bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Raising the Teacher's Voice and the Ironic Role of Theory
Authors: McDonald Joseph
Published: May 2015

Teachers must often make special efforts to overcome the silences among them — silences enforced by teachers' subordinate roles and the isolation of the classrooms in which they work. Joseph McDonald traces here the progress of a group of teachers from different high schools who meet regularly to discuss and explore together the insights, uncertainties, and paradoxes that arise from their teaching work. He finds that the group has evolved through three phases — the first concerned mainly with collegiality for its own sake; the second notable for an effort to gain some policy power; and the third distinguished by increasing confidence in claiming policy power on the basis of knowledge generated by teaching practice.
Equality Is Excellence: Transforming Teacher Education and the Learning Process
Authors: Shor Ira
Published: May 2015

Ira Shor suggests that conservative economic and school policy is responsible for a decline in the quality of teaching since the 1960s. He bases his analysis on a close observation of the current reform wave which, he points out, too often focuses only on student and teacher"mediocrity" and on the need for higher standards of "excellence." While refuting the conservative perspective, Shor proposes that the liberal critique needs to further infuse educational reform with an egalitarian overview and with the notion of change-agency. He suggests that teacher education must be critical, multicultural, student-centered, oriented toward equality, and desocializing, if it is to prepare teachers who can inspire students.
Teaching As Research
Authors: Duckworth Eleanor
Published: May 2015

After an extended account of two features which she considers to be the essence of teaching,Eleanor Duckworth describes how such teaching can, at the same time, be seen as a form of research. In conclusion, she proposes a vision of teachers as significant participants in theoretical and pedagogical discussions on the nature and development of human learning.
The Higher Education Acts Contrasted, 1965-1986: Has Federal Policy Come of Age?
Authors: Keppel Francis
Published: May 2015

Francis Keppel, former United States Commissioner of Education, 1962-1965, and Chairman, National Student Aid Coalition, 1981-1986, here gives his view of the evolution of the historic Higher Education Act of 1965 from the time of its passage to its reauthorization in 1986. He focuses particularly upon those sections of the law that deal with undergraduate education and student financial aid, for which the act is now best known. While the basic intent of the act — increasing equality of educational opportunity — has remained constant, there have been important shifts both in the methods chosen to approach that goal and in the social context within which the act operates. The present political and economic atmosphere differs markedly from that of 1965. Federal support for higher education has shifted in emphasis from financing of physical resources to support for students themselves, and has come to rely increasingly on loan programs. Priorities for serving different kinds of institutions and student populations have changed in attempts to meet new needs. Yet, the author remarks, several difficult challenges and unresolved problems in the field of higher education finance remain. Careful collaboration among the branches of government and the higher education community will be required if we are to achieve the full potential of the Higher Education Act in the coming years.
Teaching Student Teachers to Reflect
Authors: Zeichner Kenneth , Liston Daniel
Published: May 2015

Conventional teacher education programs follow an apprenticeship model and, in so doing,aspire to provide student teachers with pedagogical skills and techniques derived from a preexisting body of knowledge. In this contribution to HER's special series, "Teachers, Teaching,and Teacher Education," Kenneth M. Zeichner and Daniel P. Liston argue that the conventional approach inhibits the self-directed growth of student teachers and thereby fails to promote their full professional development. Illustrating an alternative model, the authors describe and assess the elementary student teaching program at the University of Wisconsin,Madison — a program oriented toward the goals of reflective teaching, greater teacher autonomy,and increasing democratic participation in systems of educational governance.
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act: Schools as Agents of Social Reform
Authors: Singer Judith , Butler John
Published: May 2015

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act is an unusual piece of legislation in that it has continued to enjoy bipartisan support in an era of shrinking federal investment in such programs. Judith Singer and John Butler report the findings of a study on the Act's implementation in five diverse school districts across the country, conducted during the fifth through the eighth years of the Act's existence. The process of equilibration between federal demands and the local capacity to respond provides a central focus for the authors as they ask how, and how well, the schools have functioned as agents of social reform. While they find that both significant transformation of attitude and social reform have occurred, they also point to inequities whose roots in the social fabric make them difficult for the schools alone to overcome.
Educational Reform and Institutional Competence
Authors: Timar Thomas , Kirp David
Published: May 2015

