A Learning-Based System to Categorize Teacher Behavior

As part of their quest to secure academic credibility, physical educators in Australia, Canada, Britain, and the United States have increasingly privileged empirical–analytical forms of research. We argue that this strategy has resulted in a montage of professional values and practices that we term technocratic physical education (TPE). We contend that TPE is based on ideologies of professionalism, scientism, and instrumental rationality, which articulate one-dimensional definitions of excellence in teaching, the body, and sport and also marginalize issues related to political and moral ends. By drawing on the traditions of critical pedagogy and reflective teaching, we suggest some ways in which the limits of TPE can be transcended in pre- and inservice teacher education curricula.     

Book review section

FREE SPEECH: RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION UNDER LAW. By Robert M. O'Neil. Indianapolis, Indiana: The Bobbs‐Merrill Company, Inc., 1966; pp. viii 123+$1.25.

THE MOYNIHAN REPORT AND THE POLITICS OF CONTROVERSY, by Lee Rainwater and William L. Yancey. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1967; pp. xvii+493. $3.95.

VOICES OF CRISIS: VITAL SPEECHES ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES, by Floyd W. Matson, New York: The Odyssey Press, Inc., 1967; pp. xi+304.

THE BLACK POWER REVOLT. Edited by Floyd B. Barbour. Boston: Porter Sargent Publisher, 1968; pp. 287. $5.95 cloth; $2.95 paper.

THE AGITATOR IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. By Charles W. Lomas. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice‐Hall, 1968; pp. viii+182.

BLACK POWER: THE POLITICS OF LIBERATION IN AMERICA. By Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton. New York: Vintage Books, 1967; pp. xii+ 198. Paper $1.95.

REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS. New York: Bantam Books, 1968; pp. xi+609. Paper $1.25.     

Ethical issues in consulting

Should NSPI establish on Ethics Committee? What is ethics, what are the ethical issues that confront consultants and how do they presently deal with them? This article is based on a year long research effort to identify common ethical dilemmas that arise in consultant-client relationships and the difficulties both parties have in resolving them.     

Health education for Somali Bantu refugees via home visits

Background: Somali Bantu refugees, with unique health information needs, created challenges for health and social service providers. Objectives: A service innovation was developed (i) to raise awareness, especially among local health and social service providers, about the Bantu refugees’ presence in the community, their culture, and their information needs and (ii) to deliver needed health information, emphasizing child health, to the Bantu mothers in their homes. Methods: The project consisted of: (i) a community conference targeting local health and social service providers, describing the refugees’ presence in the community, their culture, and information needs. (ii) Focus groups conducted with members of the Bantu population elicited additional information needs. (iii) Curriculum was developed based on identified needs, and (iv) the curriculum was delivered to the refugees in their homes. A clinical informationist and MP3 technology enhanced the project. Findings: Conference attendees’ evaluation responses indicated improved understanding of Bantu culture. Focus groups’ identification of health information needs provided a framework for the health education curriculum. A project website made educational materials available to other healthcare providers. Conclusions: The project raised awareness of the Bantus’ presence, culture, and information needs. Identification of other unmet needs demonstrated that additional support for refugees is required.     

Support for student and staff wives in social transition in a university setting

This paper describes an university sponsored, professionally mediated self-help support program for wives of graduate students and staff members and discusses the rationale for its structure. First, we identify the kinds of problems these women have that make it difficult for them to adapt to their new surroundings. We then present the program as it now functions, together with reports on the wives' assessments of different features of the program. In the discussion that follows, we outline the problems of implementing and maintaining this kind of support program and suggest why self-help groups for this constituency need the active involvement of a professional familiar with the details of campus resources and social life. We also address the importance of locating that professional in a strategic place within the organization to be able to act on that knowledge.     

“The Best Minute and a Half of Audio”

In the introduction to a police audio recording of Bristol Palin describing her family’s involvement in an Alaska house party brawl, CNN anchor Carol Costello commented: “This is quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across.” The incident, however, involved an alleged assault—an act that mainstream journalism generally reports in a serious manner. Costello’s glib treatment of the event could therefore be seen as potentially breaching the boundaries of professional practice, which brought a widespread media response from both mainstream organizations and right-leaning blogs. Through textual analysis of these items, this study illustrates the challenge of conducting media boundary work—and the role strain that results—when the subject of a story occupies space within both entertainment and news spheres.     

THE CENTRAL AGENCY AND EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE LEARNER,THE FAMILY AND THE COMMUNITY

During several of the sessions of the Council of Jewish Education at the annual Conference of Jewish Communal Service held in Baltimore, June 2–5, 1985, the critical relationships of the central agency for Jewish education were examined. The symposium that follows represents three of the papers delivered at the conference with an introduction by Dr. Elliot Schwartz, who coordinated the CJE sessions.