The field of speech, 1953: An overview

Inherent in the rhetorical tradition of symbolic form is the search for the rhetorical processes which convert experience into the social forms of community. Fusing Robert Scott's notion of rhetoric as dynamic with the rhetorical concept of “spectacle,” this essay explores “the dynamic spectacle” as a rhetorical document of community building. Black America's struggle for identity in White America is offered as a case study.     

Crossing borders: Learning and teaching primary science in the pre-service to in-service transition

This paper reports on a 4-year longitudinal case study of two Australian primary science teachers during their transition from pre-service to in-service teaching. An analytic framework suggested by Aikenhead (1996) was used to interpret teachers' change and professional growth as instances of sub-cultural border crossing. The same framework provides an opportunity for reflexivity on the part of the researchers in coming to understand their own role in the construction of the borders crossed by beginning teachers. The study examines the hazards encountered by teachers as they cross borders and proposes ways of assisting teachers to manage border crossing into the sub-culture of science teaching.     

Collaboration and the growth of teachers’ knowledge

Studies of teachers working together have exposed the capricious nature of collaborative activity: sometimes it seems to work well; at other times collaboration actually works against improvement. Success in collaborative relationships is best understood through an appreciation of how teachers form and use knowledge. The teachers’ knowledge perspective is used in this paper to interpret qualitative data from two successful collaborative relationships in schools. Evidence supports the contention that personal qualities, underscored by mutual trust and respect for knowledge, form the basis for successful relationships in teaching, operating in different ways, for different purposes, for different people. Providing that teachers are approached with respect, collaboration holds promise as a slow (but powerful) path towards educational change.     

Curriculum reform in a global context: a study of teachers in Jordan

The gap between the educational achievements of the comparatively wealthy and those living in poverty is widening world‐wide, with the associated threat to social cohesion. Twenty‐five years of curriculum reform has largely failed in its objective of providing quality, basic education for all. Arguing that successful innovation requires the participation of willing teachers, and associating this idea with the claim that schools are important for social cohesion, this study surveyed 500 Jordanian elementary teachers about their involvement in a programme of curriculum change and their desire to participate. Twelve key informants were interviewed. The reform has raised the qualifications of teachers and increased male teacher numbers but has neither raised overall standards nor improved truancy rates. Tight central control has failed to engage teachers’ allegiance to the changes. Officials blamed failures on schools; head teachers blamed parents, and teachers criticized a policy that left them mediating a curriculum that lacked relevance and failed to engage pupils.     

New books

LANGUAGE ‐ MAN ‐ SOCIETY: READINGS IN COMMUNICATION. Ed. Harold E. Briggs. New York: Rinehart and Co., 1949; pp. xv + 707. $3.50.

THE ART OF FORCEFUL SPEAKING. By Richard C. Reager. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1949; pp. xvi + 302. $1.49.

HOW TO PUT YOUR IDEAS ACROSS. By Richard W. Wetherill. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1949; pp. x + 435. $2.75.

PUBLIC SPEAKING WITHOUT FEAR AND TREMBLING. By Mark Hanna. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1949; pp. 166. $2.75.

BASIC PUBLIC SPEAKING. By Paul L. Soper. New York: Oxford University Press, 1949; pp. xxi + 394. $2.50.

HANDBOOK OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. Revised Edition. By A. R. Thompr son. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949; pp. xix + 177. $1.50.

BASIC TRAINING IN SPEECH. Brief Edition. By Lester Thonssen and Howard Gilkinson. Boston: D. C. Heath and Co., 1949; pp. 249. $2.25

HOW TO TALK MORE EFFECTIVELY. By Jean Bordeaux and T. W. Tanaka. Chicago: American Technical Society, 1949; pp. x + 218. $2.75.

DEMOCRACY THROUGH DISCUSSION. By Bruno Lasker. New York: The W. H. Wilson Co., 1949; pp. xvii + 376. $3.50.

THE HUMAN NATURE OF PLAYWRITING. By Samson Raphaelson. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1949; pp. viii + 267. $4.00.

PLAY PRODUCTION AND DIRECTION. By C. Lowell Lees. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1948; pp. xiii + 311. $5.00.

HOW TO SPEAK THE WRITTEN WORD. By Nedra Newkirk Lamar. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1949; pp. 175. $2.50.

THE ART OF GOOD SPEECH. By Dwight Bolinger and Ralph Weiman. 4 v. Philadelphia: Russell Press, 1948; pp. 159. $9.50.

GENERAL SPEECH: AN INTRODUCTION. By A. Craig Baird and Franklin H. Knower. New York: McGraw‐Hill Book Co., 1949; pp. ix + 500. $3.50.

PUBLIC SPEAKING FOR BUSINESS. By William G. Hoffman. Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. New York: McGraw‐Hill Book Co., 1949; pp. xiii + 412. $3.50.

THE LANGUAGE OF WISDOM AND FOLLY: BACKGROUND HEADINGS IN SEMANTICS. Ed. Irving J. Lee. New York; Harper and Brothers, 1949; pp. xxii + 361. $3.00.     

A Review of: “Answers to the Health Questions People Ask in Libraries. Kane,Laura Townsend; McConnaughy,Rozalynd P.; Wilson,Steven P.; with David L. Townsend as Medical Consultant.”

This article reviews the formation of the Frontera Collaboration, a coalition of health sciences librarians serving clinicians and public health personnel in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Based on findings from an assessment of the target populations’ learning needs, the Frontera Collaboration participants developed a shared set of training materials that have been used in pilot training sessions. The Frontera Collaboration's participants learned several lessons related to collaborative health information outreach and increased their understanding of the concerns and needs of clinicians and public health personnel serving border communities.