The decomposition of sociology

This essay was originally presented as part of the panel “The Social Sciences, An Intellectual Balance Sheet,” at “On the State of Academic Discourse,” the third national conference of the National Association of Scholars, held in Minneapolis, October 18 to 20, 1991. It is part of the opening chapter of a book scheduled for publication in 1993 by Oxford University Press tentatively entitledThe Decomposition of Sociology.     

Book Reviews

Anne Allison. Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics, and Censorship in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 225pp. Cloth 29.00, paper 18.95. Jeffrey A. Brown. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2001. 256pp. David I. Kertzer and Marzio Barbagli, eds. Family Life in the Long Nineteenth Century, 1789–1913. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. 384pp. Jeffrey L. McNairn. The Capacity to Judge: Public Opinion and Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada, 1791–1854. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000. 504pp. Elizabeth Rapley. A Social History of the Cloister: Daily Life in the Teaching Monasteries of the Old Regime. Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 2001. 376pp. Steven P. Remy. The Heidelberg Myth: The Nazification and Denazification of a German University. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. 329pp. Brian J. McVeigh. Japanese Higher Education as Myth. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. 318pp. Richard Aldrich. The Institute of Education 1902–2002: A Centenary History. London: Institute of Education, University of London, 2002. 296pp. J. David Hoeveler. Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics in the Colonial Colleges. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. 512pp. Thomas C. Dalton. Becoming John Dewey: Dilemmas of a Philosopher and Naturalist. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. 416pp. Marvin R. O'Connell. Edward Sorin. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 2001. 800pp. Henry H. Lesesne. A History of the University of South Carolina, 1940–2000. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002. 448pp. Jonathan Zimmerman. Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. 320pp. Alaric Dickinson, Peter Gordon, and Peter Lee (eds.). International Review of History Education: Raising Standards in History Education. Oregon: Woburn Press, 2001. 260pp. James Turner. Language, Religion, Knowledge: Past and Present. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003. 208pp.     

Opinion and the world of possibilities

Editor's Note: This is the concluding essay in a three-part series in which Professor Morson examines the intellectual maladies of the intelligentsia. The first essay, which appeared in the Spring 1993 issue, drew upon Russian intellectual history to clarify the concept of “the intelligentsia” and suggested its utility for an understanding of the politicized segment of the American professoriate. In the second essay, which appeared in the Winter 1993–94 issue, he contrasted the deterministic theories so attractive to both these groups with choice as experienced in the day-to-day realm of contingent events. Continuing this analysis, Professor Morson now examines “chronocentrism,” the view that the present moment is intellectually privileged in comparison with the past, showing it to be another of the basic elements of utopian thought. Exploring the relationship of multiple possibilities to intellectual freedom and pluralism, Professor Morson argues that there is a close connection between the appreciation of “open time” on the one hand, and the belief in free-wheeling dialogue, the tolerance necessary for democracy, intellectual modesty in the face of the world's complexity, and a rich sense of opinion, on the other. This essay is an adaptation of the final chapter of his new book,Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of Time, and appears by the generous permission of Yale University Press.     

