What S Noteworthy On School Reform

Annotation. As the education reform movement matures into its second decade, it is clear that many promising efforts have fallen short in their attempts to create real school change. One reason for this is that the process of school reform is much more complex than most reformers realized or were willing to acknowledge. The Dimensions of Time and the Challenge of School Reform points to another problem--the problem of time--and its role in both the success and failure of school reform efforts. The importance of understanding the role that time plays in both learning and instruction and finding ways to provide time for teachers grappling with change and students learning to accommodate a new language and culture are important themes in this book. This book is directed to policymakers and practitioners as well as to academics in that it combines theory with the "real world" experiences of many who have been active in the school reform movement and who have learned, through trial and error, how to think about time in innovative ways. Book jacket.

The process of understanding a text from the narrator s point of view is crucial for the tasks of interpreting and translating the Bible. If the translator s understanding of a narrative from the narrator s point of view is erroneous, then the whole process of translating the message into another language may also fall into error. This poses Bible translators a difficult challenge: How can we understand the narrator s point of view of the biblical stories which are culturally, geographically, and historically remote from our own? Understanding a text from the narrator s point of view must precede the translation process. In this work Hankore presents an argument for the intended utterance of Genesis 28:10 35:15 before proposing in brief how to translate it. By following this process, Hankore shows that a correct understanding of the concept of the ancient Israelite vow in the framework of a social institution is fundamental to reading and translating Genesis 28:10 35:15, and goes on to show how this same votive framework assist an explanation of the relevance of Genesis 34 to the Jacob story.

This is an important book because its focus is critical, and its aim is to demystify the prevailing ideology of school reform. Perhaps never has the argument been greater than now for democracy and the restoration of human subjectivity and agency, two very important aspects of this collection of critical essays. The introductory essay is excellent in its elucidation of the world political economy of the 1980s and current educational reforms. It sets a clear direction for the remainder of the book, which is noteworthy for its organiational, conceptual, and written clarity. Topics include education reform and work, teacher education, continuing education, and equity. In its attempt to present alternative ways of seeing and interpreting educational/social phenomenon, this book is one of the best to appear. The text is refreshingly free of a lot of jargon; thus the reader is better able to understand the complexities of educational and social critique. Highly recommended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate reading as well as academic library acquisition. Choice This is the first comprehensive scholarly critique of the recent literature on school reform. The essays critically analyze the three major issues that have been the focal point of reform efforts: the restructuring of teacher education programs, the reconceptualization of the social function of American high schools and colleges, and the redefinition of the educated individual. The New Servants of Power brings together the work of an emerging group of revisionist scholars in this field, enlarging the scope of contemporary debate about school and educational reform. The essays critically assess national educational reports, books, and related policy statements that set the parameters from which much of the contemporary education debate proceeds. The work considers the contemporary school reform debate as a reflection of a conflict between dominant economic interest groups about the most efficient means of rebuilding labor productivity and American economic power. Next, the concept of work and the schools as reflected in school reform literature is addressed. A section about how groups and individuals who are traditionally less well-served fare under school reform follows. Included are specific implications for constituents, critical questions about continued inequitable distribution of resources, and recommended alternative policies. Finally, the treatment of aims, attitudes, skills, and disciplines embodied in specific curriculum proposals is analyzed. The New Servants of Power is an excellent resource for educators and students on courses such as current issues in education, school and society, and sociology of education.

A critical look at urban school reform efforts.