Texts

Made in America: Immigrant Students in Our Public Schools. Laurie Olsen, New York: The New Press, 1997, 276 pages, $25.00 (hardcover), ISBN 1–5658–4400–9, and $14.95 (softcover), ISBN 1–5658–4471–8.

The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America From a Small School in Harlem. Deborah Meier, Boston: Beacon Press, 1995, 190 pages, $12.00 (softcover). ISBN 0–8070–3111–9.

Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow: Meeting the Challenge of Our Multicultural America & Beyond. Paul D. Christiansen and Michelle Young, San Francisco: Gaddo Gap Press, 1996, 376 pages, $29.95 (softcover). ISBN 1–8801–9218–7.     

Parent training research: An analysis of the empirical literature 1975–1985

This project was designed to provide a retrospective analysis of the parent training literature during the last decade. Eighteen journals with behavioral psychology, clinical/counseling psychology, school psychology, and special education emphases were selected for review. Data related to the number of articles published in each journal, year of article publication, referral problem, and contributing institution were collected. Results indicate that behavioral journals published the most empirically based parent training articles (66%), followed by clinical/counseling psychology (26%), special education (6%), and school psychology (3%) journals. Parents with noncompliant, handicapped, or abused/neglected children comprised the majority (58%) of research participants. Suggestions for involving school psychologists in parent training research and broadening the focus of parent training to include preventive, as well as remedial, efforts are presented.     

Conflicting issues in the Design of Safety Courses in Technology Partnership Schemes

The very short time now available in higher education institutions for the coverage of subject‐specific content in PGCE courses gives problems in ensuring adequate time for effective workshop safety training, especially for those students who will be responsible for the management of pupils in resistant materials workshops. The schedule prescribed by the National Association of Advisers and Inspectors in Design and Technology (NAAIDT) provides a recognised base for the content of such courses. This paper examines the theoretical issues involved, weighs conflicting demands and describes one solution found workable under the current NAAIDT scheme.     

What stories do I tell now? New times and new narratives for the adult educator

Globally, the world of adult education has been much transformed in recent years. While there has been an expansion in the provision made available to adults, the profile of that provision has shifted with a greater emphasis placed on work‐related and certificated education and training, and an increased diversity in learning settings. This has led to a sense of crisis over the meaning of adult education as a specific form of provision and what it means to be an adult educator.

This article examines the ways in which these changes have found expression in the narratives through which adult educators construct their practices and experiences as meaningful. We argue that there is an interaction between the impact of contestation and change in the field of adult education and learning, its narrative or story‐telling practices and the processes by which the identities of adult educators are formed. We examine the significance of this interaction by drawing on three inter‐related themes‐‐the so‐called turn to textuality, the changes taking place in the economy and the organisation of work including the work of adult educators, and contemporary debates over (post) modern identities. In this way, we demonstrate the significance of new theoretical perspectives in providing insights into the contemporary condition of adult educators.