To See or Not To See: Preservice Teacher Attitudes Toward Color Blindness

This study examined the perspectives of 85 undergraduate preservice teacher candidates engaged in a required survey course on diversity at a midsized Midwestern university. Candidates completed the Common Beliefs Survey at both the beginning and end of the 16-week semester. Quantitative analysis of the pre- and postcourse Likert ratings of candidates indicated a significant negative shift relative to the statement, “I don't think of my students in terms of their race or ethnicity; I am color-blind when it comes to my teaching.” Further qualitative analysis of candidates who provided written rationale for their numeric response indicated prevailing themes of conscious bias, intentional color-blindness, and movement toward appreciation of racial difference as a critical cognizance. Implications for teacher education include experiences beyond the scope of a survey course if significant schematic shift leading to the potential for educational equity is to be realized.     

Participant interaction in a course delivered by interactive compressed video technology

Abstract

Fully interactive learning environments have been demonstrated to increase student satisfaction, learning, and retention in the educational environment. Using Moore's (1989) framework for interaction in distance education settings, this study investigated participant interactions in a course delivered to five sites by interactive compressed video (ICV) technology. The purpose of this study was two‐fold—to determine the extent to which participants took advantage of opportunities for interaction and to note their perceived barriers to interaction. The participants failed to take full advantage of the opportunities for interaction provided in the course context. Seven barriers to interaction, which focused on ICV technology limitations and student situational and dispositional characteristics, were identified. Implications for practice and future research are discussed at the conclusion of the study.     

Developing Scientific Literacy in a Primary School

The science education literature demonstrates that scientific literacy is generally valued and acknowledged among educators as a desirable student learning outcome. However, what scientific literacy really means in terms of classroom practice and student learning is debatable due to the inherent complexity of the term and varying expectations of what it means for learning outcomes. To date the teacher voice has been noticeably absent from this debate even though the very nature of teacher expertise lies at the heart of the processes which shape students' scientific literacy. The research reported in this paper taps into the expertise of (participating) primary teachers by analyzing the insights and thinking that emerged as they attempted to unravel some of the pedagogical complexities associated with constructing an understanding of scientific literacy in their own classrooms. The research examines the processes and structures within one primary school that were created to provide conditions to allow teachers to explore and build on the range of ideas that presently inform the scientific literacy debate. The research reports these teachers' views and practices that shaped their actions in teaching for scientific literacy.     

Creating a dialogue between sociological and egalitarian theory in education

No one discipline has a monopoly on the truth, especially in the analysis of a complex subject such as equality. If we are to deepen our understanding of inequality in education, we must open a dialogue with other disciplines, most especially with egalitarian theory. Bearing in mind the limitations of writing in a majority language tradition, the article explores the potential for creating a dialogue about equality between sociologists and critical and feminist egalitarian theorists. What sociologists can gain from egalitarian theory is a deepening of their understanding of the interface between the ethical and the empirical, of the interrelationship between fact and value in social life. In addition, egalitarian theory has the capacity to broaden our understanding of inequality in education beyond the distributive view of social justice that has dominated thinking in education to date. Drawing on the work of egalitarian theorists the article outlines four particular interpretations of equality that have relevance for researchers in education.     

Breaking silence: educating citizens for love,care and solidarity

An indifference to the affective domain and an allegiance to the education of the rational autonomous subject and public citizen are at the heart of formal education. The impact of Cartesian rationalism is intensifying with the glorification of performativity measured by league tables and rankings. The citizen carer and the care recipient citizen are only recognised in the educational arena when professionals are being trained to manage those in need of care. Education for informal care labour, solidarity work and love labour is generally not part of the formal educational trajectory. Because the scholarly understanding of work has been equated with economic self preservation and self‐actualisation through interaction with nature, education is seen as preparation for this type of work. Education is indifferent to other‐centred work arising from our interdependencies and dependencies as affective, relational beings. In particular it has ignored the centrality of nurturing for the preservation and self‐actualisation of the human species. In this article the authors argue that sociologists need to engage with the extensive feminist scholarship on care if they are to challenge the deeply care‐less view of the citizen that is implicitly accepted in new and older forms of liberal thinking. The rational economic actor model of the citizen is contrasted with the care‐full view of the citizen and the implications of both for education are explored.     

Class instruction in voice

DRAMA IN LIFE: THE USES OF COMMUNICATION IN SOCIETY. Edited by James E. Combs and Michael W. Mansfield. Humanistic Studies in the Communication Arts. New York: Hastings House, Publishers, 1976; pp. xxx+444. $18.50; paper $10.50.

