Writings of Areepattamannil

Recensions / Book Reviews

Natalie Rathvon. (2004). Early Reading Assessment: A Practitionerʹs Handbook. New York: The Guilford Press. 612 pages. ISBN 1‐57230‐984‐9

Marianne McTavish, doctoral student, Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia

Assessment mandates of federal legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Reading First Initiative (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 2002) will continue to require all states to set high standards of achievement and create a system of accountability to measure results. To this end, empirically based instruments designed to screen and identify young children for risk of reading problems and to assess reading skills in early primary grade children have increased in number and diversity, creating challenges for practitioners to select instruments that meet these assessment mandates. Early Reading Assessment: A Practitionerʹs Handbook is intended to ameliorate these challenges by serving as a practitioner‐oriented guide to assessment measures designed to identify children at risk and predict potential reading problems, and to assess early primary students already displaying reading difficulties. The book is also intended as a resource for teachers, administrators, reading specialists, school psychologists, and others involved in designing early reading assessment and intervention programs or those conducting reading assessments with children in kindergarten through grade two.

The text is divided into an Introduction and two parts. In the Introduction, Rathvon provides the foundation for the book by outlining the current shift in the understanding of the underlying causes of reading problems; that is, from a prior emphasis on perceptual deficits to an emphasis on deficits in phonological processing. Also in this section, Rathvon discusses the criteria for the inclusion of the assessment instruments in the book including design to assess reading or reading‐

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related skills of children in grades K‐2; potential or demonstrated utility in predicting reading acquisition and/or identifying early reading problems; adequate psychometric properties; and adequate usability.

Part I consists of three chapters. In chapter 1, she discusses critical issues relating to early reading screenings and diagnostic assessments. In chapter 2 she presents guidelines for evaluating the technical adequacy and usability of the included measures, while the third chapter is a review of ten components with demonstrated utility in predicting reading acquisition, diagnosing reading problems, or both. These ten components include phonological processing, rapid naming, orthographic processing, oral language, print awareness, and concept of word, alphabet knowledge, single word reading, oral reading in context, reading comprehension, and written language. Each component includes a discussion, including evidence‐based research that supports the component in terms of its importance to reading acquisition and development. Part II, divided into two chapters, consists of reviews of 42 early reading measures. In chapter 4, the author reviews 11 early reading assessment batteries (those defined as instruments specifically designed to evaluate prereading, reading, and/or reading‐related skills in early primary grade children) often intended for large‐scale screening.

Chapter 5 is a review of 31 instruments that measure one or more of the ten reading components outlined in chapter 3. Three appendices include contact information for test publishers, an annotated list of assessment and reading‐related web sites, and a glossary of terms related to early reading assessment.

From the outset, Rathvon makes a clear statement to the reader regarding the component‐based, intervention‐oriented approach as the framework and foundation of the book: ʺThis text advocates a component‐based approach to early reading assessment, in which the variables that have been empirically verified as predictors of reading acquisition constitute the components of early reading assessmentʺ (p.

14). Within this framework, Rathvon asserts that with the growing consensus regarding the cognitive‐linguistic markers of reading acquisition and the development of empirically validated instruments, information obtained from assessments should enable early identification and intervention. The need to intervene, Rathvon states, is

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underscored by poor results on national reading assessments such as those included in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Therefore, the bookʹs emphasis on scientifically based research and empirically validated instruments will make this book particularly useful for U.S. school professionals attempting to meet the challenges of No Child Left Behind legislation, and it will also serve as important aid to those attempting to navigate the myriad of instruments where standardized early reading assessment tools is a priority.

From this perspective, Rathvon succeeds in providing a thorough and objective guide to the multifaceted field of early reading assessment.

The book is well‐organized and succinctly describes the critical issues of early reading screening and diagnosis that inundate the field. Rathvon is careful to outline the controversy, debate, or lack of consensus in the research within each specific component associated with reading problems and tests measuring these components, e.g., the controversy as to which phonological tasks are most effective in identifying children at risk for reading failure. Definitions and terms are explicitly explained within the text, e.g., ʺPhonological processing refers to the use of phonological or sound information to process oral and written languageʺ (p. 65), and descriptions of the relationship of the components to the reading process are dutifully outlined.

Rathvonʹs review of each of the measures is comprehensive and complete. Every measure is critically reviewed under the following categories: overview, assessment tasks, administration, scores, interpretation, technical adequacy, usability, links to intervention, relevant research, source and cost, summary, and case example. Having used many of the measures herself, Rathvon provides the reader with a better understanding of the type of information generated by each measure, and how results could be incorporated into an effective report.

One useful addition from the author could have been to provide the reader with the reasons behind selecting the measure used in the case study, based on the given description of the problem. This information could prove valuable to students and new professionals who have not yet gained experience using the measures in the field.

Finally, the reader should be reminded that the No Child Left Behind legislation and its underlying premises continue to be hotly

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contested in the United States. Although professionals use integrity in their choice and use of these instruments, these instruments ignore the social/contextual aspects of literacy learning and teaching that are seen as central by many researchers and teachers.

