HER CLASSICS REPRINT
ARTICLES
VOICES INSIDE SCHOOLS
BOOK REVIEW
Ray C. Rist
Many studies have shown that academic achievement is highly correlated with social class. Few, however, have attempted to explain exactly how the school helps to reinforce the class structure of the society. In this article, Dr. Rist reports the results of an observational study of one class of ghetto children during their kindergarten, first- and second-grade years. He shows how the kindergarten teacher placed the children in reading groups which reflected the social class composition of the class, and how these groups persisted throughout the first several years of elementary school. The way in which the teacher behaved toward the different groups became an important influence on the children's achievement. Dr. Rist concludes by examining the relationship between the "caste" system of the classroom and the class system of the larger society. (pp. 266-301)
Herbert W. Marsh, Kit-Tai Hau, and Chit-Kwong Kong
In this article, Herbert Marsh, Kit-Tai Hau, and Chit-Kwong Kong evaluate the effects of instruction in the first language (Chinese) and the second language (English) on achievement using multilevel growth models for a large representative sample of Hong Kong students during their first three years of high school. For nonlanguage subjects, late immersion in English as the language of instruction had large negative effects. Immersion in English did have positive effects on English and, to a smaller extent, Chinese language achievement, but these effects were small relative to the large negative effects in nonlanguage subjects. Whereas previous research has shown positive effects for early-immersion programs that start in kindergarten where language demands are not so great, negative effects for this late-immersion program challenge the generality of these findings to high schools and, perhaps, theoretical models of second-language acquisition. (pp. 302-346)
Douglas Sadao Aoki
In this article, Douglas Sadao Aoki argues that teaching conceived as the translation of complex materials into plain language is actually a refusal to teach. He challenges the commonsensical conviction that good teaching, like good writing, makes its meaning clear and accessible - a thing that speaks for itself. The authority of that conviction, he shows, has elevated the desire for clarity into an institutional demand. Yet, like many other commonsensical convictions and institutional demands, teaching framed by clarity is suspect in its politics and radical in its limitations. Aoki uses the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, which reveals the suspect exclusionary practices of those pedagogical politics, to show that the love of clear writing turns out to be a hatred of language, a hatred that motivates a refusal to teach. Aoki suggests that the crucial recognition that neither teaching nor language ever speaks for itself is what gives us the chance to refuse the refusal to teach. (pp. 347-369)
Zachary Dean Sconiers and Jerry Lee Rosiek
In this article, middle school science teacher Zachary Sconiers and university researcher Jerry Rosiek introduce the sonata-form case study, a narrative structure designed to document teachers' understandings of how subject matter and sociocultural influences intersect in the classroom. Written in collaboration with the Fresno Science Education Equity Teacher Research Project, this case study is told from the perspective of Jerome Jameson, a fictional chemistry teacher, whose story is based on Sconiers's actual teaching experiences. Also integrated into the narrative are Sconiers's in-depth reflections on the connections between his commitment to science education and his commitment to promoting educational equity. The sonata-form case study is followed by an afterword, written by Rosiek and Sconiers, that describes this unique methodology for teacher inquiry in full detail. The writing process for the case study was extensive and iterative: the two authors worked closely over the course of a year to develop the narrative, with Rosiek taking the lead on revising and editing. With this case study, Sconiers and Rosiek highlight the critical need for a new form of educational research, one that "builds bridges between the discourses of educational excellence and educational equity, as well as between theory and practice." (pp.370-404)
by Londa Schiebinger.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. 252 pp. $27.95.
Science historian Londa Schiebinger begins her book Has Feminism Changed Science? with a direct response to the question posed in the title. She writes, "Feminism has brought some remarkable changes to science" (p. 1). In her book, Schiebinger, who treats science as both a profession and a body of knowledge, reveals the complexity of this question and its answer. In her discussion, she traces the history of women in science, explores the culture of science and gender styles in the practice of science, and delves into the relationship between gender and the actual content of science.
Schiebinger discusses the historical exclusion of women as regular members of scientific societies, with a few notable exceptions, such as physicist Laura Bassi in Italy. She also relates the anonymous contributions of women to science, some as wives and technicians. Historically, scientific institutions - places where formal science is practiced, including scientific academies, universities, and laboratories - have served to encourage or discourage women's participation in the field. For example, distinguished scientists Sophie Germain and Marie Curie were not admitted to the Académie des Sciences in Paris solely because they were women. Yet, during World War II, women were recruited for academic positions in science. Multiple factors have contributed to the success of women in science at various times in history. These factors include the prestige of scientific institutions, the condition of war or peace, the political climate, the role of the family in relation to the economy, and the division of labor between work and home.
Regarding the culture of science, Schiebinger notes that many of the norms of science were formed in the absence of women due to the historical exclusion of women from the field. Although she concedes that there is no universal definition of femininity, she argues that cultural images of femininity differ from images of and expectations for a scientist. As a result, women who work in science often "live in two worlds" (p. 68). Schiebinger does not call attention to gender stereotypes to reinforce them, but to highlight the historical conflict between femininity and the culture of science.