Book Reviews

Catherine Cocks. Doing the Town: The Rise of Urban Tourism in the United States, 1850–1915. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. 305pp. Anne E. Gorsuch. Youth in Revolutionary Russia: Enthusiasts, Bohemians, Delinquents. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. 384pp. Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, Small Comrades: Revolutionizing Childhood in Soviet Russia, 1917–1932. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001. 224pp. Lee Congdon. Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2001. 235pp. Kevin Manton. Socialism and Education in Britain 1883–1902. London: Woburn Press, 2001. 224pp. Nancy Beadie and Kim Tolley (eds.). Chartered Schools: Two Hundred Years of Independent Academies in the United States, 1727–1925. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2002. 364pp. Edward J. Cashin. Beloved Bethesda: A History of George Whitefield's Home for Boys, 1740–2000. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2001. 288pp. Keith R. Widder. Battle for the Soul: Métis Children Encounter Evangelical Protestants at Mackinaw Mission, 1823–1837. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1999. 220pp Kenneth M. Gold. School's In: The History of Summer Education in American Public Schools. New York: Peter Lang, 2002. 315 pp. Adrian Jones. Follow the Gleam: A History of Essendon Primary School 1850–2000. Kew: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2000. Carrie Tirado Bramen. The Uses of Variety: Modern Americanism and the Quest for National Distinctiveness. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. 380pp. Philip Massolin. Canadian Intellectuals, the Tory Tradition, and the Challenge of Modernity, 1939–1970. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001. 357pp. Jonathan E. Helmreich. Eternal Hope: The Life of Timothy Alden, Jr. New York: Cornwall Books, 2001. 211pp. Carolyn B. Matalene and Katherine C. Reynolds. Carolina Voices: Two Hundred Years of Student Experiences. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001. 272pp. Theodore J. Crackel. West Point: A Bicentennial History. Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2002. 368pp. Paul C. Helmreich. Wheaton College, 1834–1957: A Massachusetts Family Affair. New York: Cornwall Books, 2001. 536pp. Clark Kerr. The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949–1967. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001. 585pp. Sidney Gelber. Politics and Public Higher Education in New York State–Stony Brook–A Case History. New York: Peter Lang, 2001. 375pp. Claude J. Summers and Ted‐Larry Pebworth. Literary Circles and Cultural Communities in Renaissance England. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2000. 243pp. Brian Pullan with Michele Abendstern. A History of the University of Manchester 1951–73. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. 186pp. George M. Logan. The Indiana University School of Music: A Histoy. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2000. 360pp.     

The adolescent novel of ideas

Peter Hollindale first developed critical interests in children's literature during postgraduate teacher training at the University of Bristol, where he was taught by Margaret Meek. After teaching for several years in secondary schools he was appointed to the University of York, where he is senior lecturer in English and educational studies. He now teaches an undergraduate special paper on children's literature in the Department of English there. His bookChoosing Books for Children, a guide for parents, was published in 1974, and he has since written extensively on children's literature in academic and professional journals. His article “Ideology and the Children's Book,” which appeared inSignal 55, received the Children's Literature Association Prize for the best essay in the field of children's literature published in 1988. In recent years he has worked closely on J. M. Barrie. His edition of the “Peter Pan” prose texts was published by Oxford University Press in 1991, andPeter Pan and Other Plays appears from the same publisher in 1995. He is interested in reworkings and adaptations of classic children's texts for film and television, and his study of Steven Spielberg'sHook was published inSignal 72 in 1993. For Thimble Press he is currently completingSigns of Childness: A Short Philosophy of Children's Literature. He has contributed a number of articles toCLE, the most recent being “Westall's Kingdom” in the 1994 Autumn issue.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviewed in this Article:
O. Robert Simha. MIT Campus Planning, 1960–2000: An Annotated Chronology . Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2001. 160 pp.
Rick Ostrander. Head, Heart, and Hand: John Brown University and Modern Evangelical Higher Education . Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2003.256pp.
Ralph D. Gray. IUPUI: The Making of an Urban University . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. 339pp.
Carol Kammen. Cornell: Glorious to View . Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.264pp.
Martin L. Friedland. The University of Toronto: A History . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 680pp.
Sybil Gordon Kantor. Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modem Art . Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2002. 496 pp.
Chara Haeussler Bohan. Go to the Sources: Lucy Maynard Salmon and the Teaching of History . New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2001. 192pp.
Edward E. Gordon and Elaine H. Gordon. Literacy in America: Historic Journey and Contemporary Solutions Foreword by Gerald Gutek Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 352pp.
Stig Thogersen. A County of Culture: Twentieth Century China Seen from the Village Schools of Zouping, Shandong . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. 320pp.     

Character building through speech education in high school

Politics and persuasion

Public Opinion in War and Peace. A. Lawrence Lowell. Harvard University Press. 1923.

Public Opinion, Walter Lippmann. Harcourt, Brace and Co. 1922.

