The threat of #RhetoricNotSoWhite

In seeking an alternative to objectivity in criticism we often characterize the critical experience as something produced by the critic's mind. Such an assumption causes us to embrace the very metaphysics that justifies objectivity in the first place. We can escape the dilemma by recognizing the role of appreciation in some criticism. The appreciative critic cares for what‐is‐as‐it‐is and so is open to the disclosures of sensual(aesthetic) revelation.     

Quantitative sources for the history of education

This paper proposes a critical reflection on the use of quantitative sources for the historian of education. It identifies and discusses key promises and challenges related to the construction and interpretation of historical statistics in education, drawing on a number of British and some French historiographical examples. Ultimately, the article encourages, where possible and appropriate, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in order to identify trends and patterns in education and facilitate their contextualisation in terms of processes and meanings.     

An Investigation of Forgiveness-seeking Communication and Relational Outcomes

Therapists and theologians claim that the process of forgiveness is essential to the restoration of damaged relationships, but this possibility has received limited empirical attention. Furthermore, the role of an offender's communicative behavior in the forgiveness process remains understudied. This project first analyzed an inductively derived list of communication behaviors to develop a taxonomy of forgiveness-seeking approaches used by 186 romantic partners. These were interpreted with reference to face-management, uncertainty reduction, and rule-negotiation approaches to relationship recovery. Associations between the types of forgiveness-seeking communication and several different measures of post-transgression relationship change were examined. Results indicated that relationships recovered significantly when offending partners used behaviors labeled as explicit acknowledgment, nonverbal assurance, and compensation. Significant communicative effects remained after the effects of transgression severity were controlled. Results are interpreted as partially supportive of the assumption that forgiveness-seeking communication facilitates recovery from relational damage.     

Reading Ages and NFER Reading Tests

The article outlines some practical and theoretical weaknesses of the concept of ‘reading age’. It considers ambiguity in the computational methods for determining the ‘average’ reading age and the tendency for a reading age to become a fixed property of a pupil rather than an estimate of his standing, relative to time of testing and choice of test. A theoretical standpoint is taken that insufficient is known about the way a reader develops for his attainment to be given a developmental or age‐based score. It is further suggested that in any case the relationship between age and reading development is imperfect. This point is developed further when the assumption of a linear pattern in reading development is criticized. It is further suggested that insofar as reading does follow chronological age an age‐adjustment in the scale used to express attainment is highly desirable. Practical considerations such as selection of reading material, comparison with other educational tests and the assessment of reading progress, are mentioned. The article concludes with a brief resume of the problems associated with reading ‘quotients’ and designating children as ‘under‐achievers’.     

Walking Our Talk: The Imperative of Teacher Educator Modeling

If teacher educators are to be effective, they must be sure that their own professional house is in order. To that end, effective teacher educators must be absolutely clear about their professional mission. In addition, they must also have the appropriate background and training to be effective in their mission. Further, they must bridge the chasm between theory and practice as they prepare teacher candidates by keeping current in K–12 contemporary classroom practice. Finally, they must model what it means to be an accomplished classroom teacher for their pre-service teachers including the professional option of earning National Board certification. Only when teacher educators meet these four demanding criteria can we feel with reasonable certainty that they are living up to their job.     

Assessing students’ development in learning approaches according to initial learning profiles: A person-oriented perspective

Research regarding the development of students’ learning approaches have at times reported unexpected or lack of expected changes. The current study explores the idea of differential developments in learning approaches according to students’ initial learning profiles as a possible explanation for these outcomes. A learning profile is conceived as the degree to which students use aspects of deep and surface approaches in their learning process and taking into account the dynamic interrelations between these aspects. Two cohorts of students in a teacher-training course-module completed questionnaires measuring their learning approaches, in a pre-test post-test design. Analyses on the whole sample indicated few significant changes in students’ learning approaches during the course-module. Only a significant decrease in the deep motive subscale was found. Hierarchical cluster-analysis revealed four groups of students with specific initial learning profiles: a deep approach profile, a surface approach profile, an all-low profile and an all-high profile. Using a regressor variable approach, significant differences in growth were found for the initial learning profiles on the surface approach to learning and the deep strategy scale, even after controlling for other significant background variables such as students’ academic discipline and gender. These results suggest that unexpected developments in students’ learning approaches, or lack of significant changes at a whole-group level, may be partially due to dynamic (contradictory) tendencies at the sub-group level. Findings point towards the need of looking at approaches to learning at a more fine-grained level.     

Social class and parental agency

This paper explores the relationship between social class and parental agency. It does so through an analysis of the findings of a recently completed qualitative research project exploring parental voice in relation to secondary schools. The first part of the paper presents a summary of a typology of parental interventions. This illustrates some of the differentials between parents in terms of their access to and deployment of a range of social, cultural and material resources, all of which translates into varying levels of effectiveness in finding and using a voice in their relationship with their children's school. The second part of the paper focuses on the middle-class parents at both schools, suggesting that more nuanced differences in their attitudes to various educational issues (namely discipline and appropriate parental involvement) are closely linked to the class fractions which they belong. It is argued that, despite the broad title of 'middleclass', variations within this general grouping in parental education, occupational pathways and spatial mobility affect their approaches to the education of their children.     

Managed moves: schools collaborating for collective gain

Government guidance in the United Kingdom encourages groups of schools to take collective responsibility for supporting and making provision for excluded pupils and those at risk of exclusion. Managed moves are one way that some schools and authorities are enacting such guidance. This article presents the results of an evaluation of one such scheme. The scheme, involving seven neighbouring secondary schools, was nearing its first year of completion. The article draws primarily on interview data with pupils, parents and school staff to describe a number of positive outcomes associated with the scheme and to explore how these were achieved. We found that while some of these could be attributed directly to the managed move, others arose from the more inclusive ethos and practices of particular schools. The concepts of tailored support, care and commitment emerged as strong themes that underpinned the various practical ways in which some schools in the cluster were able to re‐engage ‘at‐risk’ pupils. As managed moves become more widely practised it will be important to remember that it is how the move proceeds and develops rather than the move itself that will ultimately make the difference for troubled and troublesome pupils.     

General Communication

THE CRITICAL COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW, VOLUME CHANGING PATTERNS OF COMMUNICATIONS CONTROL, edited by Vincent Mosco and Janet Wasko (Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex, 1984—$37.50 to institutions, $24.50 to individuals)./

CLOSING THE CIRCLE: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE ROCK REVOLUTION, by Herbert I. London (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1984—$20.95/10.95).

KOREAN AIRLINES INCIDENT: U.S. INTELLIGENCE DISCLOSURES, by David M. Johnson (Harvard University Program on Information Resources Policy, 200 Aiken, Cambridge, Massachusetts).

GREAT AMERICAN BRANDS, by David Powers Cleary (New York: Fairchild, 1981—$17.50).

A HISTORY OF ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE IN THE BELL SYSTEM: PHYSICAL SCIENCES (1924-1980), edited by S. Millman (Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc., 600 Mountain Avenue, Room 6G-301A Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974, 1983—price not given).