Excellence, which is one of the primary goals of most educational reforms, represents a complex and profuse set of ideas. State reforms try to promote excellence in education by altering school policies, yet questions remain about whether excellence can be achieved through legislation. Do reforms typically accomplish what was intended — or do they engender bureaucratization?The authors raise serious questions about the tensions between policymakers and local institutions, and suggest that there are substantial gaps between the intentions and actual consequences of implemented policies. Educational reform that considers the goals of individuals or groups at the expense of institutions can never achieve excellence. The authors argue for cooperative strategies between federal, state, and local authorities that attempt to balance successful institutional practices with individual excellence.
Teachers as Political Actors: From Reproductive Theory to the Crisis of Schooling
Authors: Carlson Dennis
Published: May 2015

Critical theories of education, in focusing on the social reproductive function of school systems,often fail to emphasize the potential of teachers as agents of educational and social change. Dennis Carlson criticizes this tendency as he reviews and analyzes the treatment of teachers in influential forms of critical theory. In laying the basis for a view of teachers as an important force for transformative change in the schools, the author also reviews the historical development of teachers' professional and trade-union movements, locating them in a general analysis of U.S. work culture. He argues that since teachers are victims of the current system of public education, their collective interests as workers are more compatible with transformative than with merely reformist change.
Literacy and the Oral Foundations of Education
Authors: Egan Kieran
Published: May 2015

Drawing upon scholarship in the classics and in anthropology, Kieran Egan traces the richness of oral forms of expression used in non-literate societies from ancient times to the present. In the absence of written records, these peoples have used a particular array of intellectual resources and strategies in order to make sense of their world and to preserve their cultural histories. All children, before they learn to read and write, also depend upon the spoken word for learning and communication; the author therefore suggests that a better understanding of orality may help us to gain a fuller sense of the cognitive tasks that children undertake during their transition from orality to literacy.
Fundamental Considerations: The Deep Meaning of Native American Schooling, 1880-1900
Authors: Adams David Wallace
Published: May 2015

In the mid-nineteenth century, U.S. policymakers held two conflicting visions of the Indian's future: one, that Indians as a race were doomed to extinction, and two, that Indians were capable of being "civilized" and assimilated into White society. By the end of the century,in light of the Indians' loss of land and traditional ways of life, policymakers under-took an intense campaign to assimilate Indians through schooling. David Adams argues that to see this process of schooling simply as a means of assimilating the Indian into White culture is to rob this historic fact of its deeper meanings. Adams examines three perspectives and fundamental considerations that were at work at that time: the Protestant ideology, the civilization-savagism paradigm, and the quest for land by Whites, and explores how these translated into concrete educational policy. In the end the author argues that these three perspectives reinforced each other and were essential factors in the history of Indian schooling.
Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females: The Missing Discourse of Desire
Authors: Fine Michelle
Published: May 2015

Michelle Fine argues that the anti-sex rhetoric surrounding sex education and school-based health clinics does little to enhance the development of sexual responsibility and subjectivity in adolescents. Despite substantial evidence on the success of both school-based health clinics and access to sexuality information, the majority of public schools do not sanction or provide such information. As a result, female students, particularly low-income ones, suffer most from the inadequacies of present sex education policies. Current practices and language lead to increased experiences of victimization, teenage pregnancy, and increased dropout rates,and consequently, ". . . combine to exacerbate the vulnerability of young women whom schools, and the critics of sex education and school-based health clinics, claim to protect."The author combines a thorough review of the literature with her research in public schools to make a compelling argument for "sexuality education" that fosters not only the full development of a sexual self but education in its broadest sense.
Wounding the Spirit: Discrimination and Traditional American Indian Belief Systems
Authors: Locust Carol
Published: May 2015

When educators debate the effects of cultural differences on educational practice, they are normally concerned with issues of language, learning patterns, and preferred communication styles. Seldom do they consider how differences in belief systems might affect educational practice. Carol Locust argues that fundamental differences exist between the belief systems of American Indians and those of non-Indians, and that the lack of knowledge about these belief systems on the part of the U.S. educational system has led to discriminatory treatment of American Indian students. Locust concludes that educators must understand and respect American Indian belief systems before they can begin to improve the educational experiences of American Indian children.
About Teachers and Teaching: Ethnic Prejudice: Still Alive and Hurtful
Authors: Pang Valerie Ooka
Published: May 2015

Valerie Pang describes the existence of ethnic prejudice in the educational community and examines the processes by which she became aware of such prejudice. Through a compelling description of various experiences in the classroom, she identifies the different assumptions and stereotypes that commonly pass unnoticed by both teachers and students. Her reflection of how prejudicial beliefs are unintentionally reinforced in our classrooms uncovers the need for self-examination in the educational community. Pang suggests that through commitment and self-appraisal, teachers can and should be leaders in overcoming ethnic prejudice.
Chronicles: Untitled
Authors: Larsen Kari
Published: May 2015