Builders of the Canadian Commonwealth. (A Collection of Speeches with Introductory Essays). George H. Locke. The Ryerson Press, Toronto, Canada. 1923. Pp. 317. $2.50.

The Practical Chart and Handbook of Parliamentary Motions. A. Byrle Whitney. The Economy Advertising Company, Iowa City, Iowa. $1.25. 79 pages.     

Briefly Noted

Anna Maria Torriglia. Broken Time, Fragmented Space: A Cultural Map for Postwar Italy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 272pp.
Arch Puddington. Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2000. 288pp.
Slava Gerovitch. From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. 383pp.
Terhi Rantanen. The Global and the National: Media and Communications in Post-Communist Russia. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002. 176pp.
Henry Yu. Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact, and Exoticism in Modern America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 288pp.
David Martin Jones. The Image of China in Western Social and Political Thought. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 208pp.
Karen Kelsky. Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001. 272pp.     

Short notices

Methods of Research in Education. By J. E. Wise, R. B. Norlberg and D. R. Rietz. Pp. viii, 216. Boston: D. G. Heath. London: Harrap, 1967. 28s.

Innovation and Research in Education. By Michael Young. 2nd impression. Pp. viii, 182. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1967. 12s. 6d. paperback.

A Dictionary of Sociology. Edited by G. Duncan Mitchell. Pp. viii, 224. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1968. 25s.

Society and Education: A Book of Readings. Edited by R. J. Havighurst, B. L. Neugarten and J. M. Falk. Pp. xiv, 364. Boston: Allyn &; Bacon, 1967. N.P.

Talking and Writing: A Handbook for English Teachers. Edited by James Britton. Pp. xvi, 157. London: Methuen, 1967. 17s. 6d.

Children with Special Needs in the Infants School. By Lesley Webb. Pp. 216. London: Colin Smythe, 1967. 30s.

Primary School Inspection in New Countries. By W. A. Dodd. Pp. ix, 100. Oxford University Press, 1968. 9s. 6d.

Measurement and Evaluation of Learning. By A. J. Lien. Pp. xvi, 220. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. G. Brown, 1967. $4.95.

Measuring Intelligence of Indian Children. By V. V. Kamat. 4th Edition, pp.xvi, 322. Oxford University Press, 1967. 45s.

Motor Aptitude and Intellectual Performance. By A. H. Ismail and J. J. Gruber. Pp. xvii, 199. Columbus, Ohio: Chas. Merrill Bks., 1968. $4.95.

Supervision in Youth Work. By M. Joan Tash. Pp. 175. London: Council of Social Service, 1967. 12s. 6d.

The Young Worker at College. By Ethel Venables. Pp. 240. London: Faber, 1967. 36s.

A Country Grammar School: A History of Ashby‐de‐la‐Zouch Grammar School through four centuries 1567 to 1967. By Levi Fox. Pp. xvi, 204. Oxford University Press for the Governors of the Foundation, Ashby‐de‐la‐Zouch, 1967. 35s.

Devon Village Schools in the Nineteenth Century. By Roger R. Sellman. Pp. 171. Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1967. 35s.

George Ticknor and the Boston Brahmins. By David B. Tyack. Pp. x, 289. Harvard University Press. London: Oxford University Press, 1967. 56s.

New Designs for Learning: Highlights of the Reports of the Ontario Curriculum Institute, 1963–1966. Edited by Brian Burnham. Pp. xii, 326. Toronto University Press. London: Oxford University Press, 1967. 48s.

Schools of the Foothills Province: The Story of Public Education in Alberta. By John W. Chalmers. Pp. x, 489. Toronto University Press. London: Oxford University Press, 1967. 605.

King's College, Budo—The First Sixty Tears. By G. P. McGregor. Pp. x, 168. Oxford University Press, 1967. 26s. 6d.

The World Year Book of Education 1967: Educational Planning. Edited by G. F. Bereday and J. A. Lauwerys. Pp. xiv, 442. London: Evans Bros, 1967. 84s.

