C. James

This analysis examines the often assumed, yet little explored, association between residential proximity, socioeconomic status, and depictions of the environment in localized controversies. Focusing on a grassroots organization, we examine the extent to which activists' usual place of Residence, as indicative of wealth, mediates the manner in which they describe current and probable future conditions. Based on quantitative and qualitative analyses, we argue that where a person lives for most of the year exerts a strong influence on perceptions of and communication about an environment at risk.

The role of communication in the cause of environmentalism cannot be overestimated and, clearly, the 1990's offer scholars a great opportunity to research and develop theoretically grounded, practical approaches to advocacy in the area of environmental discourse. However, previous attempts to study the complex dimensions of environmental advocacy have been spread across a variety of disciplines resulting in a rather fragmented understanding of how persons use communication in service of the environment. This paper presents a categorizing scheme and reviews studies concerning environmental advocacy. The framework is used to synthesize related research and theory, identify barriers to effective advocacy, and suggest practical applications in the field of environmental communication.

A welcome reissue of the pioneering work on Black resistance, with a superb new introduction by Robin D G Kelley. "No piece of literature can substitute for a crystal ball, and only religious fundamentalists believe that a book can provide comprehensive answers to all questions. But if nothing else, A History of Pan-African Revolt leaves us with two incontrovertible facts. First, as long as Black people are denied freedom, humanity, and a decent standard of living, they will continue to revolt. Second, unless these revolts involve the ordinary masses and take place on their own terms, they have no hope of succeeding." [from the introduction by Robin D G Kelley]

Many teachers do not conform to the views of teaching espoused by professors of education. Yet these teachers are often judged as outstanding by colleagues, students, parents, and administrators. This thoughtful, timely book is a qualitative inquiry that addresses this contradiction. It focuses on two outstanding high school teachers, Laura and Jim, who were observed and interviewed by Kagan over a five month period. Two education professors who teach methods courses in corresponding fields (English, social studies) were also interviewed. Kagan juxtaposes the two entirely different views of teaching that emerged from her observations and examines the functional value of each. This book then is ultimately about the politics of teaching: the power to define 'good' teaching and determine how novices will be prepared for the classroom. Laura and Jim represent a silent underground of practitioners who have lost the right to legislate their own profession. This is their story.

Some materialists argue that we can eliminate mental entities such as sensations because, like electrons, they are theoretical entities postulated as parts of scientific explanations, but, unlike electrons, they are unnecessary for such explanations. As Quine says, any explanatory role of mental entities can be played by "correlative physiological states and events instead." But sensations are not postulated theoretical entities. This is shown by proposing definitions of the related terms, 'observation term,' and 'theoretical term,' and then classifying the term 'sensation.' The result is that although 'sensation' is a theoretical term, it is also a reporting term because it is used to refer to phenomena we are aware of. Consequently sensations are not postulated and cannot be eliminated merely because they are unnecessary for explanation

Open peer commentary on the article “Constructionism and De-Constructionism: Opposite yet Complementary Pedagogies” by Jean M. Griffin.: Reading Griffin’s clearly written article has led me to think about some questions that I would like to address particularly to members of the constructionist community. Constructionists have never sufficiently outlined a proper theory of learning; they have failed to document and report on their successes and failures in the classroom, thus making evaluation of their project difficult, and they sometimes seem unwilling to learn across disciplinary boundaries.

Open peer commentary on the article “Studying Conceptual Change in Classrooms: Using Association Rule Mining to Detect Changes in Students’ Explanations of the Effects of Urban Planning and Social Policy” by Arthur Hjorth & Uri Wilensky.: What could be more important than exploring how students construct knowledge? The authors have taken a major step in using constructionist tools to analyze how students change their concepts after interacting with a multiagent model in a course on urban design. I will address what I consider to be several missed opportunities in their presentation.