In the poem below, Kari Larsen expresses the pain and sense of loss felt by a child whose country has been ravaged by war. Kari was born in Vietnam sometime in 1971. In the fall of 1973,her village was destroyed. Only a few small children survived the attack; Kari, then known as"Hang," was among them. She was adopted by her new family in 1974. Ms. Larsen searches for a remembrance of her heritage through a poetic vision of her birth mother and expresses her hope to be remembered in return.
Education for Humanization: Applying Paulo Freire's Pedagogy to Learning a Second Language
Authors: Graman Tomas
Published: May 2015

In this article, Tomas Graman shares his experiences of working with critical pedagogy in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). He argues that second-language learning can be both transformative and genuinely educative. By sharing his experiences of working with critical pedagogy in teaching ESL, Graman provides powerful insights into the constructive processes made possible when education is based on real human needs and concerns. Graman believes that the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire, which is based upon a generative and empowering definition of learning, is particularly appropriate for learning a second language. The author concludes with a call for reconceptualizing education in general, and specifically second-language learning, as a humanizing activity.
Teachers and Teaching: Screening, Early Intervention, and Remediation: Obscuring Children's Potential
Authors: Martin Anne
Published: May 2015

From her perspective as a public school kindergarten teacher, Anne Martin examines the effects of special needs intervention on classroom life. She finds that frequently a special education focus results in an overemphasis on children's weaknesses. Moreover, she believes that special educators often ignore the classroom teacher's key role in helping children learn and grow. The author offers alternative suggestions for helping children that rely on collaboration among teachers to produce a rich understanding of the context of individual children's lives in school.
Necessary Changes: Professional Involvement in Adult Literacy Programs
Authors: Kazemek Francis
Published: May 2015

Adult literacy programs have achieved recent prominence as studies documenting huge numbers of illiterates in the United States provoke national anxiety. In this article, Francis Kazemek first critiques demeaning attitudes toward adult literacy learners implicit in the practices of major literacy programs, and then examines underlying assumptions about the nature of literacy in the light of recent sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic studies on actual literacy practices. He argues that among the challenges facing adult literacy professionals is the responsibility to confront political and institutional barriers to effective literacy education. In conclusion, he offers an alternative, holistic methodology based on dialogic and socially oriented instructional strategies, and which responds to gender-based and cultural differences in ways of learning.
Teachers and Teaching: On Teaching, Knowledge, and "Middle Ground"
Authors: Howard Jessica
Published: May 2015

Teachers often feel poised between dynamic forces in the classroom as they struggle to meet the needs of both individual students and the group, to promote children's self-knowledge as well as their knowledge of the curriculum. Here Jessica Howard, a teacher at the Prospect School,a private elementary school in rural Vermont, re-examines this dialectic. She describes how she,as a teacher, creates the "middle ground," a time and place that pulls together the disparate elements of classroom life, where children can make new and richer sense of themselves and the world.
The Influences of Salaries and "Opportunity Costs" on Teachers' Career Choices: Evidence from North Carolina
Authors: Murnane Richard , Singer Judith , Willett John
Published: May 2015

Richard Murnane, Judith Singer, and John Willett analyze data from a larger study on the factors influencing career paths of teachers, focusing specifically on the career paths of White teachers in North Carolina who were first hired between 1976 and 1978. Using methodology known as "hazards modeling," the authors explore the relationship between the risk of leaving teaching, on the one hand, and teacher salary and opportunity cost, on the other hand. By employing hazards models, they are able to examine simultaneously various predictors of risk of leaving teaching — gender, National Teacher Examination (NTE)score, subject specialty, and the level of teaching (elementary or secondary) — and to determine whether the effects of these predictors remain constant or vary across teachers' careers. The authors conclude by discussing implications for policy and for teacher supply and demand models.
Why Doesn't This Feel Empowering? Working Through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy
Authors: Ellsworth Elizabeth
Published: May 2015

Elizabeth Ellsworth finds that critical pedagogy, as represented in her review of the literature,has developed along a highly abstract and Utopian line which does not necessarily sustain the daily workings of the education its supporters advocate. The author maintains that the discourse of critical pedagogy is based on rationalist assumptions that give rise to repressive myths. Ellsworth argues that if these assumptions, goals, implicit power dynamics,and issues of who produces valid knowledge remain untheorized and untouched, critical pedagogues will continue to perpetuate relations of domination in their classrooms.

