The basic premise of the paper is that the Constitution should be the main theme of courses in United States history at grade 8. Students should study a unit on the Constitution, as is commonly done at that level. In addition, other units taught throughout the school year should emphasize constitutional principles, values, and issues. Three…

The introductory essay in this volume examines the relationship between philosophy and common sense as these pertain to educational administration, and suggests that philosophy should become a form of critical self-reflective decision-making that occurs within the domain of social action and does not stop with the achievement of clarity of…

This volume is part of a series of monographs from Australia devoted to outlining an alternative approach, based on neo-Marxist concepts, to educational administration. The opening discussion is a critique of conventional student evaluation practices aimed at tracing the social influences that are brought to bear on students, teachers, schools,…

Although education, as an activity mandated, sponsored, and supervised by the capitalist state, is as much an apparatus of the state as any other state agency, it is far more democratic, open to change and innovation, and subject to potential community control than any other state apparatus. To understand education's function in a capitalist…

Although Griffiths (1979) argued that the turmoil in the field of organizational theory would inevitably spill over into educational administration, presaging a paradigm shift, the professoriate in educational administration in North America has largely ignored, or reacted with hostility, to debate over the theoretical foundations of the field.…

The relationship between ethnicity and political trust among American Indian elementary school children was determined for federal, state, and tribal levels. A total of 312 Arapahoe, Shoshoni, and white students were questioned to determine whether they thought each level of government could be trusted, whether the government cares about them and…

The potential consequences of increased public support for private schools are investigated in this paper. It begins with an examination of two social purposes of education: political socialization (or the acquisition of a common language, knowledge of one's government, knowledge of the role of the citizen, and tolerance for varying points of…

This paper examines the effects of schooling on political socialization and presents a theoretical perspective on the learning of civic norms which will provide insight into both the limits of schools' current efforts at instilling civic norms and the potentialities of new approaches. Norms are defined as personally binding conceptions of right…

Part of a series of investigations undertaken at the University of Leiden by Dr. G. A. Kohnstamm to investigate how children process information from audiovisual media, particularly television, this literature review maps out the educational possibilities of television for children up to the age of 12. Research findings reviewed are concerned…

Social theorists arguing that economic development is a process of modernization claim that traditional societies will follow the patterns of transformation already followed by modern societies, and that literacy can help instill the necessary values. An alternative theory, developed primarily in Latin America, argues that the relationships of…

This research concerned political socialization in the early grades in two elementary schools with particular attention to differential socialization of middle and lower class children, and boys and girls. The research focused on authority patterns, teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil behavior streams and interaction, how teachers present the outside…

The four chapters of this book and the many accompanying color photographs describe and portray comprehensive programs of socialist education provided for children in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The introduction indicates the scope of educational objectives within national and international contexts. The first chapter of the book…

Effects of participation by 904 elementary and secondary school social studies students in a political education project are discussed. Objectives of the project, entitled Improving Citizenship Education (ICE), are to assess student political knowledge (factual information, generalizations, principles, thinking and participatory skills), before…

This issue of the "Interracial Books for Children Bulletin" has three major articles. The first deals with the book titled, "The Five Chinese Brothers". This is one of the most widely circulated children's books in the United States. Although this book has been tauted as being authentically "Chinese", it is being…

As an introduction to the role of children's literature in the People's Republic of China, the author provides an overview of the content and themes of Chinese children's literature. The role of amateur writers is discussed and popular works of Chinese children's literature are summarized. The author also contrasts content and objectives of…