This study presents an analysis of hidden elitism in music education through the free choice argument -- that individuals are fundamentally free to choose to study music -- as a meritocratic power structure. Qualitative Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is applied to understand music education as a social system with a special structure in which its…

Numerous studies have highlighted a clear civic achievement gap between students from different ethnic and economic backgrounds in countries such as Singapore and the United States. Concurrently, researchers from both countries have noted that access to government and civics classes and curricula differs considerably across and within schools and…

Peruses Adler's Paideia Proposal and its use of excerpts from Dewey's writings on democracy, focusing on the meaning of democracy. Analyzes Adler's and Dewey's views from a traditional philosophic standpoint (neo-Thomistic versus experimentalist), contrasts them from an educational philosophic vantage (perennialism versus progressivisim), and…

Author urges educators to be guardians and promulgators of the basic social verities. Parity in education must take the place of elitism. (Editor)

This book examines the current school reform debate as a product of tension between elitist and egalitarian goals for education. Chapter 1, "Making Choices," reviews issues in the current debate and provides a general outline of the book's argument. Chapter 2, "The Mission of Schooling," analyzes the reform debate in the context of resurgent…

A study conducted by the Indiana Youth Institute ("De-Track Schools," 1991) indicts a tracking system that helps many academically talented students prepare for college, but fails to prepare noncollege-bound students for much of anything. Tracking, as typically practiced, benefits teachers, not students; is contradictory to American…

In California, there is growing rift between haves and have-nots that threatens society's long-term safety and security. Efforts are under way (via proposed school choice/voucher program) to formalize this division by creating a separate school system for each ethnic group. The national push toward public school choice is relatively benign, but…

Maintains that French educational policy towards art education is hampered by divergent agendas and competing educational directives. While the Ministry of Education supports "education for all," the Ministry of Culture promotes "education of a cultural elite." Discusses the philosophical and political conflicts that created…

Asserts that many privileged parents are sacrificing other children to their own and mortgaging their own children's lives. Affluent high-achievers often back ultraconservatives' efforts to derail detracking reforms, believing education is competitive and their children deserve more consideration than have-nots. Principals must appeal to parents'…