Black Superintendents on Educating Black Students in Separate and Unequal Contexts

The negative consequences of school desegregation on Black families, educators, and communities in the US are well documented in education research today. The purpose of this article is to examine the experiential knowledge and wisdom of practice of former Black school superintendents who attended all Black segregated schools and led desegregated school districts. Using critical race theory as a methodological and analytical framework, I seek to advance our understanding of how the positive aspects of valued segregated schools can improve Black education today. Findings include Black superintendent reflections of and calls to action concerning separate and unequal schooling contexts according to the following constituencies: the Black community, the Black parent, the Black teacher, and the Black student. Building on the participant directives for political engagement and community-based activism, I conclude with a discussion about transforming Black education through a political race project aimed to resist educational inequities, advance racial justice, and promote social change in education.     

Uses of computer‐mediated political communication in the 1992 presidential campaign: A content analysis of the Bush,Clinton and Perot computer lists

This article presents a content analysis of three computer‐mediated communication (CMC) networks used for political discussion during the 1992 Presidential election campaign. Data indicate that the main use of computer networks in the campaign was to assert personal opinions about the candidates, issues, and the election. Other uses were talking about one's own life and experiences, telling others what they should be doing, and posting information for others to read. Significant differences were found between the three campaigns for uses of these computer networks. The Clinton network was used more than the other two for posting information. The Perot network was used more than the others for asserting opinions. This study indicates that voters have specific functions for the use of computer networks as new channels of political communication. Future research should examine what groups of voters use these networks the most and how such use affects candidate image formation. Suggestions are offered for the study of campaign computer lists in the upcoming presidential election of 1996.     

Environmental,cognitive, and metacognitive influences on text revision: Assessing the evidence

To assess progress in understanding text revision, we review research reported since 1980, when process analyses of writing were beginning (Fitzgerald, 1987). A modernized version of the revision model by Flower, Hayes, Carey, Schriver, and Stratman (1986) was used to organize findings about how revision is influenced by environmentally posed rhetorical problems and actual text variables; by cognitive knowledge, strategies, and representations of the text being revised; by metacognitive understanding, monitoring, and control of knowledge and strategies; by interactions among these environmental, cognitive, and metacognitive influences; and by how working memory limits those interactive influences. These influences have been studied with a rich diversity of research approaches, and even though no part of the modernized model has been studied fully, and even though interactions of the model's parts have been examined minimally, clearly interpretable results have been reported about all of the model's parts. Substantial and encouraging progress has been made toward understanding text revision, and the stage has been set for more progress. We suggest investigations to increase understanding of revision and to promote integration of research and theory about reading and writing.     

Cyberself: The Emergence of Self in On-Line Chat

Expanding computer network technologies have emerged as a popular communication channel for millions of people. Contemporary literature abounds with ideologically biased accounts of on-line interaction that hinder the emergence of a coherent analytical framework. Scholarly work on computer-mediated communicative play remains underdeveloped. Through an empirically grounded theoretical orientation, this study aims to identify and illustrate processes and elements central to the emergence of self in on-line chat environments. By use of an e-mail survey, participant observation, content analysis, and open-ended interviews, the social nature of on-line interaction is illustrated and identified as significantly more than the technological sum of the medium. Findings indicate that through on-line chat-interaction a 'cyberself' emerges, rooted in a unique form of communication that is disembodied, dislocated, anonymous, multiple-simultaneous, and faceless. Each of these elements introduces new possibilities to the dramatic nature of on-line interaction, which represents a kind of communication 'self-game' where participants enact a multiplicity of selves.     

Error correction in text

Previous research has shown that writers and editors of all ages and abilities have trouble correcting errors in texts. In this study, we were interested in discovering whether people do not correct these errors mainly because (1) they do not have the knowledge to correct them, or because (2) even though they do have the knowledge to correct the errors, they do not use it. The first case would point to aknowledge deficit, or a deficit at the cognitive level; the second case would point to aprocessing deficit, or a deficit at the metacognitive level. The study compared the number and type of implanted errors corrected by high school and college subjects working on two different texts under three different conditions. We found that, for both ages, the biggest stumbling block in correcting errors was not the knowledge of how to correct them, but rather a failure to detect them: They did not use their available knowledge to find the errors. This processing deficit may be the result of a dearth of available error-finding strategies, or knowledge may not be activated because of lack of motivation or because of a failure to perceive the nature of the task.     

Initial teacher education: a study of the efficacy of computer mediated courseware delivery in a partnership context

The null hypotheses tested were (1) that the efficacy of computer-mediated delivery of courseware was not significantly different from that of traditional university delivery methods, and (2) that the efficacy of learning in partnership with schools was not significantly different from university-based learning.
Forty three student teachers of science were assigned to four treatment groups, in a true experimental research design. The same courseware, designed to develop lesson planning skills, was delivered to the four groups. The first group (n = 11) were taught at university, receiving a traditional lecture, supplemented with a seminar. The second group (n = 12) were taught in a partnership context, receiving the traditional lecture at university, supplemented with a courseware package completed with the student's supervising teacher in school. For groups three (n = 10) and four (n = 10), the contexts were the same as for groups one and two respectively, but courseware delivery was via the Internet with e-mail tutorial support provided by the university lecturer.
Students' achievement was pre-tested and post-tested. Post-test scores were subjected to a two-way analysis of co-variance, with the delivery strategy (traditional or computer-mediated) and the context (university-based or partnership) as factors and the pre-test scores as co-variate.
Achievement gains were 12% higher when student teachers worked in a partnership context rather than entirely at university. Achievement gains were 15% higher for computer-mediated delivery when compared with traditional delivery methods. When these two factors were combined achievement gains were 36% higher.