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Adult education theory and practice has long been involved in identifying spaces where counter-hegemonic learning can take place. Civil society is regarded as the site par-excellence for providing space in which to learn free from power and domination and from the state and economy. Another dimension to the recent focus on civil society as a site for learning and social change is the crisis of socialism and social democracy, both political movements derived from the Marxist tradition. Civil society has historically been situated in relation to the state (political society) and the market (economic society) as found in the writings of Cicero, Hobbes, Ferguson and Smith. Modern conceptions of civil society--particularly those of Marx, Gramsci, Habermas, Cohen and Arato were based in Hegel's work. Learning in civil society can have distinct objectives. The traditional socialist objective is transformation of capitalism; radical democracy's objective is furtherance of democratic practices. These aims share a belief that modern society is characterized by conflict. For socialists, conflict is between classes; for radical democrats, conflict is between these two forms of societal integration: social and system. Notions of social conflict impact on and clarify the role and value attached to adult education as an activity in civil society. Adult educators must be careful in appropriating a concept like civil society. Lack of analysis of political economy can lead to uncritical acceptance of ideas that can blind them to the real workings of power in society. Civil society need not be rejected as a theoretical and practical endeavor, but it must be problematized. (Contains 22 references.) (YLB)

Over the past few decades, social reproduction theorists have criticized achievement ideology as a dominant and dominating myth that hides the true nature of class immobility. Social reproductionists' primary criticism of achievement ideology is that it blinds the working class, regardless of race or gender, to the possibilities of collective social action against capitalism. Although Marxist scholars only include race as an outcome of or afterthought to capitalism, there have been attempts to add race to the field of social reproduction theory. The problem of whiteness still haunts workers' struggles in that white Marxists tend to believe that a primary focus on race draws attention away from class analysis and class unity. By beginning their analysis with their focus on achieving middle class status, reproductionists miss a depth of knowledge on the larger force of achieving whiteness on working-class whites. Reproductionists argue that the working class exists because it allows the middle class to be regenerated. A similar argument can be made for race, namely, that it is a social construction and not a biological reality. Achievement ideology can no longer be perceived solely in terms of achieving middle class status. It must instead be viewed in more race-focused terms. (Contains 25 references.) (MN)

Science plays an extremely important role in predicting the future of social phenomena, including pedagogy and andragogy. Research in these areas must be based on an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, systemic, and structural approach that is based on the assumption that upbringing and education are specific phenomena in which human praxis--conscious and creative human activity--plays a prominent role. Value-normative statements must be differentiated from cognitive statements of upbringing and education so as to differentiate between the methodological approach of "exploration of the future" and that of "creating and modeling the future." Future research in pedagogy and andragogy should be based on the fact that education can give to the Marxist- Socialist system and all its subsystems all that ensues from its authentic nature and functionality. Researchers could then use the methodological set of instruments and orientation that can foresee such development in the future. When dealing with the adult education concept of lifelong education, researchers should shift their focus from "education for the future" to "education and the future." Croatia's system and model of formal education must be broadened; nonformal and informal education must be promoted and better organized; and adult education must be enriched with modern methods, forms, and technology. (22 references) (MN)

This paper investigates how various technologies have constructed the reasoning of teaching and schooling in contemporary Japan. The paper contends that (1) the construction of the teacher and the student in Japan involves a complexity of power relations; (2) schooling is not simply controlled by the government through its sovereign power, but is shaped by multiple technologies; and (3) a variety of self-surveillance and self-disciplining techniques are a part of the schooling mode. The primary archives of this study are the most recent teacher guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education of Japan which include "Gakusyushidoyoryo" (the "Course of Study"), together with some other statements of guidance. The theoretical orientation of the study is Michel Foucault's conception of power. Foucault's notion of power is that a multiplicity of actions engenders power, and power operates through discourse associated with the constructions of knowledge. Moreover, Foucault's conception of "governmentality" allows the rethinking of relationships among self, other, and institutional discourse. This study concludes by pointing out the importance of being skeptical about educational reform regarding autonomy and freedom. Providing new space for teachers and students may only create new technologies that construct teachers and students according to new disciplinary modes. (Author/SM)