Schiebinger also underscores the role that gender has played, and continues to play, in forming scientific knowledge. She provides examples of how a feminist perspective has prompted new ways of looking at existing questions in science and has moved scientists to explore new questions. While providing examples from medicine and biology, Schiebinger challenges those involved in physics and mathematics to look critically at the content of their disciplines. Additional work that investigates the influence of culture, race, ethnicity, and class on the practice and products of science is also needed.
Has Feminism Changed Science? makes an important contribution to our understanding of the role gender has played in science. This book has the potential to inform a broad audience of readers who are involved in science in direct and indirect ways. Scholars from varying disciplines - including historians, sociologists, biologists, and philosophers - who pursue questions of gender in science will benefit from reading this book because it draws together different approaches to studying this topic. This book also provides current scientists and science students, both male and female, with a tool for recognizing and understanding gender bias in their disciplines. In addition, readers - from policymakers who determine what research gets funded to science educators at the elementary school through graduate school levels - will be prompted to question core assumptions about the formation of scientific knowledge.
A.M.
Making Our High Schools Better: How Parents and Teachers Can Work Together
by Anne Westcott Dodd and Jean L. Konzal.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. 276 pp. $26.95.
Making Our High Schools Better focuses on the relationship between parents and teachers in the context of school reform. Pointing out that conflicts between parents and educators have derailed reforms in a number of communities, the authors set out to demystify the multiple and diverse views existing within each group, focusing particularly on parents' concerns with educator-initiated reforms.
Drawing on two qualitative case studies that describe reform efforts in two small New England communities, Grover's Corners and Eastland (both pseudonyms), the book describes the lack of shared understanding that can exist between parents and teachers regarding educational practices. For instance, the authors discuss the different meanings parents and teachers can make of the term high standards. Many parents see high standards as a return to traditional methods, while educators may perceive it as the opposite, as an opportunity to implement more progressive teaching methods.
Dodd and Konzal believe that one way to bridge the gap between parents and teachers is to downplay the emphasis on teacher-as-expert, which often comes at the expense of public participation. (This phenomenon is one that the authors believe is not limited to education.) When parents are not included in planning and decisionmaking, the only role left for them becomes that of critic. Furthermore, when parents do not understand the entire context of a reform - how it will affect the whole school and student body - they react solely out of concern for their own child. One challenge, the authors believe, is to create an environment in which parents are able to see the whole picture. A second challenge is to expand the definition of professional teacher to include learning and working with and from parents.
Another goal of this book is to describe the differing "mental models" of school held by parents and teachers. The authors successfully demonstrate that the within-group differences in mental models are nearly as wide as those between groups. Using four parents as "placeholders," people drawn from the studies' samples who are emblematic of a particular set of opinions, the authors describe in detail the range of beliefs held by parents in their study regarding what and how students should learn and teachers should teach. The emerging models range from "teacher-directed structured learning" to "personalized interdisciplinary learning in classroom and community." The majority of the parents, however, fall in the middle two categories, "teacher-monitored interactive learning" and "interactive individualized integrated learning."
The book's last three chapters form a discussion of how parents and teachers within particular communities might collaborate in order to improve the educational opportunities for all children. Actual models that have been employed by various communities are presented, along with lists of resources that explain how to include various stakeholder groups in order to create democratic educational communities.
Making Our High Schools Better will appeal to researchers and practitioners alike. The case studies add important knowledge to the field by providing insight into parent opinions on education and a framework for considering those opinions. Practitioners will benefit from the resources and discussion of how they might better incorporate parents into the school community.
A.H.C.
Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins
by Margaret A. Eisenhart and Elizabeth Finkel, with Linda Behm, Nancy Lawrence, and Karen Tonso.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. 272 pp. $45.00, $15.00 (paper).
In Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins, Margaret Eisenhart and Elizabeth Finkel describe the experiences of women involved in science in four specific arenas. They expanded their search beyond spaces that are typically studied as sites where science takes place. This book is based on research conducted by Eisenhart and Finkel, along with Linda Behm, Nancy Lawrence, and Karen Tonso.
The sites studied are nontraditional sites that exist on the margins of the established scientific community. The authors chose places where the percentages of women engaged in learning science or pursuing a career in science are comparatively large. In the four locations they studied, women comprised between 26 percent and 50 percent of all participants. These four "heretical places" - where science is used to serve a public, social, or community purpose - include a conservation corporation, an environmental group, an engineering internship class, and a high school genetics class. The authors make comparisons among the sites, as well as to arenas of elite science. In each site, the authors probed for the form of science, the meanings of science, the power relations present, and the participation and success of women. The authors draw on what they call a "historical-relational perspective," which stems from practice theories in which it is proposed that "social context anticipates the objects, products, or endpoints of knowing and becoming" (p. 249). The authors drew from four separate case studies that were each the result of extensive ethnographic research, which included participant observations and in-depth interviews.