Directory of Postgraduate Courses and Opportunities 1968. Pp. 420. London: Cornmarket Press, 1968. Paperback 12s 6d. Students 5s.     

高中物理教科书的新追求--简介北师大版《高中物理教科书》

本文比较详细地介绍了北师大版高中物理教科书的编写意图和该教材的特点.     

Literary critic versus expert commentator: The case of katharine tozer'sMumfie marches on

Nicholas Tucker taught English in comprehensive schools in London before qualifying as an educational psychologist. He is now a lecturer in developmental psychology at the University of Sussex, with a special interest both in children's reactions to literature and in the history and present-day status of childhood itself. He has written five books for children as well as books about children's literature, includingThe Child and the Book: A Literary and Psychological Exploration, reissued in 1990 by Cambridge University Press in their new Canto “Classics” series.     

Institutionally imposed social agendas

This essay is excerpted from Dr. Sowell's book,Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas (Free Press, 1993).     

The educational researches of the Manchester statistical society, 1830–1840

Case Studies in Curriculum Administration History. Edited by Henning Haft and Stefan Hopmann. Pp. ix, 206. Index. Basingstoke: The Falmer Press, 1990. £10.95. ISBN 1–85000–858–2.

Education, Work and Pay in East Africa. By Arthur Hazlewood with Jane Armitage, Albert Berry, John Knight and Richard Sabot. Pp. xxxiv, 337. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. £37.50. ISBN 0–19–828685–6.

Constructing the Subject: Historical origins of psychological research. By Kurt Danziger. Pp. ix, 254. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0–521–36358–6. £25 h/b.

Education, Training and Employment, Volume 1: Educated Labour ‐ The Changing Basis of Industrial Demand, Volume 2: The Educational Response. Edited by Geoff Esland. Vol. 1 pp. xviii + 329, Index. ISBN 0–201–54424–5; Vol. 2 pp. xx + 373, Index. ISBN 0–201–54430‐X. Wokinghanv. Addison‐Wesley in association with The Open University, 1991. £12.95 each.

The Philosophy of Mathematics Education. By Paul Ernest. Pp. xiv, 329. Index. Basingstoke: The Falmer Press, 1991. £30 cloth; £13.95 paper. ISBN 1–85000–666–0 (cloth); 1–85000–667–9 (paperback). Studies in Mathematics Education.

Ethnic Differences. By J. Perlman. Pp. 321. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. £12.95. ISBN 0–521–38975–5.

Education and the Global Concern. By Torsten Husén. Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Pp. xii, 162. ISBN 0–08–040489–8.

Technical Education and the State Since 1850. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Edited by Penny Summerfield and Eric J. Evans. Pp. 223. Manchester University Press, 1990. £29.95. ISBN 0–7190–2967–8.

The High Status Track. Edited by Paul William Kingston and Lionel S. Lewis. Pp. xxxiv, 254, Index. New York: State University of New York Press, 1990. $54 cloth/ $17.95 paper. ISBN 0–7914–0010–7.

Emily Davies and the Liberation of Women 1830–1921. By Daphne Bennett. London: André Deutsch, 1990. Pp. 251. £15.95 ISBN 0–233–981194–1.

A Higher Education: The CNAA and British Higher Education 1964–1989. By Harold Silver. Pp. 294. London: Falmer Press, 1990. ISBN 1–85000–701–2 £12.95 p/b.

The Social Psychology of the Primary School. Edited by Colin Rogers and Peter Kutnick. Pp. 259. London: Routledge, 1990. ISBN 0–415–02400–5, hardback £35.

Classroom Ethnography. By Martyn Hammersley. Pp. xi, 164, Index. Buckingham: Open University Press and Toronto: OISE Press, 1990. £9.99 ISBN 0–7744–0354–3. In the series Modem Educational Thought.

Access and Alternative Futures for Higher Education. Edited by Gareth Parry and Clive Wake. Pp. xv, 228. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1990. ISBN 0–340–51919–3. £12.95 p/b.

Education and the Good Life. By John White. London: Kogan Page, 1990. Pp. 188. ISBN 0–7494–0096‐X. £22.50 hardback.

