Education and Opportunity: Some Economic Perspectives

Abstract

This paper argues against the current tendency to regard the acquisition of facts and useful skills as primary in education. While this tendency has often been criticised in theory before, it remains prevalent in practice. Moreover, influential theses in philosophy of education are often taken to support such a tendency, and the current political climate appears to be influencing educational policy in that direction. Hence it is worth opposing it again with, it is hoped, some fresh lines of thought.

An outline is sketched of a philosophical position which supports a different kind of approach which the author has seen in practice.

While there is a place in education for factual knowledge and useful skills, they should be recognised as secondary. The primary qualities, it is argued, are the development (a) of moral values and attitudes, and (b) of critical independent thinking in a spirit of creative enquiry.

In practice one sees a more widespread commitment to a Personal Enquiry conception of education, which incorporates the primary qualities, in primary than in secondary schools.     

Cable and New Media

Mary Alice Mayer Phillips' CATV: A History of Community Antenna Television (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1972—$9.75)     

Socialization of graduate teaching assistants: a case study in an American university

Although graduate teaching assistants [GTAS] play an important role on most American university campuses, and despite the fact that the GTA experience is often the only formal professional training that faculty receive, little is known about how GTAS are prepared for their role. One of the most enigmatic processes related to GTA role development is that of socialization. This paper reports the results of a study examining the types of messages that new GTAS receive about their role and the manner in which particular types of communication strategies are used to cope with inconsistencies and conflicts among those messages. It was found that GTAS are exposed to thematic messages about what it means to be a GTA, that they experienced difficulties when attempting to use those messages to guide behavior and decision‐making, and that information‐seeking strategies were used in response to the specific types of problems that were experienced.     

Strength in numbers? Women and mathematics

Two studies were conducted to test the link between numerical distinctiveness, stereotype threat and mathematical performance among women. In the first study, stereotype threat was measured with a stereotype activation task. Women in a solo, non-solo or control condition completed word fragments and a mathematical activity. Solo women, rather than their non-solo counterparts showed mathematical performance deficits. Evidence did not support the mediating role of stereotype activation. In the second study, stereotype anxiety was assessed. According to analyses, solo women reported greater stereotype-related anxiety than non-solo women. A link between stereotype anxiety and mathematical performance deficits was also uncovered. Finally, mathematical underperformance was associated with greater interest in feminine activities. Strategies to buffer the effects of stereotype threat are discussed.