Interestingly, although these were nontraditional sites of science, success in these sites - particularly in the two classes and the conservation corporation - was often achieved by those who ascribed to a traditional image of the scientist. The authors also found a "false discourse of gender neutrality" in these sites. For example, they found a professor using profanity and sexist humor in one site, and little concern for women's safety in another. The conservation corporation, however, tended toward both serious science and gender equity, yet the science practiced there would not rank highly in a science hierarchy. In answering whether the places in science where women are well-represented are better for women than sites of elite science, the authors conclude that although the sites they studied offer alternative, satisfactory places to practice science, these sites are not necessarily prestigious or gender-neutral.
By exploring these places where women are engaged in science, Eisenhart and Finkel broaden the ways of thinking about science and scientific practice. They raise some important questions for the field of science and for those who teach science. Specifically, who defines what constitutes science and where it is practiced? And, what would redefining traditional conceptions of where science is practiced do to women's status in science? The reader is left to wonder about the practical implications of expanding his/her perspective of where science is practiced to include these sites.
A.M.
Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America
by James W. Fraser.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. 278 pp. $24.95.
At a time when educators are debating state-sponsored testing, school reform, and capitalizing on fast-moving technology, James Fraser returns to the age-old debate about the role of religion in schools. In Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America, Fraser questions whether religion has ever been separate from public education. From the founding fathers' notion of religious freedom in the context of European feudalism to contemporary definitions by the federal government, Fraser shows the reader the unending struggle to keep religious issues out of public education.
He begins the book with a description of European immigrants who sought religious freedom as they settled in the New World in the seventeenth century. As the European population grew, teaching religious values in common schools became an increasingly divisive issue. In the first three chapters, Fraser highlights Protestants, Roman Catholics, African Americans, and Native Americans and their influences on growing differences of belief. For each group, Fraser details the development of their religious values as they have been shaped by the larger social and cultural influences that eventually placed them in the American mainstream. Protestants sought places with less Roman Catholic influence by moving from New England to the Midwest. Roman Catholics struggled to establish parochial schools with federal funds. For African Americans, religion was present in many underground freedom schools during the slave era and, with the support of local churches, they eventually gained their freedom not only from slavery but from religious persecution. With government support, and encouraged by the proselytizing of missionaries and certain church groups, Western education in the guise of "civilizing" was forced upon Native Americans.
As the United States entered the twentieth century, discussed in chapters six and seven, the fight over religion in schools escalated with the debate over teaching evolution versus creationism, which led to the famous trial of John Scopes in Tennessee. The outcome of this trial further influenced state and federal policy, which became more tolerant of divergent views of Christianity in schools. Fraser notes that, during this time, the influence of Christianity began to diminish as the role of the federal government became more prominent. In particular, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, eliminated prayers in school in the hotly debated case, Engel v. Vitale, and shortly thereafter followed up with a similar ruling in the Abington v. Schempp decision. State and federal policymakers also asserted their support for public and parochial schools by legislating the Elementary and Secondary Education Act establishing equitable funding to all schools including religious groups.
Chapter eight refers to 1968 and the succeeding years as a time of great division. The debate between teaching evolution and creation further divided religious and secular groups and challenged the federal government as to which set of Christian values would be taught in public schools. Lines were redefined on teaching evolution as science, and textbooks were scrutinized on the basis of offering an acceptable view of religion. Fraser compares the presidential influence of Carter and Reagan and how they directed federal efforts to either divert or draw attention to the role of Christianity in America.
Chapter nine highlights the rise of the Christian Coalition in the early 1980s. With its political power, the Coalition effectively opposed any distinction between public education and religion by challenging more liberal views all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court issued several ambivalent decisions - for example, overturning the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which supported silent prayers in schools, and, in the Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith, establishing that the "government had to demonstrate that it had a compelling State interest in burdening the free exercise of religion and that it used the least restrictive means of furthering that interest" (p. 199). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the Clinton administration's proposed Religious Freedom Amendment to the Constitution in 1998.
In closing, Fraser offers his ideas on the future of religious issues in public schools. He discusses curricular content, prayers in relation to legal parameters, and science versus creationism, among other topics. He suggests that, as the United States is becoming increasingly diverse, the divide between religion and public education has become less rigid, more inclusive and flexible, as evidenced by recent Supreme Court decisions. However, religion remains a dividing issue for those who strongly believe that church and state should remain separate and that religion should be taught only outside of public schools.
Those interested in knowing more about the history of the relationship between religion and public education, and its continued divisiveness, would enjoy reading this book. Though it does not provide a clear chronological history of the development of the public education system in the United States, it charts the struggle to define a proper place for religious activities and beliefs in public education.
T.K.B.