Girls in their Prime: Scottish Education Revisited. Edited by Fiona M. S. Paterson and Judith Fewell. Pp. 168. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1990. £8.50. ISBN 0–7073–0578–0.     

Review article

Talent and education, The Chosen Few. By W. D. Furneaux. Pp. xxvi, 245. Oxford University Press, 1961. 25s.

Talent and Education. Edited by E. Paul Torrance. Pp. x, 210. University of Minnesota Press. London: Oxford University Press, 1960. 36s.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: THE SEA IS HISTORY Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, by Richard Allsopp Oxford University Press, 1996 HYPING THE TEXT Hypertext: the Electronic Labyrinth, by Ilana Snyder Melbourne University Press, 1996 ENJOYING TEACHING PRIMARY ENGLISH Opportunities for English in the Primary School, by Michael Lockwood Trentham Books, 1996 Learning about Language: Issues for Primary Teachers, by Alison Sealy Open University Press, 1996 DID DEARING DO IT BETTER?Language Education in the National Curriculum, edited by Christopher Brumfit (series editor Michael Stubbs) Basil Blackwell, 1995     

Increasing the number of feminist scientists: why feminist aims are not served by the Underdetermination Thesis

Recent feminist philosophers of science have argued that feminist values can contribute to rational decisions about which scientific theories to accept. On this view, increasing the number of feminist scientists is important for ensuring rational and objective theory acceptance. The Underdetermination Thesis has played a key role in arguments for this view [Anderson (1995) Hypatia 10(3), 50–84; Hankinson Nelson (1990) Who knows? From Quine to a feminist empiricism. Temple University Press, Philadelphia; Longino (1990) Science as social knowledge. Princeton University Press, Princeton; Longino (2002) The fate of knowledge. Princeton University Press, Princeton; Kourany (2003) Philosophy of Science 70, 1–14]. This thesis is alleged to open an argumentative “gap” between evidence and theory acceptance and provide a rationale for filling the gap with feminist values. While I agree with the conclusion that feminist values can contribute to rational decisions about which theories to accept, I argue that the Underdetermination Thesis cannot support this claim. First, using earlier arguments [Laudan (1990) in: R. Giere (ed) Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science, vol 14, pp 267–297; Slezak (1991) International Studies in Philosophy of Science 5, 241–256; Pinnick (1994) Philosophy of Science 61, 664–657] I show that Underdetermination cannot, by itself, establish that feminist values should fill the gap in theory acceptance. Secondly, I argue that the very use of the Underdetermination Thesis concedes that feminist values are extra-scientific, a-rational, factors in theory acceptance. This concession denies feminists grounds to explain why their values contribute to rational scientific reasoning. Finally, I propose two alternative ways to explain how feminist values can contribute to rational theory acceptance that do not rely on Underdetermination.

