Old Educational Ideas,New American Schools: Progressivism and the Rhetoric of Educational Revolution∗

Drawing on books and essays of prominent progressive educators, this essay seeks to identify key elements that should be included in a working definition of progressive education. Such a definition is crucial for determining the degree of influence progressive ideas have had on American schools. The essay looks at how these ideas appear to have influenced the designs of a number of highly visible "whole-school reform" programs in the United States, programs that are perhaps the leading educational reform effort in the United States today. The essay then assesses how effective these programs have been in boosting student achievement. The essay concludes by speculating that the oft-used rhetoric of educational revolution, which was employed by early progressive educators and by later whole-school reformers, is a serious obstacle to genuine improvement in educational policy and practice.     

On George Orwell ’ s Politics and the English Language

George Orwell is an important essayist in the 20th century and of great influence for his critical essays. Politics and the English Language is an essay with an aim to criticize the misused English at the historical setting when World War Ⅱ was about to break out. The following article is to explore the essay＇ s language style and its theme.     

On the Advantages and Defects of the American Structuralism

During the years at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century when Saussure was working out his ideas in Europe, synchronic linguistics was emerging independently, and in a very different style, in America, under the leadership of the anthropologist Franz Boas. Boas set a direction for American linguistics. The school founded by Boas was called structural linguistics. Beside Boas, the other two major representatives of this school during this period were: Sapir and Bloomfield.     

The Democratization of Schools and the Politics of Teachers’ Work in South Africa

As the South African state begins to democratize, so questions are raised about how this process might be mediated by schools and teachers or how schools’ and teachers’ practices might inform the wider process of social change. This paper explores these issues through an examination of how teachers sought to alter relations of authority and the nature of their work within schools, and how these have interacted with new managerial and state initiatives. It examines the conditions of teachers’ work under apartheid, the challenge to these by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union and the struggles in schools over changing relations of authority and teachers’ work in the crucial transition years of 1990‐1997. It argues that alternative conceptions and practices were developed and institutionalized. This paper uses the results of both a 3 year longitudinal study and research conducted on teacher appraisal with the teachers’ union.     

Schools, ‘ferals’, stigma and boundary work: parents managing education and uncertainty in regional Australia

This paper examines forms of boundary work undertaken by parents in a regional Australian city to negotiate social processes around the school market amidst rising economic insecurity. It outlines structural changes, which have increased economic inequality in Australia and impacted on educational reform, and the specific challenges faced by public schools in regional settings. Drawing on 18 months’ qualitative research in one regional location, it identifies and analyses forms of boundary work undertaken by middle-class families to manage these uncertainties in a field of scarce economic and cultural resources. Theories of class culture, stigma and whiteness are used to show how local social labels such as ‘ferals’ and ‘shiny people’ acted as classed and racialised ways of negotiating this social and economic landscape through the school field. Such practices engendered feelings of security and control and shed light on feelings of class-based resentment and anxiety in regional Australia, specifically a middle-class ‘fear of falling’.     

The ‘World Politics’ course: changing thinking on international relations education in Ontario Secondary Schools, 1850–1970

ABSTRACT

What do secondary school students in Ontario, Canada, need to know about the world in which they live in? How did a secondary school ‘World Politics’ course that emerged in Ontario in the 1960s address this question? The ‘World Politics’ course that emerged in the 1960s clearly came about as a result of societal and educational developments. Educators in nineteenth-century Ontario felt no need for such a course. In more recent times, post-Second World War, the discipline of history underwent dramatic upheavals. The opportunities for new courses meant possibilities to reach out to new groups of students. Simultaneously, with this change, the importance of international relations in the history curriculum was reduced but this also allowed for its re-emergence elsewhere. Finally, ‘World Politics’ emerged as one of the responses to the need for an understanding of a much more complex world.     

Secondary Education and Emancipation: Secondary Schools for Freed Slaves in the American South, 1862–1875

Slavery in the United States denied education to the enslaved. Yet within fifteen years of the beginning of the American Civil War and the freeing of four million American slaves, the freed people and their supporters elaborated a full system of universal education in the South, including over 120 secondary and higher institutions. Historians have overlooked black secondary education as a distinctive part of early black schooling. This article documents the competing ends of black secondary education during Reconstruction, the forms of secondary education that emerged during that period, and the curriculum and pedagogy of the schools. An appendix lists the schools of secondary and higher grade known to have been in operation by 1876.     