Early Reading Assessment: A Practitionerʹs Handbook makes a contribution to the field of early literacy, and it has met its mandate by serving as a usable practitioner‐oriented guide to assessment measures.

To many teachers, administrators, reading specialists, and school psychologists, it will be a welcomed resource and a well‐used addition to professional libraries.

REFERENCES No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No 107‐110, 115 Stat. 1425 Cong. Rec. (2002).

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Richard Hickman. (Ed.). (2004). Art Education 11‐18: Meaning, Purpose and Direction (2nd Edition). London, UK, and New York: Continuum. 176 pages. ISBN: 0‐8264‐7201‐X

David Darts, a professor and Acting Director, Department of Art and Art Professions, Steinhardt School of Education

For those whose public school art education was comprised of a Eurocentric formalist curriculum, based on the work of dead (and predominantly male artists), Hickman’s Art Education 11‐18 comes as a much needed glass of cold water in the face. His collection of essays challenges the grand narratives of the Western art world and questions art education’s current place within the curricular fringes of schooling.

Many of the authors offer critiques of, and theoretical frameworks for, re‐conceptualizing the teaching of art in schools. Some also provide discussions and descriptions of exemplary pedagogical practices.

Throughout, the authors attempt to break down the walls between high and low culture, fine art, and popular forms of visual culture. They consistently argue the need to rethink relationships with art and art

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education within the contexts of an increasingly globalized and visually mediated world.

This is the second edition of the successful 2000 Art Education 1118. It includes an insightful foreword by Paul Duncum, and a new introduction and concluding chapter by editor Richard Hickman. Each contributor provides a postscript to address changes in the field over the last four years. The authors collectively ask a number of fundamental questions related to the nature and purpose of art education: What and who is art education for? How can art educators make their lessons meaningful for students? What role could or should art education play in the cultural development of young people? Should contemporary art and popular culture be included in the curriculum? Where do museums fit within contemporary art education? How are new media and the Internet changing artistic and art educational practices? What is the value of craft within art education? How might art education contribute to the spiritual development of students?

As is evident in the questions listed above, this collection of essays reaches beyond the traditional boundaries of the art establishment and past the conventional curricular margins of art education. As Duncum explains in the foreword, “there is clearly a need to acknowledge that art education cannot be divorced from the plethora of image production and consumption that operates beyond the confines of the professional artworld” (p. xiv). As such, many of the authors argue that twentieth‐century formalist approaches to art education curriculum and pedagogy are no longer adequate if the field is to prepare students to engage with and participate in an increasingly visual and visualized culture. And, although there is certainly not agreement among the contributors about the scope or specific nature of the challenges facing the field in the twenty‐first century, they reach a general consensus that changes need to be made. As such, each author identifies specific areas of weakness and proposes alternate possibilities and promising new directions. This diversity of analysis and approach is not lost on Hickman who, in the concluding chapter, argues for a “pluralistic art curriculum” that can accommodate multiple approaches to art education (p. 163). And for the most part, this eclectic collection works by providing an important cross‐section of the field.

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Still, with all things considered, some of the essays do appear to have matured over the last four years more gracefully than others. Andy Ash’s chapter, “Bite the ICT Bullet: Using the World Wide Web in Art Education,” for instance, is already showing its age. Although his brief historical account of the Internet and the World Wide Web is interesting and his discussion of resource‐based learning is well laid out, the remainder of the chapter lacks depth and is short on current information.

Most his links are outdated, and his suggestions for using and evaluating website materials is of little value for all but the truly novice computer user. Michele Tallack’s “Critical Studies: Values at the Heart of Art Education?” meanwhile, seems to lose something critical in the translation from the British system to the North American context. Her central case for a critical studies informed art education based on a “values model” seems miles away from contemporary North American visual culture approaches to critical art education.

In fact, it is important to acknowledge that virtually the entire anthology focuses on art education within the United Kingdom.

Fortunately, the issues examined and the frameworks provided are, for the most part, directly relevant to the North American context. Howard Hollands’ “Ways of Not Seeing: Education, Art and Visual Culture,” for instance, makes a compelling case for adopting ways of seeing inspired by the work of John Berger, while Colin Grigg’s “Art Education and the Art Museum” provides an informative overview of the history, politics, and possibilities surrounding art education and museums. James Hall’s chapter, “Art Education and Spirituality” is especially engaging and thought‐provoking. Hall illustrates how spirituality is inextricably linked to creativity and the creative act. He contends that a “humanist and pluralist conception of spirituality is not far removed from, indeed shares common ground with, conceptions of art education” (p. 144).

Rachel Mason’s chapter, “The Meaning and Value of Craft,” illustrates the potential of craft for transmitting cultural identity and heritage. Based on a study of craft education at the lower secondary level in both Britain and Japan, Mason examines the nature and extent of learning through craft and explores the degree to which teachers value craft education. Darren Newbury, meanwhile, examines the relationships between art education and popular visual culture in his

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chapter, “Changing Practices: Art Education and Popular Culture.” He argues convincingly that the inclusion of popular visual culture in the curriculum could be used to stimulate debate and open up new directions for art education.

