This report was undertaken to assess the state of civic capacity for education reform in Philadelphia. It challenges community and civic sectors of the city to put aside individual interests and work together to mobilize resources to pursue the collective good of public school improvement. The report demonstrates that many of the elements…

Librarians can help kids expand their view of the world by introducing them to critical literacy. Critical literacy encourages readers to question an author's intentions and to examine issues from multiple perspectives to avoid simplistic statements. It supports a more complex and nuanced understanding of events, recognizing social and political…

Taiwanese textbooks play a central role in Taiwanese education. In the wake of the political reform and social protest movements of the 1970s and 1980s that prompted Taiwanese educational reform, critics have charged that traditional curricula tend to reinforce the dominant national Chinese cultural identity. The purpose of this article is to…

The modern-day lobbyist is uniquely qualified to provide lawmakers with information that would take an overworked staff countless hours to obtain; hence, the relationship of lobbyist and lawmaker has evolved into a network of accommodation and mutual assistance. Consistent with persuasion theory that recognizes the limitations of discourse,…

This book examines ethnic studies and multiculturalism movements at the higher education level. It notes the different viewpoints of these two movements, with ethnic studies usually involving a focus on a single ethnic group at the departmental level, whereas multiculturalism involves infusion of multiethnic themes into the curriculum across…

This book explores an academic culture in which disciplines are isolated and then further divided into specialized fields, resulting in a mix of scholarly alienation and disciplinary territorialism, specialized inquiry and a poverty of general discussion. After an introductory chapter, the following subjects are addressed: (1) influences on…

A study investigated the role of language in facilitating technology transfer, particularly across international borders. It examined whether language has an effect on the technology transfer process or the politics associated with it when participating countries lack a common language, and whether the English language plays a special role in…

The rapid expansion of charter schools would suggest that there is evidence of their effectiveness, but this is not the case. The lack of objective evidence of their success reinforces the claim that charter school reforms are political and ideological rather than educational reforms. The arguments in favor of charter schools have exploited some…

Latin America is a continent with a great deal of poverty, ignorance, and violence. This book describes the problems that plague the region and explains how and why they have gone unsolved. Change can come about only through real and effective participation by men and women in the political and economic activities of their nations. Organized into…

This examination of the international state of giftedness research outlines two competitive paradigms (the psychometric paradigm and the paradigm of cognitive science) and argues that the paradigms should be regarded as complementary. The neglect of social psychology in the conceptualization of giftedness is decried, and applied and basic research…

This futurist keynote speech of the National Conference for Outdoor Leaders addresses the social, technological, economic, and political forces that are restructuring the world. The concept of geostrategic thinking has the components of global thinking, futuristic thinking, and seeking opportunities. Important developments include: (1) wealth will…

Concerning curriculum making, it is impossible to integrate the different meanings of "curriculum" into a single formula. Read as social constructions, different conceptions reflect varying educational, social-political, and historical contexts. This paper explores how these contexts, or multiple realities, evolved historically and how…

Three major concerns affect higher education in the United States: the decline in student population with some curtailment of programs, high inflation rates with constantly rising tuition, and political pressures on public colleges and universities. These factors affect study abroad programs in several ways. Public institutions may experience less…

Literacy's functionality within Third World countries is examined in terms of the socio-economic influences of the educated minority over the rural, illiterate majority in an excerpt from an address presented at the International Symposium for Literacy, Persepolis, Iran. (LH)

This article, presented as an examination of what it means to be a son in a black family in the contemporary United States, focuses on George Jackson, specifically, the way he views himself in his books. It is argued that the situation in which Jackson found himself expressed not only his reality, but the reality of all black people. (Author/JM)