Education & Pedagogy

An educator reflects on preservice teachers in his class who were concerned with issues of interpersonal relations and classroom dynamics but not with socioeconomic, intercultural, and political contexts of education. Nevertheless, there were some faculty and students involved in urban schools bringing reconstructionist ideas of education for social change into action. (SM)

Teachers must understand their personal biases, their own cultures, and the biases and cultures of their students to help students develop the sensitivities to function in a diverse world. Four articles examine multicultural education, ethnicity, racism, and the development of culturally relevant pedagogy for teachers, highlighting physical education. (SM)

Discusses the philosophy of science and education, based on interviews with instructors at Wrigley Corners Outdoor Education Centre (Ontario). Uses hand feeding of chickadees as functional and metaphorical gateway for exploring importance of human contact with nature. Discusses how the personal transformative aspect of outdoor education challenges traditional images of nature and teaching. (RAH)

Describes the Farm Management Home Study Program, a distance education program implemented in 1970 that has allowed over 10,000 farmers and land and business managers in rural New South Wales (Australia) to upgrade their skills through vocational programs in farm management, farm office management, and other vocational courses related to farming. (LP)

If boards of education in rural areas are going to strengthen education, they need to achieve empowering leadership through written policies that create a clarity of vision, empower subordinates, and emphasize renewal. Empowering leadership allows linkages among stakeholders of education and encourages creative efforts toward improving the learning environment. (LP)

Surveys efforts to assess rates of return to education in developing countries. Compares estimates based on regression techniques to those produced by direct measurement. Discusses noneconomic effects of education on health and fertility. Examines the links among education, economic growth, and fertility, using a simulation model of overlapping generations in which children offer a means of saving for support in old age. (71 references) (MLH)

Describes how the outdoor education program in Waterloo County (Ontario) has become an important component of the school system by developing a sound philosophy, staying abreast of educational trends, implementing professional development, providing data on the value of outdoor education, developing community partnerships, and initiating projects that enrich the core curriculum. Outlines cross-curricular outdoor education outcomes. (LP)

Drawing on interviews and documents, the changing forms of the Australian national education agenda, as developed by the Australian Education Council, are examined. Discussion focuses on four areas: (1) national curriculum statements, schooling profiles, and competency statements; (2) the training reform agenda; (3) higher education; and (4) the national movement for educational equity. (MSE)

Maintains that education for men and women in Russia, which were once sharply distinct from each other, have grown more alike. Reviews Russian education history prior to 1917, examining sex bias and educational discrimination. Maintains that the Russian Orthodox Church was a primary force in shaping women's education. (CFR)

Describes a new five-semester program that provides preservice teachers with both knowledge and skills for using strategies and teaching methods associated with general and special education. Discusses the goal and strategies of the Multiple Abilities Program in relationship to geography preservice teacher education. (CFR)

This article examines the effect of educational reform on transition services for students with learning disabilities (LD). Considered are effects of general education reform, the inclusion movement, teacher education programs, special education reform, and standards-based education (Goals 2000). The need for effective transition planning for students with LD is stressed. (Author/DB)

Maintains that the effort to develop and implement national standards in the arts is politically correct but not free of psychological or pedagogical viewpoints. Asserts that educators must formulate the right questions and assess objectively the potential outcomes of an arts education program in reformed schools. (CFR)

Maintains that, over the past two decades, postmodern theorists and critics fundamentally have challenged many of the basic tenets of aesthetics, education, and art criticism. Discusses how postmodernism questions long-held realist assumptions of nature, truth, beauty, and human nature. (CFR)

Discusses an evaluation of the Comprehensive Teacher Institute, an innovative, multicultural, urban teacher preparation program. Reflections by teachers who completed the program indicated that one of the most important contributions to their professional development was fostering a network of colleagues and university faculty who continued to provide support and guidance. (SM)

Introduces ex-teacher and author John Taylor Gatto's experiences and views on education, including contradictory patterns of family life and education in the United States, based on traditions of various immigrant groups; deleterious impacts of standardization and institutional usurpation of family functions; and conflict between the development of individual genius, and education and television as tools of social engineering. (RAH)