Overall, this anthology provides a solid foundation for practitioners, teacher educators, and curriculum developers. Though some of the material is approaching its ‘best before’ date, there is enough here to interest readers with a commitment to curriculum and pedagogy and a passion for engaging with the ever‐changing field of art education. _____________________________

Amy Scott Metcalfe. (Ed.). (2006). Knowledge Management and Higher Education: A Critical Analysis. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing. 352 Pages. ISBN: 1‐59140‐510‐6 (soft cover).

Shaljan Areepattamannil, M.Ed. candidate, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston

During the last several years, Knowledge Management (henceforth KM) has enjoyed an increasing popularity among disciplines and industries throughout the world, with many new publications, conferences, workshops, IT products, and job advertisements. Various professional groups, notably HR professionals, IT specialists, and librarians, are staking their claims, seeing KM as an opportunity to move centre stage.

Knowledge Management and Higher Education: A Critical Analysis is a compilation of writings, from renowned academics and practitioners, employing diverse social science perspectives, on the application of KM in higher education.

The authors in this volume provide “critical analyses” of KM in higher education, with an emphasis on “unintended consequences and future implications.” Some of the ideas have been tried and tested, others are being developed, and yet others are mere speculations. Some chapters have been co‐authored by academics and practitioners, providing the reader with a rich discussion of the topic. A consistent message across all these diverse contributions is the need to consider KM in its context – as a holistic practice. KM is not solely about the

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technology and the systems; it is also about the humans who populate the system and utilize the technology. It is about a socio‐technical view on the practice of managing knowledge in higher education.

The volume is organized around three themes, and divided into four sections. The first section concerns the application of KM in higher education, engaging the reader with current debates concerning the application of KM, and offering insightful theoretical and practical issues. In the introductory chapter, Metcalfe advocates for several theoretical constructs to understand the adaptation and application of KM techniques in higher education settings. These theoretical frameworks provide a foundation for the rest of the volume.

Chapter 2 describes “how KM can be used by educational institutions to gain a more comprehensive, integrative, and reflexive understanding of the impact of information on their organizations” (p.

21). Chapter 3 unpacks the systems approach of academic knowledge by providing an introduction to the use of ontologies and taxonomies in higher education, and explores the specific problems and issues in maintaining taxonomies, and future trends in the development of KM strategies for ontology. Together these three chapters provide a thorough distillation of much of the theoretical and empirical understanding that has emerged from research on KM in higher education since the mid‐ 1990s.

Having looked at some applications of KM in higher education, Metcalfe turns the reader’s attention to socio‐technical issues and challenges relating to the management of knowledge. The socio‐technical concerns of KM in higher education are reflected in the second theme which is central to Section II of the book. In Chapter 4, the authors present a forecast of the future of higher education in the Information Age, and provide “a description of the ways in which the conceptual framework known as academic capitalism can be useful for understanding the context within which higher education is acting and reacting to change” (p. 64). Building upon the concepts of academic technocracy, academic capitalism, and “knowledge management fatigue syndrome,” Chapter 5 focuses on the nuances of implementing KM. Chapter 6 explores the close nexus between KM and the institutional research function.

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The third theme which hovers around the KM of teaching and learning constitutes Section III of this volume. In Chapter 7, the author describes MIT’s Open Courseware Project and the Open Knowledge Initiative. The author effectively makes use of both structuration theory and organizational theory to formulate an analytical framework appropriate for reframing the technology within a reflexive and communicative social environment. Chapter 8 takes up the discussions on the emergence of learning objects as a dynamic and interactive relationship between technology and the organization, and how an open knowledge system and the market‐driven knowledge economy influence the products and processes of learning. The authors propose “a new, relativist model of knowledge management for higher education that accommodates cross‐institutional cultures and beliefs about learning technologies, construction of knowledge across systems and institutions, as well as the trend toward learner‐centered, disaggregated, and re‐ aggregated learning objects, and negotiated intellectual property rights” (p. 150).

Section IV presents six case study chapters within a framework that captivatingly documents the essence of information management in a higher education setting. Each is a presentation of real‐world situations “where the social, political, and economic realities of higher education organizations intersect with knowledge and information management” (p. 179). The first case study (Chapter 9) examines policy processes for the introduction of technology mediated learning at universities and colleges, with a special reference to Canada. Chapter 10 provides an overview of the current challenges and problems faced by educational organizations when enterprise systems from the corporate sector are introduced. Chapter 11 presents evidence of the various attitudes faculty hold toward the use of instructional technology in higher education; Chapter 12 questions the success of diverse technology‐intensive initiatives in achieving the desired organizational effects in a higher education setting. The fifth case (Chapter 13) provides a detailed account of the difficulties encountered when a consortium of universities in Britain attempted to integrate their data systems. The final case (Chapter 14) focuses on intellectual property management, and offers “a compelling story of information management, change resistance, and

