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Using the qualitative research method known as folknography, the authors led a research team to the heart of Illinois farm country to ask the question "What are the perceptions of the people of the Midwest concerning math and math education?" A review of the literature includes Canadian and Australian references on the topic, as well as information from the United States, and the targeted geography and population is described. Research followed the pattern of a similar study conducted in Appalachia in 2004. A preliminary survey was planned to gather benchmarking statistical data and to open respondents up to the possibilities of a folknographic interview. Folknographers entered the field in May 2006 to perform focused and intensive field research. Findings include: (1) belief that young people can not perform simple math; (2) perception that too much technology has a significant and negative impact on developing minds of students; (3) connection between acquiring math knowledge and achieving a dynamic career; (4) recollections of tyrannical or cruel math teachers; (5) desire for a school or school system that makes learning math an exciting and motivating experience. Folknographic narratives are included to illustrate each finding. Bibliography is included. Four appendixes conclude the document: (1) Perceptions of Math in the Mid-West Interview Questions: Adults (18-55); (2) Perceptions of Math in the Mid-West Interview Questions: Seniors (55-Over); (3) Perceptions of Math in the Mid-West Interview Questions: Youth (Ages 10-17); and (4) Perceptions of Math Survey Mid-West. (Contains 4 charts.)

To make the education system more open and accountable, Alberta (Canada) designated in 1994 the formation of an MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) implementation team for educational accountability. The MLA team is consulting with Albertans about which results should be included in school reports, which measures should be used to report educational outcomes, and how the results should be communicated. This document is comprised of a discussion paper, which is being used by the MLA team to conduct a third, broader phase of consultation with educational stakeholders during January and February 1995. Following the introduction, section 2 summarizes themes that emerged from the MLA team's consultations, some of which include: (1) parents want more information and better access to results at all levels of reporting; (2) people feel that accountability data must be used to improve education; (3) the public wants to be involved in developing improvement plans; (4) people want to know how the budget relates to educational outcomes; (5) student results should reflect the range of academic and nonacademic achievements; and (6) measures must make sense and be closely linked to improvement goals. Section 3 contains a prototype school report and school board report. The fourth section reports what consultants said they wanted to see regarding contextual information, student results, financial information, satisfaction measures, improvement goals and action plans, communication of educational outcomes, and their suggestions for improving the prototype reports. An attached booklet contains a questionnaire for gathering feedback on the prototype reports. (LMI)

In the face of the century-old call for democracy in education by John Dewey, this paper explores how and why teachers have been systemically removed from efficacy within the educational system in which they live and work. The paper examines historical trends that work to limit teachers' institutional power and become obstacles to teacher voice. These include (1) accountability, (2) the intensification of teacher responsibilities, (3) a shift towards a technical approach to teaching, and (4) the negative public image of teachers. Finally, the paper explores the potential that teacher autonomy might be successfully reinstituted into educational curriculum and policy.

Recommendations affecting the various aspects of public and private education in Alberta, Canada, and a summary of the events which led to the recommendations, are contained in this final report assembled by the Committee on Tolerance and Understanding. After a description of the need for public input, the brochures, personal letters, public hearings, responses to four discussion papers, and other processes used to gather information are discussed. The committee's six principles are described, and the responses and recommendations elicited by four discussion papers are summarized. The public education section proposes a new conceptual model for the teaching profession and discusses the six principles in the context of public education. The private education section proposes a curriculum audit to determine the minority tolerance of its resources. The Native education section discusses failures and successes in terms of the committee's six principles, recommending a major restructuring of Native education programs. The intercultural education section discusses special needs, recommending policy implementation. A complete summary of recommendations from the report follows a recommendation that Alberta establish a permanent Standing Committee on Tolerance and Understanding. Appendices include a list of individuals and organizations who made submissions to the committee, and a copy of an information-gathering brochure. (PM)

Since early colonial times, Indigenous peoples on Anowarakowa Kawennote--"Great Turtle Island" in Kanienkeha (the Mohawk language)--have been represented via the imaginations of the invading European settler-colonists. Not surprisingly, such typically distorted representations have long been a part of the popular press and news media in the United States and Canada. Typically, the news media have tended to portray Natives as a conquered people, a poor minority in a rich country, militant activists, remnants of an ancient North American past, and so on. Media outlets continue to perpetuate stereotypes and inaccurate generalizations about Indigenous peoples, and aside from a few independent and Indigenous-owned media sources, the misinformation continues mostly unchallenged and unabated. This essay explores the use, perpetuation, and legitimization of anti-Indigenous rhetoric (discourses of Savagism) in media with regard to two major flashpoints of misrepresentation: (1) racist sports imagery; and (2) anticolonial Indigenous protest. (Contains 83 notes.)