UTOPIA AND REVOLUTION: ON THE ORIGINS OF A METAPHOR, OR SOME ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PROBLEM OF POLITICAL TEMPERAMENT AND INTELLECTUAL CLIMATE AND HOW IDEA, IDEALS, AND IDEOLOGIES HAVE BEEN HISTORICALLY RELATED. By Melvin J. Lasky. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976; pp. xiii+726. $35.00.

COMMUNICATION YEARBOOK I. Edited by Brent D. Ruben. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1977; pp. xii+656. $24.95.

DECISION MAKING: A PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CONFLICT, CHOICE, AND COMMITMENT. By Irving L. Janis and Leon Mann. New York: The Free Press, 1977; pp. xxii+488. $15.95.

RHETORIC AND PHILOSOPHY IN CONFLICT: AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. By Samuel Ijsseling. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976; pp. 142. DG 35.

LORD NORTH. By Peter D. G. Thomas. London: Allen Lane, 1976; pp. viii+176, £6.00; New York: St. Martin's Press, $12.95.

THE IMPENDING CRISIS, 1848–1861. By David M. Potter. New York: Harper &; Row, 1976; pp. xv+638. $15.00.

SCHOOLMASTERS OF THE TENTH CENTURY. By Cora E. Lutz. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1977; pp. xi+202. $1250.     

Trust in top management and immediate supervisor: The relationship to satisfaction,perceived organizational effectiveness,and information receiving

Utilizing 2068 individuals in 60 organizations in the U.S. and Italy, this study (a) examines the overall relationship between trust in top management and immediate supervisor and overall estimates of satisfaction and perceived organizational effectiveness, (b) compares the amount of variance in satisfaction and effectiveness that can be explained by trust in top management to the amount of variance explained by trust in immediate supervisor, and (c) clarifies the role of information receiving as a predictor of trust in top management and immediate supervisor. Results of a canonical correlation analysis indicated that the canonical equation explained 49% of the variance in the linear composites (Canonical R = .69, p < .001). Trust in top management was more strongly associated with satisfaction and effectiveness than was trust in immediate supervisor. Tzvo separate multiple regression analyses indicated that after controlling for geographic location of company and type of industry, information received about job and organizational issues uniquely explained 26% of the variance in trust in top management and 13% of the variance in trust in immediate supervisor.     

Book reviews

Black, Edwin and Kerr, Harry P., American Issues Harcourt, Brace, and World, 750 Third Avenue, New York 17, New York. 1961, paper, $2.25.

Wrage, Ernest J. and Baskerville, Barnet, American Forum, Speeches on Historic Issues, 1788–1900. Harper and Brothers, 49 East 33rd Street, New York 16, New York. 1960.

Simmons, Harry, Executive Public Speaking Techniques. Chilton Company—Book Division, Philadelphia 39, Pennsylvania. 1959, $5.00.

Jones, E. Einston, A Guide to Effective Speech. Longmans, Green and Company, 119 West 40th Street, New York 18, New York. 1961, $3.75.

Smith, Joseph F. and Linn, James R., Skill in Reading Aloud. Harper and Brothers, 49 East 33rd Street, New York 16, New York. 1960, $5.75.     

From Public Education to Educational Publics

Students tend to comprehend little and lose focus of classroom instruction when their teachers fail to use instructional strategies that match students’ learning styles. Differentiated instruction can alleviate or eliminate this disengagement. This article describes a case involving a child having difficulty learning and shows how differentiated instruction was used to help this student learn. The author describes the theories on which differentiated instruction is based and provides practical strategies teachers can use to implement this method of teaching.     

Children Trust a Consensus Composed of Outgroup Members—But Do Not Retain That Trust

Children prefer to learn from informants in consensus with one another. However, no research has examined whether this preference exists across cultures, and whether the race of the informants impacts that preference. In 2 studies, one hundred thirty‐six 4‐ to 7‐year‐old European American and Taiwanese children demonstrated a systematic preference for a consensus. Nevertheless, the initial strength and persistence of that preference depended on the racial composition of the consensus. Children's preference for consensus members belonging to the same race as themselves persisted even when only one consensus member remained to provide information. When the consensus consisted of different‐race informants, preference for the consensus was initially apparent but lost when only one member from the consensus remained with the dissenting informant.