The author paints a complex portrait of the practice of teaching for liberation. She reflects on her own role as a White middle-class woman and professor engaged with a diverse group of students developing an antiracist course. Grounded in a clearly articulated political agenda and her experience as a feminist teacher, Ellsworth provides a critique of "empowerment,""student voice," "dialogue," and "critical reflection" and raises provocative issues about the nature of action for social change and knowledge.
The University of Puerto Rico's Partnership Project with Schools: A Case Study for the Analysis of School Improvement
Authors: Quintero Ana Helvia
Published: May 2015

Ana Helvia Quintero examines recent reform initiatives by the Puerto Rican Department of Education (PRDE), and finds that their implementation was inadequate because it was based on a faulty view of education as a closed, rational system. Quintero argues instead that education is an open system that is highly interdependent with its environment and subject to change. An insider in the University of Puerto Rico's Partnership Project with Schools, an experimental project between the PRDE and the university to improve education,Quintero focuses on the work of the program in the San Juan II school district. One of the project's underlying assumptions is that improving education requires studying the processes of changing school practice. Quintero describes a collaborative seminar — with participants at all levels of education, from teachers to superintendents to university professors— that is the heart of the project, and then outlines preliminary results and lessons learned from this experimental program that can be used in future experimental projects to improve education.
The Algebra Project: Organizing in the Spirit of Ella
Authors: Moses Robert , Kamii Mieko , Swap Susan McAllister , Howard Jeffrey
Published: May 2015

This article analyzes the unique impact of civil rights organizing — in the spirit of Ella Baker — on the grassroots effort of a community activist parent, Robert Moses. Moses, who is also a mathematician, argues that all children should have access to the college preparatory mathematics curriculum of the high schools, and that children without access to such programs are barred from acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary for participation in an economy driven by rapid technological change. In this article, the authors describe the interaction among parents, students, and teachers engaged in The Algebra Project, a seven-year ongoing effort to establish a pedagogy of mathematics that expects, encourages, and supports every student to study algebra at the middle-school level.
Opening Up the Classroom Closet: Responding to the Educational Needs of Gay and Lesbian Youth
Authors: Rofes Eric
Published: May 2015

Eric Rofes, gay community activist and author, explores the issues surrounding the schools'failure to meet the educational needs of gay and lesbian youth. He argues that there has been an across-the-board denial of the existence of gay and lesbian youth, and that this has taken place because "their voices have been silenced and because adults have not effectively taken up their cause." Rofes goes on to present some promising initiatives that are designed to change the status quo: Project 10 in Los Angeles and the Harvey Milk School in New York City. He concludes by proposing needed changes in U. S. schools if they are to become truly accessible to gay and lesbian youth.
Community Education: To Reclaim and Transform What Has Been Made Invisible
Authors: Fasheh Munir
Published: May 2015

In this article Munir Fasheh discusses the role of education as an agent of hegemony and presents an alternative model of community education that is empowering and suited to the needs of the learners. Munir Fasheh, a Palestinian mathematics teacher, presents a powerful analysis of his formal education and how it limited his ability to see and understand the complexity and richness of his illiterate mother's math. Further, he argues that the development of community education is critical to the empowerment of the Palestinian people and is a necessary development of the intifadeh, which reflects a collective human response to an oppressive situation. Fasheh values the basic message of the human element in any educational,transformational process and emphasizes the "treasure that exists in every individual."He analyzes the impact formal education has had on the Palestinian community and offers a model of community education that "reclaims people's lives, their sense of selfworth,and their ways of thinking from hegemonic structures, and facilitates their ability to articulate what they do and think about in order to provide a foundation for autonomous action."
Transference and Appropriation in Popular Education Interventions: A Framework for Analysis
Authors: Vaccaro Liliana
Published: May 2015

In this article, Liliana Vaccaro discusses the educational experience of a particular popular education project in Chile, called the Learning Workshops. This program, which has been in existence for twelve years, has evolved in many areas. Vaccaro documents its evolution by explaining how the Workshops' teaching practice has become more effective, how popular educators have taken total control of some projects, and more recently, how coordinating groups of popular educators are being formed to provide a more permanent educational resource in their communities. Vaccaro identifies some of the strategies and processes that are crucial for achieving appropriation — that is, when popular educators are motivated and prepared to take control of, or appropriate, the educational project in their own communities. This article presents the educational efforts of people who, despite their poverty and the Chilean government's historical indifference to their problems and needs, have committed themselves to improving their lives and have taken control of their destinies. Vaccaro speaks about the commitment of people who are working to construct a democratic society which guarantees quality education, personal safety and health, and opportunities for improvement for all.
Promoting the Success of Latino Language-Minority Students: An Exploratory Study of Six High Schools
Authors: Lucas Tamara , Henze Rosemary , Donato Ruben
Published: May 2015

For the growing numbers of Latino students in U. S. secondary schools, academic success has been elusive. Poor attendance records, low test scores, high drop-out rates, and small numbers going on to college all bear witness to schools' failure to meet their needs. But some secondary schools are providing an environment in which language-minority students and others can achieve academic success. In this article Tamara Lucas, Rosemary Henze, and Rubén Donato report on an exploratory study of six such schools in California and Arizona,and describe the key features they found to be integral to these schools' success.