A study examined how four news magazines in North America and Western Europe covered British public reaction to the 1982 Falklands War. The news magazines--similar in format--represented four nations with varying degrees of closeness to Great Britain: the United States ("Time"), Canada ("Macleans"), West Germany ("Spiegel"), and Austria ("Profil"). "Time" has a conservative bias, while "Spiegel" is considered fairly radical in the opinion range of West German media. Both "Profil" and "Macleans" try to take "independent" or "liberal" stands. The results indicated that the North American magazines used polls to determine public opinion, while the European magazines relied on press comments. While polls undoubtedly were more representative of the public as a whole (the majority supported the war), they were less effective in showing why the public had taken a particular stand. British public opinion contrasted sharply with the view of the four news magazines. Only "Profil" attempted to show what the "new British pride" was founded upon. The outburst of "jingoism" (a term used by all four magazines) in Britain in the spring of 1982 needed to be explained to Europeans and North Americans accustomed to viewing war as undesirable and unpopular. (HTH)

This paper presents the major findings from a survey on parent participation in decision-making that was distributed to school administrators, trustees, and a random selection of teachers and parents at School District #68 in Nanaimo, British Columbia. The study was designed to explore means of facilitating partnership between parents and schools in the current sociological and technological context. Color-coded questionnaire forms were distributed to parents, teachers, administrators, and trustees, with questions relating to (1) general identifying information, (2) school community relations, (3) instructional services, (4) personnel, and (5) "free response." General findings are reported for each group surveyed, and tables are provided that show statistical profiles of respondents in relation to questionnaire items. Twelve of the questions asked were similar to those on a 1979 Gallup poll, so results of that poll throughout Canada and in British Columbia are compared with these survey results. Twelve implications are derived from the study as a whole, suggesting that parental involvement in schools is favorably regarded but requires careful planning and cooperation by all groups involved. (TE)

Following methods previously developed, this study investigated the social stigma associated with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) by placing 90 telephone calls to landlords advertising rooms for rent in each of three Canadian cities: Windsor, Toronto, and Halifax. Compared to control conditions, calls ostensibly from AIDS patients were likely to elicit negative responses as to the availability of the advertised room. Results provided an initial examination of the public's attitude toward conditions such as AIDS. Results were compared with those of previous studies investigating stigmatization of the mentally ill, in which the competing themes of acceptance and rejection were also found. Results were discussed in the context of strategies for measurement of attitudes toward minority or stigmatized groups. Twenty-one references are included. (Author)

An array of qualities exists that distinguish the schools of Canada. Three qualities that constitute achievement are discussed in this paper. First, schools have generally acquired a place of high regard in the eyes of the public. Second, this country has built a teaching corps the quality of which is unmatched in the English-speaking world. Third, there has been a "Great Leap Forward" in instructional research where emphasis is on systematic instruction in study skills, the establishment of curriculum priorities, cooperative learning, peer tutoring, monitored homework, prerequisite enrichment, setting of high expectations, and active learning. Lastly, the paper provides a discussion of the use of various unrealized resources: professional, community, students, and human experience. (SI)

Asserts that the writers and producers of the television documentary, "The Valour and the Horror," provided a false impression of an event to fit preconceived and erroneous interpretations of history. Points out specific examples of inaccurate historical presentations and provides contradictory historical interpretations. (CFR)

Since Canadian courtoom procedures differ from those of courts in the United States, a study was conducted to test the effects of United States television programs depicting legal proceedings upon Canadian viewers' beliefs about the legal system of that country. A sample of 355 Canadians (composed of eighth and twelfth grade students, first year college students, and first year law school students) completed a questionnaire containing 24 statements. The statements represented information that could be gained from watching television programs taking place in a courtroom, such as proper dress for a lawyer (Canadian lawyers wear black robes in court) and information that could not be so gained, such as jury selection procedures. The questionnaire also contained a semantic differential scale asking respondents to indicate how influential parents, teachers, friends, magazines, novels, motion pictures, and television had been on their knowledge of the judicial process. The results showed that those persons who indicated that television was the most influential source of information about the judicial system had inaccurate perceptions about the Canadian court system, supporting the view that television is very influential in forming viewers' beliefs. The results also supported the concept of incidental learning: people do obtain information from television without deliberately seeking it. (FL)

All suggestions and recommendations received during public hearings on the effect of declining enrollment in Ontario are compiled in this paper. The recommendations are not evaluated or arranged in order of priority. The major categories include program and curriculum, provincial and local costs, teacher education, school facilities and transportation, school administration, and school staffing. (Author/WD)

A review of the property tax system of financing education in Ontario provides historical background for the consideration of alternative approaches to reform. The problem of declining enrollment lends a sense of immediacy to the discussion. The present system of finance is found to be unsatisfactory because of inequities in property assessment bases and increasing public dissatisfaction with the school system, which rises concurrently with the property taxes. Pupil enrollment, tax bases, relations between assessed and market values, taxes and grants per student, and effective tax rates all differ greatly from one locale to another within the province. Thus, the authors suggest that a flexible system is required that adapts to widely varying curcumstances without vitiating its basic principles. A study of the alternatives leads them to recommend serious consideration of a provincial takeover of school finance, a reformulation and simplification of the grant program, and a marginal restructuring of the present local tax system. (Author/WD)