Transformative learning approaches for public relations pedagogy

Public relations educators are frequently challenged by students' flawed perceptions of public relations. Two contrasting case studies are presented in this paper to illustrate how socially-oriented paradigms may be applied to a real-client project to deliver a transformative learning experience. A discourse-analytic approach is applied within the case studies as a technique for identifying changes in students' understandings of the ideological structures, power relations and knowledge systems that underpin public relations and for determining whether transformative learning has taken place. The discourse engagement and normative/critical/ethical paradigmatic orientations examined in this paper provide conceptual foundations for developing civic responsibility that needs to be underpinned by salient social theory.     

Nonverbal immediacy communication behaviors and liking in marital relationships

This study examined the relationship between nonverbal immediacy behaviors and liking in marriages. Findings revealed that a spouse's perception of their partner's use of nonverbal immediacy behaviors strongly correlated with how much they liked their partner (r = .67), and was reciprocal within marital dyads. Individuals married one year or less and those married more than 24 years scored highest in perceived spouse nonverbal immediacy and liking for their partners. The relationship between nonverbal immediacy and liking was consistent regardless of marriage duration. Findings support and expand on previous research in relational maintenance, nonverbal immediacy, and affinity seeking communication behaviors.     

International and Foreign Media

W. Phillips Davison's Mass Communication and Conflict Resolution: The Role of the Information Media in the Advancement of International Understanding (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1974—price not known, but about $12.00)

EBU—25 Years (Geneva: EBU, 1974—price not known)

Sydney W. Head and Lois Beck's The Bibliography of African Broadcasting: An Annotated Guide (Philadelphia: School of Communications and Theater of Temple University, 1974—$2.00, paper)

Rural Broadcasting in Dahomey (Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization [of the United Nations] released in this country by Unipub Inc., P.O. Box 433, New York, N.Y. 10016—$5.00 for filmstrip and accompanying illustrated booklet of text)

1974 Report to the President and the Congress (Washington: Communications Satellite Corporation, 950 L'Enfant Plaza, Washington D.C. 20024—free on request, along with earlier versions of the annual review)

Jacques Moussear (general editor) Les Communications de Masse: L'Univers des Mass Media (Paris: Hachette, 1972—about $12.55)     

Adapting Strategies of Effective Instruction for Culturally Diverse Preschoolers

This article describes collaboration between preschool and university educators focused on adapting the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) standards for Effective Pedagogy for use in early childhood (EC) settings. The CREDE standards are strategies of best practices for culturally diverse K–12 students. Teachers and teacher educators worked together to adapt the CREDE standards for use with young children. Participants included 13 preschool teachers and 2 administrators serving 2- to 5-years-olds at a university-based EC center. Data sources included participant observations and video-recordings of the teachers' instruction. Criteria for measuring use of the standards were changed to be more developmentally appropriate, including adjustments for language development and a focus on goals that included self-management and social skills. The adapted CREDE EC standards may provide a useful framework for high-quality EC instruction for diverse children. This partnership may have been successful because the project drew on the strengths of both the university and EC collaborators, minimizing the hierarchical relationship that is often experienced in such an arrangement.     

Book review essay

THE MYTH OF PSYCHOTHERAPY: MENTAL HEALING AS RELIGION, RHETORIC, AND REPRESSION. By Thomas Szasz. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1978, 236 pages, $8.95.

SCHIZOPHRENIA: THE SACRED SYMBOL OF PSYCHIATRY. By Thomas Szasz. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1976, 204 pages, $10.00.     

Learning for democracy: The politics and practice of citizenship education

It is now two decades since the Advisory Group on Citizenship, commissioned by the newly elected Labour government, recommended the introduction of statutory citizenship education. On the twentieth anniversary of the eponymously named ‘Crick Report’, this article presents the findings of a rigorous mixed‐methods study of citizenship educators in the UK. This research suggests that teachers continue to lack a shared understanding of citizenship, conceptually and pedagogically, and also reveals an emphasis amongst teachers upon individualistic notions of good citizenship that are reflective of national, and increasingly global, political discourse. The findings are analysed using a new conceptual framework—the declarative–procedural paradigm—which is developed here to understand the relationship between political and normatively driven visions of democratic citizenship and classroom pedagogy. In doing so the article adds, theoretically and substantively, to the specific research pool of citizenship studies and broader debates about political disengagement.