By focusing on broad issues of schooling in secondary schools with large populations of language-minority students, the authors extend existing research on effective schooling,which until now has focused primarily on urban elementary schools in low-income neighborhoods. They also offer suggestions and a sense of possibility to educators seeking an effective response to the secondary education of language-minority students.
Educative Research, Voice, and School Change
Authors: Gitlin Andrew David
Published: May 2015

In this article Andrew David Gitlin argues that the politics of research is not adequately addressed in current educational research. This, he says, is because methodological discourse often focuses on traditional definitions of reliability, validity, and compatibility, which ignore how method structures a particular type of relationship between the researcher and those studied. Most traditional methods, Gitlin writes, establish an alienating relationship which silences those studied, disregards their personal knowledge, and strengthens the assumption that researchers are the producers of knowledge.

To alter this relationship, Gitlin proposes the use of "educative research," a dialogical approach that attempts to develop voice as a form of political protest. He then outlines the theoretical assumptions of educative research, and describes his experience using this method with twenty public school teachers. Drawing on the teachers' writings in his research, Gitlin describes how the use of personal and school histories, along with a peer evaluation model,can facilitate a question-posing process that can lead to the development of teachers' voices. Gitlin also includes his own account of what he learned as he participated in this educative research project.
Interrupting Patriarchy: Politics, Resistance, and Transformation in the Feminist Classroom
Authors: Lewis Magda
Published: May 2015

In this article Magda Lewis investigates the psychological, social, and sexual dynamics of the feminist classroom as the women and men in her course struggle with the realities of violence against women and the negotiation strategies women use to succeed and survive in a patriarchal society. Lewis presents a feminist critique of patriarchy through her own feminist teaching practice within a context of both blatant and subtle forms of physical, social,emotional, and psychological violence against women. She analyzes students' resistance to such a critique, and self-consciously examines and questions the conditions under which her students make meaning of these events. Lewis shares some of the teaching strategies she has used to subvert the gendered status quo of classroom interaction between women and men by including her thoughts and reactions to her students' accounts of their experiences, perceptions,frustrations, and anger as they grapple with these issues. These stories illustrate the use of such instances as pedagogical moments of transformative power to lead students toward a more critical political perspective. Lewis concludes by suggesting a specific framework that articulates the terms of feminist teaching.
Teachers and Teaching: Tally's Corner Revisited
Authors: Saxon Burt
Published: May 2015

In this article, Burt Saxon relates how the values and beliefs he formed during his childhood in a small midwestern town changed over time as new experiences and influences challenged his initial perceptions. Saxon describes how his perspectives on ethnicity, race, education,and upward mobility evolved during twenty years of diverse discussions with urban high school students of Tally's Corner by Elliott Liebow. He chronicles how classroom discussions of this 1967 study of a group of Black "streetcorner" men and the social forces that shaped their lives changed dramatically from the 1960s through the 1980s. In this personal account, Saxon shares how his students influenced and deepened his own understanding of the relevance of Tally's Corner.
The Community College at the Crossroads: The Need for Structural Reform
Authors: Dougherty Kevin
Published: May 2015

Community colleges offer many students an alternative route to achieving a baccalaureate degree. In this article, Kevin Dougherty analyzes data on these institutions to see how effective they are in helping students transfer to and succeed in four-year colleges. After controlling for differences in family background, high school record, and educational aspirations of students entering two- and four-year colleges, the author finds that community college entrants receive fewer bachelor's degrees. While finding a strong case for reform, Dougherty argues that present reformers need to keep in mind the comprehensive nature of the community college and be sure that their reform proposals will preserve rather than diminish the services it offers students. Dougherty then discusses two sweeping reforms: transforming community colleges into four-year colleges, and converting them into two-year branches of state universities.
Teachers and Teaching: A Teacher Learns in the Context of a Social Studies Workshop
Authors: Seabrook Ginny
Published: May 2015