Book Reviews

Book Reviewed in this Article: Candy Gunther Brown. The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789–1880. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 352pp. Julie Des Jardins. Women and the Historical Enterprise in America: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Memory, 1880–1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. 380pp. Sylvia Paletschek and Bianka Pietrow‐Ennker, eds. Women's Emancipation Movements in the Nineteenth Century: A European Perspective. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. 448pp. Rodney Koeneke. Empires of the Mind: I.A. Richards and Basic English in China, 1929–1979. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. 272pp. Karl‐Heinz Füssl. Deutsch‐amerikanischer Kultzlraustausch im 20. Jahrhundert: Bildung—Wissenschaf—Poolitik. Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus Verlag, 2004. 325pp. David C. Engerman. Modernization from the Other Shore: American Intellectuals and the Romance of Russian Development. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2004. 399pp. Hamilton Cravens (ed). The Social Sciences Go to Washington: The Politics of Knowledge in the Postmodern Age. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004. 235pp. David C. Mowery, kchard R. Nelson, Bhaven Sampat, and Arvids Ziedonis. Ivory Tower and Industrial Innovation: University‐Industry Technology Transfer Before and After the Bayh‐Dole Act. Stanford: Stanford Business Books, 2004. 264pp. Karyn L. Hollis. Liberating Voices: Writing at the Bryn Mawr Summer. School for Women Workers. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004. 192pp. Peter Cunningham and Philip Gardner. Becoming Teachers: Texts and Testimonies, 1907–1950. London: Woburn Press, 2004. 250 pp. Richard Aldrich (ed.). Public or Private Education?: Lessons from History. London: Woburn Press, 2004. 221pp. Andrea Hamilton. A Vision for Girls: Gender, Education, and the Bryn Mawr School. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. 237pp. Illana DeBare. Where Girls Come First: The Rise, Fall, and Surprising Revival of Girls’Schools. New York: Penguin Group, 2004. 392pp. Jack E. Davis and Kari Frederickson (eds.). Making Waves: Female Activists in Twentieth Century Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. 342pp. Doris Hinson Pieroth. Seattle's Women Teachers of the Interwar Years: Shapers of a Livable City. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004. 283pp. Stephanie Nicole Robinson. History of Immigrant Female Students in Chicago Public Schools. New York: Peter Lang, 2004. 144pp. Charles Bishop. The Community's College: A History of Johnson County Community College, 1969–1999. Pittsburg, KS: Johnson County Community College/Pittcraft Printing, 2002. 277pp. Lee Hargrave. LSU Law: The Louisiana State University Law School from 1906 to 1977. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. 329pp. Amilcar Shabazz. Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 376pp. Steven Noll and James W. Trent (eds.) Mental Retardation in America: A Historical Reader (The History of Disability) New York: New York University Press, 2004. 506pp. David Hutchison. A Natural History of Place in Education. New York: Teachers College Press, 2004. 170pp.     

Street Smarts vs. Book Smarts: The Figured World of Smartness in the Lives of Marginalized, Urban Youth

How smartness is defined within schools contributes to low academic achievement by poor and racial/ethnic minority students. Using Holland et al.’s (1998) [Holland, D., Lachicotte, W., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (Eds.) (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.] concept of “figured worlds,” this paper explores the “figuring” of smartness through the perspectives of marginalized youth. The youth made key distinctions between being book smart vs. street smart. This distinction is a direct challenge by the youth to the dominant discourse of smartness or “book smarts” as it operates in schools. To the youth, “street smarts” are more important because they are connected to being able to maneuver through structures in their lives such as poverty, the police, street culture, and abusive “others.” This distinction is key because street smarts stress agency in countering social structures whereas, for many of the youth, book smarts represented those structures, such as receiving a high school diploma. Implications for schools and pedagogy are discussed. B.A. earned from Indiana University – Bloomington, Masters and Ph.D. earned from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Beth Hatt Fis an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration and Foundations at Illinois State University where she teaches research methods and social foundations of education. Her current research explores smartness as a cultural construct in schools and the media.     

Figured World of History Learning in a Social Studies Methods Classroom

This paper considers how one teacher educator, Dr. Gomez, took up revisionist history and inquiry in her social studies methods classroom. The concepts of figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998) [Holland, D., Lachicotte, W. Jr., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press], and artifacts and mediation (Holland & Cole, 1995; Vygotsky 1978, 1986) [Holland, D., & Cole, M. (1995). Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 26(4), 465–490; Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Boston: The MIT Press] are used to present a case study. The study focuses on the artifacts that made up the figured world of history learning in Dr. Gomez’s social studies methods class and the learner identities afforded by this context. The purpose of this study is two-fold: (a) explore how teacher education classes can recruit primarily white, middle class students into a figured world of history learning that is culturally congruent with urban settings, and (b) demonstrate the application of the figured worlds framework to the study of learning in a teacher preparation program. Cecil Robinson is an assistant professor of educational psychology at The University of Alabama. His research focuses on social studies teaching and learning, technology, democracy, and hope. Address correspondence to Cecil Robinson, Campus Box 870231, Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research and Counseling, College of Education, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0231, USA; e-mail: crobinso@bamaed.ua.edu