the ages of 25 and 32 years who have children. (SLD)

This study investigates the extent to which forms of prosocial behaviour and values of social responsibility are related to various domains of political culture among Australian youth. Using data from a survey of 1311 senior secondary students from the ACT and South Australia, it was found that 14 per cent had participated in one or more volunteer…

This essay presents components of the debate between liberals and communitarians, discusses how this debate centers around policies affecting market economies and the role of government, and points out implications for school reform. The chief criticism communitarians aim at liberalism is that it promotes obsessive individualism, and in this…