In this article, Ginny Seabrook describes a year of "teacher research" in which she changed the design of her seventh-grade Social Studies class to a workshop format. Her role as a teacher was necessarily altered by this less autocratic method of teaching, and she found that, as an educator, she could continue to learn about teaching through the inquiry and experiences of her students. The atmosphere of the class became more relaxed; students began to ask open-ended questions and did not expect Seabrook to know the answers. In this personal account, Seabrook tells the story of how she came to see that she and her students were actually engaged in a parallel journey in which she could learn from their teaching as much as they could learn from hers.
Dialogue across Differences: Continuing the Conversation
Authors: Burbules Nicholas , Rice Suzanne
Published: May 2015

In this article, Nicholas Burbules and Suzanne Rice engage several of the central claims made by postmodern authors about the possibilities and limits of education. Specifically,they focus on postmodern conceptions of difference, and on the question of whether dialogue across differences, particularly differences in social power, is possible and worthwhile. In order to answer this question, Burbules and Rice distinguish two trends within postmodern thought: one extends and redefines modernist principles such as democracy, reason, and equality; the other deconstructs and rejects these principles. They argue that it is the redefinition of modernist principles, not their wholesale rejection, that offers educators the most hopeful and useful conception of dialogue across differences.
The Color of Success: African-American College Student Outcomes at Predominantly White and Historically Black Public Colleges and Universities
Authors: Allen Walter
Published: May 2015

Black students' participation in higher education has experienced periods of growth and decline. The recent resurgence and proliferation of racial incidents on college campuses,coupled with a floundering economy, signals a need to place this issue at the forefront of our educational agenda once again. In this article, Walter R. Allen presents the results of a quantitative study on the differences in the college experience between Black undergraduates who attended historically Black colleges and universities and those who attended predominantly White colleges and universities. Building on the results of a number of related studies and analyzing data from the National Study on Black College Students, Allen further examines the effects of key predictors on college outcomes among these two groups of students. He thus sets the stage for some provocative conclusions, with implications that extend beyond the boundaries of academia.
Power, Knowledge, and the Rationalization of Teaching: A Genealogy of the Movement to Professionalize Teaching
Authors: Labaree David
Published: May 2015

In this article, David Labaree presents a genealogy of the current movement to professionalize teaching, focusing on two key factors that define the lineage of this movement and shape its present character and direction. First, he argues that teacher professionalization is an extension of the effort by teacher educators to raise their own professional status. Second,he examines the closely related effort by this same group to develop a science of teaching. Given these roots, the reforms proposed by the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession and The Holmes Group may well do more for teacher educators than for teachers or students. More importantly, they may promote the rationalization of classroom instruction by generating momentum toward an authoritative, research-driven, and standardized vision of teaching practice.
Sex Differences in Performance on the Mathematics Section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Bidirectional Validity Study
Authors: Wainer Howard , Steinberg Linda
Published: May 2015

In this article, Howard Wainer and Linda Steinberg examine sex differences in scores on the mathematics section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M) by comparing the SAT-M scores of men and women who performed similarly in first-year college math courses. Matching almost 47,000 men and women on type of math course taken and grade received, the authors found that, on average, women had scored about 33 SAT points lower than men who had taken the same course and received the same grade. The authors then analyzed the same data using prospective regression analysis and found somewhat larger sex differences in the same direction. Though the data do not allow any conclusions about the cause of these differences in SAT-M scores,they do provide evidence of sex differences in the validity of the SAT-M as a predictor of college math performance. The authors conclude with a discussion of how educators might respond to possible inequities in test performance.
Money, Equity, and College Access
Authors: Orfield Gary
Published: May 2015

In this article, Gary Orfield explores the nature of the relationship between money and access to college, particularly for minority and poor students. Decades after a massive federal government commitment to making a college education available to all, Orfield contends, minority and low-income access is declining, and financial aid is going to middle-class students who could manage without it.

Orfield relates how the goal of making higher education accessible to all got sidetracked as he chronicles the policy debate over student aid through the 1980s and early 1990s. He tells a story of political opportunism, insufficient outreach, bureaucratic insensitivity, and a failure to distinguish cultural differences with regard to borrowing — a story of institutions and faculties protecting themselves through tuition increases without seriously debating social consequences. It is not, however,a story of declining interest in, or aptitude for, college among low-income and minority students. Orfield shows a substantial link between dollars and college attendance, and examines policies that have clearly made things worse for those most in need of assistance — policies that are nevertheless maintained because of political deadlock. He concludes that hard choices must be made if college access is to be restored without greatly increased expenditures, and he then delineates those choices.
Teaching Narratives: A Source for Faculty Development and Evaluation
Authors: Wood Diane
Published: May 2015