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power structures within the research foundation” (p. 181). Metcalfe’s concluding chapter offers a set of discussion questions for use in an instructional setting to use with any of the case studies or the chapters contained in the book. As well, the volume lists additional online resources on KM and higher education, contains a rich bibliography of KM literature, and a glossary of terms related to KM. Too often indeed, KM textbooks and monographs are no more than disguised information system introductions, and too often they herald grand visions of knowledge societies and economies with only wafer‐ thin empirical or theoretical backing. A critical KM textbook is much needed to help students, academics, and practitioners see through the hype and even the charlatanry that sometimes is hiding under the cloak of KM. Does Knowledge Management and Higher Education: A Critical Analysis provide a critical review and analysis of the key themes that underpin the subject of KM in educational organizations? To assess whether the book has achieved this objective, we need to ask three questions: (a) does the book present an adequate selection and account of KM themes in higher education; (b) does it convincingly develop its critical stance; and (c) does the application and elaboration of the critique further understanding of the application of KM in higher education? In regard to the first question, the book does manage to do this to a reasonable extent, but still it does not deliver in a completely satisfactory way. It is not so much the absence or relative neglect of some KM‐related issues in higher education that debilitates the book, but rather the absence of an explicit rationale for selecting specific themes, their approach, and their mutual connections.

With respect to the second question, concerning the book’s critical perspective, a lack of unity can be detected. As in other forms of sense making, criticism also involves a conceptual and theoretical standpoint and chances are that, unless this standpoint is specified and discussed in depth, the individual critical discussions may appear to be incidental and isolated. Moreover, their depth derives from their theoretical grounding. Because the first two questions cannot be answered in the affirmative, as a result the third question ‐ which involves the connection of overview and critique ‐ cannot be answered positively either. The reader is left with the uncomfortable feeling of having ended up with a

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collection of themes that have been haphazardly selected and that have not been developed into something coherent. Elements of critique pervade the book, but they do not develop into a firm, theoretically grounded, overall critique that connects, substantiates, and develops the elements.

Nevertheless, the book is an ambitious attempt to push the limits of KM, and argue for new frontiers in the field of higher education. It looks at some of the exciting challenges for future work, and offers new insights for students, academics, and practitioners. _____________________________

Richard M. Lerner, Jason D. Brown, and Cheryl Kier. (2005). Adolescence: Development, Diversity, Context, and Application (Canadian edition).

Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall. 460 pages. ISBN: 0‐13‐102370‐5

Howard A. Smith, professor, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University The intent of this review is to address the content and qualities of another addition to the genre of publication known as a Canadian edition of an American text. To these ends, the review will summarize the book’s content, present a brief evaluation of this content, and then address at greater length the issue of Canadianism in the present context.

This introductory‐level but substantial book is appropriate for use with undergraduate education or, especially, psychology students. It focuses on development rather than on learning in adolescence, although the overlap between these two major psychological concepts can be substantial. The major aim of the book is to understand theory and research in adolescent development as applied both to a full range of human diversity (i.e., in individuals, families, communities, and cultures) and to a variety of ecological settings (e.g., peer groups, family, school, and community). The knowledge presented in the book is intended to be used “to promote positive development among young people” (p. xiii).

The first six of the book’s 15 chapters cover the standard topics of adolescent development: theories of adolescence, physical, cognitive, and moral development, and the search for identity. Here, the traditional

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researchers and theorists are well‐represented and include G. Stanley Hall, Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Lawrence Kohlberg, and of course Jean Piaget (with the glaring absence of Lev Vygotsky). Each chapter calls on more contemporary research to update the status of the major developmental theories.

Four other chapters address adolescent life in various contexts such as work, the family, peer groups, and school. The five remaining chapters are concerned with adolescent sexuality, the influence of media on adolescent behaviour, problem behaviours and potentials of adolescents, and moving beyond adolescence into the young adult years.

An appendix describes some standard methods and designs for studying adolescent development. In all these attractively presented chapters, with their coloured photographs and inserts and clear tables, figures, and boxes, the content is sound and generally well‐presented with references offering a good mix of both current and classic sources.

Overall, this book should serve students well and I recommend that potential users examine it while making their course text selections.

But to what extent does the book support its claim as a Canadian edition? What Canadian ecologies and cultures are reflected in its style and content? Certainly its cover does not help. The American cover contains three images depicting interracial groups of smiling adolescents. However, the Canadian version shows the rear view of one young male lying on his stomach wearing headphones and facing away from his bedroom door, which displays an array of five unfriendly notices including a “No Entry” sign and the skull‐and‐crossbones symbol. At least the adolescents on the American cover appear to be a friendly, relaxed crowd.

As images help set the tone for a text, what do the chapter photographs show about adolescent life in Canada? Given that the identical images (with very rare exceptions) grace both American and Canadian editions, they show life in the United States. We see Americana in the food, clothing, and settings shown in the photographs.

We see “Rutgers” T‐shirts and outdoors basketball, but nowhere do we see French‐language road signs, hockey, or the snow that dominates most school years in Canada. Against this backdrop, the red maple leaf

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inserted beside every Canadian‐based reference in the references list comes across to the reader as a consolation prize.

