Most school administrations rely on one of two main forms of social control to ensure teacher conformity with organizational goals. The first, feedback and socialization, depends on teachers' attitudinal and behavioral conformity, commitment, and personal involvement in maintaining high standards. The second, programming and sanctions, depends on…

In England, multicultural education is one of the most important focal points within the ongoing educational debate. To answer questions of practical policy, multicultural education may be viewed from the perspective of education as social process. More than simply pupils and teachers, classrooms and textbooks, education provides social continuity…

This paper examines the argument that increased freedom of choice for students will rid education of undesirable coercion, compulsion, and conformity. Throughout her discussion, the author emphasizes that merely allowing a child to choose does not guarantee his capacity to choose. The capacity to choose presupposes not only the existence of…

Research has indicated that numerous factors influence teaching performance, including nonacademic traits such as personality attributes, self-concept, commitment to teaching, and gender. This study compared the personality characteristics of elementary and secondary preservice teachers. Subjects were junior- and senior-level students (N=186) in…

Student rights to freedom of speech and the legitimate degrees of control available to principals are discussed in this paper. An overview of pertinent federal litigation focuses on two landmark cases involving oral and written speech, respectively: Bethel School District #403 v. Fraser; and Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. A conclusion is…

This study used data from a national survey of homosexual and bisexual public school teachers to explore differences among participants in rural, suburban, and urban schools. A survey was sent to 1,350 participants through national, state, and urban based gay teacher organizations. Of those sampled, 904 responded. Findings included the following:…

The author examines the causes of behavioral disorders that stem from conditions existing in the home, school, and society, and offers specific recommendations for institutional changes which would reduce the number of behaviorally disordered children. Factors noted to be significantly related to emotional difficulties include divorce; the…

Noting that education is viewed as the route to success in American society, the paper argues that education has not lived up to this promise. Emphasis on conformity and regimentation, fostering of competition and exclusion behaviors, classism, racism, and a microfocal perspecitive of social problems serve as barriers to full realization of the…

This study suggests that, given the way public schools are presently organized, teacher styles seem to make very little difference in the degree to which the traditional values of work, time, authority, order, and perhaps achievement are emphasized. One can infer that children attending public school, in whatever permutation, will find that…

The authors discuss how learning disabled (LD) children's beliefs about themselves may be affected by mainstreaming and how those beliefs may influence their social and achievement related behaviors. Using LD and nonLD elementary and junior high school students, a series of studies examined group differences on a variety of self report and…

Discipline of disruptive students can create teaching problems, consume instructional time, and generate legal problems that hinder the rights of the innocent students to gain optimal education. An Oregon statewide survey reporting teacher attitudes toward discipline suggests that needed changes include a greater conformity to established school…

This paper reports on the protracted history of the Arkansas school-finance case, the longest-running school-finance lawsuit in the United States. It details in chronological sequence the lawsuit filed in 1992 by the Lakeview School District, a very small all African-American school district alleging that the state school-finance plan was…

This study reports one investigation to better understand teachers' perspectives about teaching Science, Technology, and Society (STS). The study examined five teachers' perceptions of STS topics taught or not taught in their local schools. These teachers completed a summer workshop or an academic year class on STS. The curricula in the two STS…

National concerns in education and their implications for one local district are the focus of these remarks by a superintendent to his returning staff as he begins his fifth year in the Eugene, Oregon school district. Among the topics addressed are popular attitudes toward education, the achievements of the American educational system through the…

Models of organizational structures developed through the study of commercial organizations are not necessarily applicable to educational organizations. Technical organizations such as factories act to regulate the flow of their processes and products and, thus, to buffer them from external forces. Institutional organizations such as schools or…