In this article, Diane Wood describes a narrative-based teacher evaluation program,a form of faculty development and evaluation intended to provide a more humane process for experienced, competent, professional teachers who are actively seeking ways to further their professional and personal development. Wood describes this evaluation program in two ways: first, through a grounded, general description of the process; and then, in greater detail, through the personal accounts of four teachers,who share their experience of the process and offer their evaluative opinions. Finally,Wood outlines the implications of implementing such a program within schools,demonstrating how this method draws on the strengths, experience, and expertise of teachers themselves.
Labels, Literacy, and Enabling Learning: Glenn's Story
Authors: Fairbanks Colleen
Published: May 2015

Too often, the school system regards students who do not learn quickly enough or in a conventional manner as "deficient," and labels them in ways that keep them from joining in a dynamic learning process. In this powerful account of what a creative and trusting relationship between teacher and student can accomplish, Colleen Fairbanks tells of a young man's determination to overcome his "learning disabilities"label and of the consequences the labeling process had on his school life. In so doing,her own story emerges as a teacher who encourages him to explore his feelings about his learning as he struggles to confront his school history. Most important, Glenn's story illustrates an overwhelming need to reevaluate our educational practices for learning disabled students.
Hearing Other Voices: A Critical Assessment of Popular Views on Literacy and Work
Authors: Hull Glynda
Published: May 2015

Current popular discussion about the role of literacy in the workplace is often based on the largely unquestioned beliefs that workers are deficient in basic literacy skills and, further, that there are clear links among illiteracy, poor job performance, and the declining economy. These assumptions lead to demands for school-based, skill-driven literacy programs tied to the workplace. In this article, Glynda Hull challenges these demands and the characterizations of workers that underlie them, suggesting that these demands are based on overly simplistic notions about literacy and its relationship to job performance and the economy. Hull argues that ethnographic research on literacy and the workplace demonstrates that the relationship between work and literacy is far more complex than the current popular discussion would have us believe. She concludes that we must pay more attention to how literacy skills are actually used in the workplace and that we can best do this by asking workers about their experiences in workplace-related instructional programs.
Teaching and Practice
Authors: McElroy-Johnson Beverly
Published: May 2015

In this article, Beverly McElroy-Johnson weaves together memories of her early experiences as a young African-American encountering prejudice in school with reflections on her current practice as a junior high school English teacher. Through this intimate narrative, she expresses concerns about the development of today's African-American students. She believes today's African-American youth continue to face many of the same obstacles that she faced as a young girl — low self-esteem, lack of validation in society and in the classroom, and, consequently, poor motivation and a lack of confidence in their ability to succeed. McElroy-Johnson emphasizes the need for significant improvements in teacher awareness and advocacy that celebrates African-American culture and provides the necessary academic and social education that the next generation must have in order to succeed.
A Tentative Description of Post-Formal Thinking: The Critical Confrontation with Cognitive Theory
Authors: Kincheloe Joe , Steinberg Shirley
Published: May 2015

In this article, Joe Kincheloe and Shirley Steinberg critique and challenge the reductionist conceptions of intelligence that underlie cognitive developmental theory. The authors formulate a post-Piagetian cognitive theory that is informed by and extends critical, feminist, and postmodern thought. By delineating the features of what they refer to as a "post-formal" way of thinking, the authors provide practitioners with a framework for reconsidering both curricular and pedagogical practices.
Teaching and Practice
Authors: Clifford Patricia , Friesen Sharon
Published: May 2015

Patricia Clifford and Sharon Friesen are team teachers in an open-area classroom at University Elementary School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In this article, they capture their process of creating, with their students, a curriculum that takes its life from the interests and varied experiences of their classroom community. Using excerpts from their teaching journals, the authors recount their work with a classroom of six- and seven-year-olds, in which they continually question, challenge, and ultimately change fundamental assumptions about the education of young children. Through the voices and stories of these authors and their students, we witness the rich life of a classroom where teachers and children are passionate and vibrant learners.
A Technological and Historical Consideration of Equity Issues Associated with Proposals to Change the Nation's Testing Policy
Authors: Madaus George
Published: May 2015

In this article, George Madaus considers the current debate on national assessment from two perspectives: technological and historical. Highlighting educators' tendency to embrace new technologies such as alternative assessments without giving thorough consideration to the foundation on which they are based, Madaus cautions that testing as a technology has the potential to perpetuate current social and educational inequalities. In a brief historical overview, the author points out that several tests originally designed with well-intended goals have over time become a means for excluding minority groups from equal educational opportunities.
Teaching and Practice: Living with the Pendulum: The Complex World of Teaching
Authors: Throne Jeanette
Published: May 2015