Turning to the written content, we see that this Canadian edition is “printed and bound in the United States of America” (p. ii). We also see that the Brief Contents of the book are, word for word across 15 chapters and the appendix, identical in the American and Canadian editions.

Clearly, then, the overall vision for the book as crafted by the well‐known American senior author, Richard Lerner, carries the day.

That’s all well and good, except that Canadiana has not yet appeared.

Content unique to the Canadian edition begins to appear on the Meet the Researchers page, when about 18 of the 37 biographical sketches appear in this edition only. The first such researcher, Bruce Ravelli, tries to support the book’s rationale by making a case for how Canadian and American cultures differ. Unfortunately, his arguments are subdued by the substantial amount of foreign content that appears in the subsequent chapters. Nevertheless, the preface argues the need for the Canadian edition and subsequently lists the nature of the changes introduced to it by the (two Canadian?) authors. Although each of the book’s chapters reflects at least some Canadian content, there are some missed opportunities to highlight the roles played by Canadian researchers in addressing some enduring issues. For example, the edition’s single change listed for Chapter 2 is “expanded discussion of the nature‐nurture debate” (p. xv). In that chapter’s brief discussion, the debate continues to be cast initially as nature versus nurture. However, Canada’s best known psychologist ever, Donald Hebb, wrote in 1953 that asking whether behaviour is due more to heredity or to environment is like asking whether the area of a football field is due more to its length or to its width. In other words, both elements are essential. Yet the book does not give Hebb even a passing mention.

For the most part, the various chapters make adjustments from the American to the Canadian books by widening the first author’s initial scope. To illustrate, Learning Objective 2 of Chapter 8 (“Adolescents and Their Families”) is presented in the American text as: “To understand the changes that have occurred over time in regard to the typical family structure in the United States”. In the derivative Canadian edition, this objective now reads: “To understand the changes that have occurred

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over time in regard to family structure in North America.” But there are some surprises, too. For example, Applications Box 13.2 on “Enhancing the Life Chances of Street Children” (the same box numbering and title appears in both texts) presents five cultural settings (from Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Kenya) in the American book and just two of these same settings (from Brazil and Colombia) in the Canadian edition. Neither version mentions the street children in the cities of the United States and Canada.

So, does the text work as a Canadian edition? It has certainly come a long way from the days when Canadian adaptations of American books displayed little more than a renaming of cities from, for example, “Philadelphia” to “Toronto” or “Los Angeles” to “Vancouver”. Jason Brown and Cheryl Kier have worked hard to profile Canadian researchers and to adjust the book’s content to reflect the results of Canadian research. However, despite these efforts, the book still looks, feels, and reads like an American‐based resource. The essential problem to be addressed is a more fundamental one that tackles the idea behind this genre of publication and the reasons for it. But that is a topic for another time. _____________________________

D. W. Butin. (Ed.) (2005). Service learning in higher education: Critical issues and directions. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, ISBN: 1‐4039‐6876‐4 (hardback): 1‐4039‐6877‐2 (paperback)

Angelina T. Wong, professor and Director, Centre for Distributed Learning, University of Saskatchewan

Service learning in higher education: Critical issues and directions, edited by Dan W. Butin, presents the observations and reflections of thirteen authors who seek to “explore and expand upon the tensions, troubles, and potentials of a service‐learning that is dangerous to the educational status quo in higher education.” (p. viii). Dangerous, the editor clarifies, refers to a pedagogical practice and theoretical orientation that confront the assumptions under which we teach and learn.

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The book is divided into three distinct sections. Section one, “the micro‐politics and micro‐practices of service‐learning,” offers in‐depth examinations of the workings of service‐learning from the perspective of six authors. Section two, “transformative models of service‐learning practice,” provides five exemplary programs that consciously enact service‐learning as centrally embedded in the teaching and learning process. Section three, “reframing the institutionalization of service‐ learning,” explores issues central to the future of service‐learning in higher education. Three‐quarters of the papers are situated in a higher education context; the remaining are based on community service‐ learning projects involving high school students.

The cases in the book illuminate primarily the cultural and political conceptual models of service‐learning. As Butin points out, the former model is focused on the meanings of the practice for the individuals and the institutions involved. Service‐learning is seen as a means to help students increase their tolerance and respect of diversity, for academic institutions to promote engaged citizenship, and for local communities to overcome the town‐gown divisions. Clark and Young (chapter 5) at the University of Michigan provide an interesting case of how middle‐class undergraduates engaged in a tutoring program at a local middle school and a neighborhood community centre struggled with their sense of what counts as tutoring and achieved new conceptions of literacy as well as new perspectives of the communities where they served. In another example, Comas, Hiller, and Miller (chapter 7) describe how students in their introductory management course learned to become invested‐in‐ the‐community managers, gaining insight into how individuals bearing managerial authority must learn to think broadly and critically about their roles in society.