As society becomes more accepting of unfamiliar cultures, Marxism must be reexamined for its relationship to current management styles and its potential worth in training and the work environment. The educational method of Marxism emphasizes discussion over lecture. Marxism proposes that general education is the key to having a classless society. It recognizes the need to educate workers, but Marxist leaders fear an attraction to more knowledge and democracy if such a breakthrough would occur. Two facets of Marxism seem contradictory. First, Marxism recognizes the working class but limits their productivity by providing general knowledge and a limited expansion of hands-on skill opportunities. Second, Marxism promotes the ideals of change but blocks out the notion of a propagandist who can offer meaning or relevant knowledge to the masses. If compared to U.S. businesses, this scenario seems very familiar. Organizations need workers and their productivity but are ill prepared or fearful to provide the necessary knowledge through training. Moreover, management has consistently stifled the creativity, productivity, and ambition of workers. Organization leaders are doing nothing more than supporting the Marxist philosophy. Employees are asked to support the company without formative questions. For these reasons, Marxism will not be a wave of the future for U.S. businesses. Two positive notes from the Marxist era are recognition of change and discussion as an educational technique. Contains two references.) (YLB)

This paper is a description and discussion of the author, a critical Social Foundations scholar-teacher, and the craft/intellectual/emotional/moral/identity sources that sustain his work. Opening paragraphs describe his family background in the Piedmont province of northern Italy, the Turin (Italy) working class and their attitudes toward work. The scholar-teacher argues that these antecedents give rise to his own commitment to the democratic principle that seeks to make private power answerable to the public good. Further paragraphs discuss the ideas and influence on the scholar-teacher of Cesare Pavese, Albert Camus, Nikos Kazantzakis, Antonio Gramsci, and Karl Marx. A later section describes the scholar-teacher's scholarly career in the Social Foundations of Education which has included work on Dewey and capitalist education. A concluding paragraph returns to Marx and argues that Marx's translation of the abstract conceptions of 19th century political economy into concrete terms of human social relations allowed him to form a model of modern bourgeois society and the whole regime of capital that continues to be valuable today. (Contains 34 endnotes.) (JB)

Lev Vygotsky argues that natural properties as well as social relations, constrain--and therefore make possible--the social construction of a child's higher psychological processes. Most social constructivists in the cultural-historical tradition focus on three Vygotskian tenets: (1) the internalization of auxiliary cultural means or signs constitutes the development of higher psychological operations; (2) the interpersonal, or social, process of mediation is the fundamental motive force for higher cognitive growth; and (3) a child's knowledge is formed within the zone of proximal development, a cognitive space defined by social relational boundaries. Little account, however, has been taken of Vygotsky's contention that there is a fundamental functional relationship between culturally produced cognitive development and natural, or biological, growth. He clearly perceives two distinct sets of processes which explain development. The first is the natural line of development, encompassing the physical, biological, and neurological determinants, or the material determinants, of organismic growth. The second is the cultural line of development, encompassing those social processes which transform nature through the mastery and use of cultural signs. Nature, or the natural development of a child's behavior, forms the material conditions for a child's higher psychological growth; culture (and its historical development) produces the conditions within and the means through which this higher psychological growth can be manifested. The place of Vygotsky's theories in the contemporary dispute in Marxist theory about the relative meanings of "nature" and "society" is also discussed. (AC)

The British school system has relative autonomy, and therefore, could be potentially transformative--used to change existing economic and social relations. The correspondence thesis, which states that the schools perpetuate existing capitalist economic and social relations and serve as agents of reproduction, was the dominant paradigm of the last decade within the British sociology of education. This thesis has been bitterly contested, and, in recent years, substantially modified. Four developments within British social science over the last decade suggest a form of relative autonomy that grants considerable freedom to the educational system within British society to act either in a reproductive or transformative fashion. The four developments are: (1) the lack of fit between what the educational system produces and the needs of the British economic structure, (2) recent findings in social policy studies, (3) the partial penetration of capitalism in Britain, and (4) the independence of the school. The relative autonomy theory may be a helpful method by which Marxists may cope with the empirical reality of the British educational system/economy relationship. It suggests not that humans are either free or determined, but that there are both determinations and freedoms. It may be the organizing framework around which to build an empirically valid, intellectually coherent, and policy relevant British sociology of education. (RM)