A survey of Kenyan school leavers (200 responses) and 34 interviews show that the exchange value of school-leaving exams is predominant and the use value of vocational programs has little impact. Apparently, 80% of school effort has actual exchange value for only 20% of school leavers, whereas 20% of effort directed at self-employment has…

In 1996, the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum set out principles for effective science education focused on the overall goal of "scientific capability." Five aspects of capability (scientific curiosity, competence, understanding, creativity, and sensitivity) are examined from theoretical and empirical perspectives, including…

Administration of the Test of Understanding in College Economics to 79 British college freshmen before and after a required introductory economics course revealed that students with little prior exposure to economics typically did not achieve the knowledge level of more experienced students by course end. Results were not affected by intelligence,…

Although inquiry has been identified in recent Scottish curriculum documents for young learners, no considered approach has examined what it means for practice. As a first step toward building inquiry into elementary curriculum planning, a working model of inquiry is outlined from the perspectives of the learner and of the teacher supporting…

The level of library provision was surveyed in independent Scottish schools; surveys were returned by 39 of the 75 independent schools. The survey covered school size, examinations taken by pupils, library staffing and qualifications, books per pupil, audiovisual and computer-based resources, resources other than books, information skills programs…

Examines the role of early-education research in addressing issues of educational disadvantage and inequality, particularly in light of 1990s politics, which emphasizes the marketplace metaphor. Discusses the culture of achievement and failure, effects of disadvantaged background on young children's understanding of the learning task, teacher…

A survey of case law, desegregation literature, and four cases in which researchers served as expert witnesses concludes that litigation and court mandates can play an indispensable role in initiating detracking in schools and districts where such reforms are otherwise unlikely. (SK)

Describes children's participating in dramatic play activities that are teacher or peer governed. Illustrates children's use of cultural symbols as material for story construction and social affiliation. Argues for a literacy curriculum in which cultural symbols are open to critical examination. (Author/SK)

A teacher and a researcher provide alternate interpretations of the teaching and learning that occurred in an adult English-as-a-Second-Language classroom. They conclude that mutual collaboration must include all phases of a research project. (SK)

Using feminist and postmodern theories, argues that transparent or "accessible" language is not innocent, but is part of a discourse of power. Reflects on an experimental approach to writing about research that results in a multiply coded, multivoiced text that speaks to multiple audiences. (SK)

Even in schools that seek to create diverse, integrated communities, silence about race prevails. Unless educators consciously create spaces in which to explore the implications of race, culture, and ethnicity, discussions that might be opened by children's questions will not be pursued. (Author/SK)

A study of four adolescent Chinese immigrants through seventh and eighth grades illustrates the interrelationship of discourse and power in their social environment and the impact on their formation of multiple, sometimes contradictory, identities. Their priorities appeared to be agency and identity enhancement rather than investment in the…

The "dilemma of diversity" is reconciling moral pluralism with the need to take prescriptive approaches to promote cultural diversity. Three responses--tolerance, "laundry lists" of common values, and the search for universals--are inadequate and conceal and protect dominant points of view within diversity. (Author/SK)

A Chicana ethnographer working in a Latino community describes her multiple identities and ways that she as a "native" researcher was co-opted by the dominant culture. She challenges researchers from dominant, as well as marginalized cultures, to recognize their own complicity and form new identities as citizens-scholars-activists rooted in the…

A representational view of language assumes that words represent thought. Also necessary is a presentational approach, in which language users are seen as participants in wider social systems and words are statements of connection. An integrated approach uses both views to understand teachers and teaching in the social context. (SK)