The political conceptual model of service‐learning is focused on the empowerment of the voices and practices of non‐dominant groups in society. Service‐learning is instrumental in legitimating marginalized communities and harnessing institutional resources for social change.

Milofsky and Flack’s account of “Bucknell in Ireland” (chapter 10) introduces a service‐learning program that sends undergraduates from an elite, liberal arts college abroad to live and learn in a small society dominated by conflict. The students participate concurrently in an

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academic program involving readings, lectures, guest speakers, and site visits, and in a service‐learning experience mentored by staff in local not‐ for‐profit organizations. Milosfsky and Flacke provide four student reflective narratives to illustrate how field experiences can challenge identity as students daily confront issues of ethnicity, gender, and religion that were previously only abstract concepts. In another context, high school students in a history project used multi‐cultural service‐ learning over two years to reconstruct the history of a once‐segregated school in a college town (Boyle‐Baise & Binford, chapter 9).

Canadian teachers who are working with First Nations students will find the chapters by Henry (chapter 3) and Dacheux (chapter 4) particularly insightful. Henry is a faculty member in a private, highly selective university dominated by affluent, white students (85%). Her service‐learning course includes a number of working‐class, first‐ generation students from small towns with crumbling economic infrastructures. Henry and Dacheux (a working‐class student) wonder aloud about the effects of performing service in communities that look exceptionally similar to the home environments in which these students had grown up before their arrival at university. The reflections of the minority and less‐than‐privileged students in Henry’s course point to a flaw in service‐learning – it encourages the separation of people into a binary of server and served and assumes that one side needs to be lifted by a more capable other. The reflections by Henry and her students vividly demonstrate that when it comes to human beings, the positions of server and served are matters of situational degrees and not fixed positions in the world.

Readers who are looking for best practice examples of how to design and implement service‐learning courses will have to look elsewhere.

Several of the contributing authors indirectly point to a good source of the pragmatic elements of organizing service‐learning by their respective references to studies by the Campus Compact, a national coalition of over 900 college and university presidents committed to the civic purpose of higher education. The strength of this book lies in the rich reflective accounts written by both participating students and faculty.

Their stories powerfully illustrate how service‐learning as a process can disrupt the boundaries by which individuals make sense of themselves

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and the world, and as a result transform them personally and intellectually. The attention paid to this process would have met the approval of John Dewey, the foremost champion of experiential learning. _____________________________

Robert B. Macmillan, (Ed.) (2003). Questioning Leadership: The Greenfield Legacy. London, ON: The Althouse Press. 299 pages. ISBN: 0‐920354‐1

Matthew J. Meyer, professor, School of Education, St. Francis Xavier University

My awareness of Thomas Barr Greenfield’s work became crucial in my development as a scholar. My very first assignment as a doctoral student under the late Dr. Geoffrey Isherwood (McGill University) was to read Greenfield on Educational Administration: Towards a humane science (1993) and study its content, Greenfield’s socio‐political views on educational administration, and most importantly (according to Isherwood), his ethical undertones and sense of “changing the guard.” Little did I know at the time of both Greenfield’s epistemological forging of scholarly direction or his attack against the almost ontological held belief at the time of the study of educational administration as seen solely in the positivistic persuasion.

Initially, as I read through Greenfield, I could not grasp the depths of his philosophical arguments. Coming from a performing arts background (drama and music), being a seasoned secondary school teacher, and have been influenced by advisors who looked upon much of the theory movement scholars as something slightly more banal (than some scholarly hacks) suggested to me that his perspectives were not as revolutionary as they seemed to be. The ensuing scholarly wars that his writings instigated were a far cry from field teaching. In fact it was a far cry from most M.Ed. students. Many of us took our first ed.admin courses to the tune of Hoy and Miskel (any edition) which touted the theory movement as one step or so below the voice of St. Peter or at least Frederick Taylor. With all the statistical techno‐babble of this indicator or that indicator most Master’s graduate students were smart or sheepish enough to accept the status quo of typical ed. admin research as “good

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stuff” — nice to read and ponder a bit but impossible to use at the school level. Positivistic thinking and research execution supported well the ‘ivory’ in the ‘ivory tower’. On the other side, Greenfield’s beliefs were extremely logical, down to earth, easily understood, and applicable by intelligent rank and file educators – so why Greenfield as a firebrand?

This firebrand forced discussion, and more so challenged the hackneyed status quo of the time.

Canadian scholar Robert Macmillan’s edited volume, Questioning Leadership: The Greenfield Legacy, is the crucial opus that takes Greenfield’s ideas and places them into pragmatic, discriminating, and judicial directions that are required to further understand the volatile field of educational administration. In addition, Greenfield was a Canadian scholar. Along with (at the time) Christopher Hodgkinson (University of Victoria), these were the two educational administration philosophers who were attempting, in their own ways, to generate and percolate revolutionary ethical, philosophical, and artistic perspectives on administrative foundations. The fact that they were both Canadian and many times snubbed by lower 48 scholars does not go unsubstantiated.