In this article, Jeanette Throne describes how educational reforms seem to swing from one opposing ideology to another, while teachers confront the complex nature of the classroom, where different need exist simultaneously. Throne looks at this problem from two perspectives: a historical look at curricular reforms and her won classroom practice. Examining the evolution of her kindergarten language arts curriculum, she questions whether the learning needs of individual students can be met within the bounds of a single theoretical framework. Throne reflects on and analyzes the learning processes of her students, focusing on both their successes and challenges as they begin to read and write. She then describes the ways her students' learning has informed her teaching and prompted her to integrate several theoretical perspectives into her curriculum in order to ensure their success. She concludes by stressing that educators must look beyond either/or choices in order to see solutions that reflect the realities of the classroom, and emphasizes the importance of creating ongoing dialogue between teachers and theorists, researchers, and policymakers in order to foster a more comprehensive view of students and their learning needs.
Poverty and Education
Authors: Connell R.
Published: May 2015

In this article, R. W. Connell reexamines the schooling of children in poverty in several industrial countries. He suggests that major rethinking is due that draws on two assets that have not been considered by policymakers in the past: the accumulated practical experience of teachers and parents with compensatory programs, and a much more sophisticated sociology of education. Connell uses these assets to question the social and educational assumptions behind the general design of compensatory programs, to propose an alternative way of thinking about children in poverty that is drawn from current practice and social research, and to explore some larger questions about the strategy of reform this rethinking implies. He goes on to demonstrate that compensatory programs may even reinforce the patterns that produce inequality, since they function within existing institutions that force children to compete although the resources on which they can draw are unequal. At the core of this process, according to Connell, is the hegemonic curriculum and control over teachers' work. He argues that changing the industrial conditions of teachers' work is central to addressing issues of poverty and education because the teachers are the most strategically placed workers to affect the relationship between poor children and schools, and because teachers of the poor have a capacity for strategic thinking about designing reform strategies that has been largely overlooked. Connell concludes by grounding his discussion in the larger realization that targeted programs are unlikely to have a major impact unless they are part of a broader agenda for social justice.
Teaching and Practice: Elementary School Curricula and Urban Transformation
Authors: Sylvester Paul Skilton
Published: May 2015

In this article, third-grade teacher Paul Skilton Sylvester describes how he practiced critical pedagogy in his urban Philadelphia classroom. Conceptualizing education as a means for changing social structures rather than merely replicating them, Sylvester created a classroom economy, which his students called "Sweet Cakes Town," as part of a larger study of the neighborhoods surrounding the school. In Sweet Cakes Town, students and teacher studied and lived "real world" situations such as unemployment, nepotism, successful entrepreneurship, homelessness, injustice, and cooperation in their exploration of social transformation.
Editor's Review
Authors: Sherblom Stephen
Published: May 2015

American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern EraBy E. Anthony Rotundo New York: Basic Books, 1993. 382 pp. 25.00, 13.00 (paper)

Nurturing Young Black MalesEdited by Ronald B. Mincy Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 1994. 225 pp. 19.95

Men, Sex, and Relationships: Writings from Achilles HeelEdited by Victor J. Seidler London: Routledge, 1992. 265 pp. 17.95
Teaching and Practice: Composing Texts, Composing Lives
Authors: Perl Sondra
Published: May 2015

In this article, Sondra Perl draws on the work of theorists in composition studies, reader response theory, critical pedagogy, and feminist studies to explicate a pedagogy that incorporates her own learning and development with that of her adult students. She emphasizes not only the importance of her students' responding critically to various literary texts, but also the importance of teachers' critically analyzing the texts of their teaching practice. Perl asserts that a classroom of adult learners has the potential to be a supportive milieu in which both students and teachers use writing as a way of brining their own experience to their interpretation of texts. In this way, Perl believes, students and teachers alike author their coming together, and the classroom becomes a site in which they compose not only texts, but also themselves.
Writing Workshop as Carnival: Reflections on an Alternative Learning Environment
Authors: Lensmire Timothy
Published: May 2015

In this article, Timothy Lensmire reflects on his teaching and research in a third-grade classroom in order to raise new questions about the theory and practice of writing workshop approaches. Using Bakhtin's notion of carnival, Lensmire highlights both the captivating strengths and perhaps less apparent weaknesses of such literacy practices in schools. As writing workshop approaches become increasingly popular, his work opens an important dialogue between theory and practice.