Kaupapa Māori,Philosophy and Schools

Abstract

Goals for adding philosophy to the school curriculum centre on the perceived need to improve the general quality of critical thinking found in society. School philosophy also provides a means for asking questions of value and purpose about curriculum content across and between subjects, and, furthermore, it affirms the capability of children to think philosophically. Two main routes suggested are the introduction of philosophy as a subject, and processes of facilitating philosophical discussions as a way of establishing classroom ‘communities of inquiry’. This article analyses the place of philosophy in the school curriculum, drawing on three relevant examples of school curriculum reform: social studies, philosophy of science and Kura Kaupapa Māori.     

What has Happened in the Teaching of Politics in Schools in England in the Last Three Decades,and Why?

During the last three decades there have been very different approaches to political learning in schools in England. Very generally, prior to the 1960s, if anything was done explicitly, there was a concentration on learning facts about the British constitution. The late 1960s and into the 1970s saw a 'burgeoning of interest' (Heater) in political education characterised by attention to skills within a broader definition of politics than had been used in British Constitution courses. The 1980s saw the birth or, in some cases, redevelopment, of a whole raft of adjectival educations concerned with peace, development, the environment, 'race', in a way that was more holistic and affective than earlier initiatives. The current period has been described as 'the decade of the citizen' (Dahrendorf), which for most of the 1990s seems to have meant some attempt at learning about responsibilities within a framework of officially sanctioned values, and opportunities to undertake voluntary action in the local community. Very recent developments shift education for citizenship into more enlightened waters but there may be little cause for optimism that widespread implementation will occur. The reasons for such shifts are discussed and trends and consequences (actual and likely) are explored.     

Disillusionment of the American Dream——On An American Tragedy

Theodore Dreiser is now regarded as one of the pre-eminent American realistic novelists of the first half of the twentieth century.an anatomist of the American Dream.In his great work An American Tragedy,Dreis- er exposes and criticizes mercilessly the corruption and black side of American society.The disillusionment of the American Dream is an important theme of the fiction.This paper illustrates "An American Tragedy" is the re- flection of disillusionment of the American Dream in the perspectives of the tragedy of a mortal,the tragedy of American society,and the tragedy of the American Dream.     

Schools, teachers, and curriculum change: A balancing act?

Educational change is a fact of life for teachers across the world, as schools are subjected to constant and ubiquitous pressures to innovate. And, yet, many school practices remain remarkably persistent in the face of such innovation. This paradox of innovation without change is perplexing for policymakers and practitioners alike. This paper investigates the gap between policy and practice, between innovation and the changes in social practices that occur in response to such innovation. It draws upon empirical data from two case studies in Scotland??schools responding to new curriculum policy??exploring contrasting approaches to the management of innovation. One is a laissez faire approach, and the other a more directive managerial strategy. Through an analytical separation of culture, structure, and agency, derived from the social theory of Margaret Archer, the paper sheds light on the social processes that accompanied innovation in these two settings demonstrating how teacher culture and differing management styles impact upon externally initiated policy.     

Feel American,Watch American,Eat American? Remote Acculturation,TV, and Nutrition Among Adolescent–Mother Dyads in Jamaica

Globalization prompts remote acculturation toward U.S. culture in Jamaica; this study used a bioecological systems approach to examine its proximal impact on nutrition through U.S. cable TV consumption, and maternal influences in the home. Overall, 330 randomly selected adolescent–mother dyads from schools in Kingston, Jamaica (M_{adolescent_age} = 13.8 years, SD_{adolescent_age} = 1.8) completed questionnaires reporting American identity and behavioral preferences, daily time spent watching U.S.‐produced TV programs, and frequency of eating unhealthy foods. Actor–partner interdependence models revealed that girls’ American identity/behavior directly predicted their unhealthy eating, whereas girls’ mothers and boys’ American identity/behavior indirectly predicted unhealthy eating as mediated by their U.S. TV hours. Additionally, mothers’ American identity/behavior predicted daughters’ unhealthy eating as mediated by mothers’ U.S. TV hours. Remote acculturation theory may facilitate more targeted research and prevention/intervention.