The critical point here is that Greenfield never published a book per se. Just before his death, he and Peter Ribbins edited all his more important essays into an opus entitled, Greenfield on educational administration: Towards a humane science (1993). Since then, there has been no complete series of scholarly work(s) that has systematically analyzed Greenfield’s perceptions to their next state. Here is where Macmillan’s Questioning Leadership: The Greenfield Legacy becomes the crucial step forward in taking Greenfield’s work to its next step of evolution— as step off points of scholarship.

Macmillan’s volume is beautifully crafted into five select genres entitled Greenfield’s Approach, Interpretive Approaches, Reconstituted Approaches, Critical Approaches, and Inquiry and the Practitioner. Each contains two, sometimes three, chapters written by well‐known scholars who have delved into Greenfield’s work along with the surrounding and supporting scholarship that has instigated, applauded, or castigated Greenfield either as a person, scholar or both. Unlike some retrospective volumes, where authors only applaud, in perhaps an idolizing manner,

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the works and ideas of the scholar, here, each author takes a stand, so to speak, on the possibilities of understanding and provoking further scholarship in the selected genre.

It is here where Macmillan’s introductory chapter is critical reading.

Macmillan goes to great lengths to concisely and to creatively outline three of Greenfield’s most well known themes. First, “reification of organizations” (p. 8) focuses on the de‐grounding of the theory movement most typified by Simon through Griffith where organizations are founded as rather shallow groupings of participants devoid of real‐ life human attributes of emotional constituent parts. In this view, organizations are believed to be entities within themselves as if they can breathe a life of their own that can follow established pathological operations that do not consider the individuals who work, think, and co‐ habituate within the organization as any more than constituent mechano pieces. Second, is “the fallacy of organizational stability” (p. 10). Here Greenfield believes that many researchers have not acknowledged the cultural and spiritual traditions, heritage, and customs that forge individuals’ values and ethical mindsets in lieu of a defined organizational stability (or a facsimile). Third is the “problem of the positivist paradigm” (p. 11) where the scientific method, with its industrial sense of objectivity, is viewed as the only way to research and quantify data and issues. Here is the question: where is truth when it is virtually impossible not to be subjective even in designing research protocols?

The contributors to Questioning Leadership are an impressive scholarly group. There are many Canadian scholars (those designated with an *) who have contributed. Peter Ribbins and Christopher Hodgkinson* take on the foundational pillars in Section 1. Lauretta Baker and Carol Harris* tackle the thorny areas of Greenfield’s philosophical underpinnings in Section 2. Daniel Griffiths, Derek Allison*, and Colin Evers discuss the theoretical dilemmas of Greenfield’s ideas in Section 3.

In Section 4, Richard Bates and James Ryan* each look at the change that Greenfield’s ideas initiated in the educational administration field. In Section 5, Michael Manley‐Casimer* addresses the humanity side of Greenfield’s directions. Finally, Margaret Haughey* concludes the

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volume by addressing Greenfield’s place within the postmodern realm of thinking.

This is an impressive collection of provoking thoughts that keep the directional debates of educational administration burning. Clearly with more and more outside influences affecting educational policy and its implementation, the entire genre of theoretical foundations in educational administration cannot be put to bed. Macmillan’s Questioning Leadership: The Greenfield Legacy should be required reading for all graduate students and scholars in this field.

REFERENCES Greenfield, T. B, & Ribbins, P. (1993). Greenfield on educational administration: Towards a humane science. London, UK: Routledge.

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Carl E. James. (2005). Race in Play: Understanding the Socio‐Cultural Worlds of Student Athletes. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. 244 pages.

ISBN: 1‐55130‐273‐X (paperback)

Dwayne Cornell Washington, doctoral candidate, Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.

In Race in Play: Understanding the Socio‐Cultural Worlds of Student Athletes, Carl E. James is by no means guilty of deceptive packaging. As in his introduction, he clearly illustrates personal accounts of the impact that sports and athletic activity/participation has had on the urban poor and working class Canadian youth around him while along the way speaking to the intricacies that are involved in the pre‐construction of athletes based on race, prejudices, background, culture, and social status.

Furthermore, although Race in Play is a study primarily based around the experiences of a small group of urban Toronto area youth, one is inclined to imagine how the face of this study would have been shaped by a wide pool of participants in other multicultural settings throughout Canada.

Dr. James’ new book is a fascinating examination of a habitually disregarded yet vital issue that is the connection among race, sports,

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schooling, and beyond. Gathering anecdotes from contemporary reports, newspapers, and personal interviews, Dr. James inspects in turn corresponding controversial issues. He uses qualitative research methods and a critical lens with emphasis placed on the racial, social, and gender inequities in society to meticulously extract data from middle and high school students, parents, coaches, and teachers to make for a remarkably comprehensive study.

Beginning with lived experiences, Dr. James journeys through seven chapters and a compelling conclusion urging Canadian educational systems to move toward more inclusive schooling for student athletes. In the process he contributes insightful descriptions regarding the roles of parents, coaches, and teachers in the development of how sports and athletic participations impact the plans and educational aspirations of middle and high school student athletes.

Dr. James’ personal interviews with secondary school student athletes and adult participants have given this book an element that a mere essay, article, or newspaper exposé could not. This piece of writing boldly discusses under‐looked delicate systemic social concerns such as racism and sexism as it is manifest within societal structures. It is somewhat of a disappointment that the author did not tap further into the inter‐workings of mainstream Canadian biases toward visual minorities and visual minority immigrants in education and the wider society.

In this book Dr. James reveals and dissects the fabric that constructs in a large part urban Canadian schooling and society. He is extremely critical of how parents, coaches, teachers, and North American society in general contribute in misguiding and misinforming; they are often downright irresponsible in the messages they send to racially and culturally marginalized youth regarding the reality of athletics, education, and prosperity. Scores of failed student athletes who become trivialized statistics while chasing the elusive dream of enhancing their lives by attaining an athletic scholarship to a U.S. university are represented in this study.

Race in Play takes a spirited attitude in speaking to race and the social/cultural outer‐working of Canadian student athletes with attention given to perceptions of racial dominance in sports and socio‐cultural

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assimilation. Furthermore, the author accommodates the academic and mainstream communities by providing a framework that communicates the findings and argument in a manner that allows both to benefit. One does not have to be an academic to understand the content because the author expressing himself in a fashion wherein a wide range of individuals can have access to the data and ideas expressed in this book.

The style and structure of this book draw comparisons to the works of Dr. George Dei from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. This is no doubt that this book should be shared with, among others based on the present state of amateur athletics in North America ‐ all coaches and parents of student‐athletes particularly of black male student athletes.

This book is an insightfully challenging piece of work. Dr. James tackles pressing issues in an engaging way. In addition to being readable the author does not avoid digging into subjects areas that are sensitive.

It does not ignore, but in fact, hits the corresponding issues head on. Race in Play is a necessary book. The participants’ voices are heard and the author’s points are well developed. Even more noteworthy of Dr. James’s approach to this subject is his utter respect for the community that he represents in the study. Surely over two hundred pages on understanding the socio‐cultural worlds of student athletes should be enough to bottle this subject. However, Dr. James has simply scratched the surface.

Dr. James’s most notable victory arises when he argues that these individuals are ultimately accountable for the goals to which they aspire.

I respect the author’s strength and consistency because he did not restrain his desire to examine and engage in serious dialogue regarding ingrained bigotry in Canadian society.

The author triumphs as a responsible citizen and stakeholder, maximizing the general appeal of this book. Race in Play: Understanding the Socio‐Cultural Worlds of Student Athletes a refreshingly candid body of research. _____________________________

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Baudoux, Claudine (2005). La passion à l’université. Les femmes cadres dans la gestion collégiale et bureaucratique, Cap‐Rouge, Presses Inter Universitaires, 552 p. ISBN 2‐89441‐080‐8.

Suzanne Pouliot, Université de Sherbrooke

Cet imposant ouvrage de Claudine Baudoux, professeure titulaire à la Faculté des sciences de l’Éducation de l’Université Laval, aborde en onze chapitres, précédés d’une généreuse introduction, la place occupée par les femmes cadres dans la gestion collégiale et bureaucratique. La préfacière, Micheline Dumont, contextualise la place occupée par les femmes dans ces institutions, en faisant un bref retour historique sur les origines de l’université occidentale, puis en Amérique du Nord jusqu’à nos jours. Elle souligne que bien qu’admises tardivement à l’enseignement universitaire, « les professeures n’ont cependant pas été longues à proposer une critique épistémologique du savoir androcentrique et à développer des enseignements et des recherches qui placent les femmes comme sujets de connaissance. » (p. 2) C’est dans ce contexte de réflexion que l’auteure a analysé la discrimination systémique à l’œuvre dans le processus de sélection des cadres qu’elle a explorée sous différents angles.

Dans son introduction, Boudoux expose le problème traité et insiste, à juste titre, sur l’intérêt social et scientifique poursuivi par une telle recherche. Elle montre que l’un des principaux enjeux du mouvement féministe « est de rendre les organisations et les institutions plus démocratiques ». Aussi, insiste‐t‐elle abondamment sur les arguments concernant la sous‐représentation féminine qui révèlent les inégalités constatées, sans négliger, pour autant, les limites inhérentes à une telle recherche, que celle‐ci ait trait à l’origine ethnique ou au phénomène des démissions. La chercheure souligne, notamment, les différences entre universités francophones et anglophones, montrant que ces dernières « se sont montrées historiquement plus ouvertes à la présence féminine. » (p. 29). Au plan méthodologique, elle a retenu une approche référentielle qui fait appel à plusieurs disciplines puisque le but de sa recherche est « d’étudier les effets du rapport de domination sur les représentations et

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sur les pratiques, ainsi que l’évolution des interactions entre pratiques et représentations, avec leurs éventuelles contradictions. » (p. 26) Le premier chapitre (p. 31‐84) explore L’Alma mater et ses filles selon trois périodes : avant 1968, depuis 1968 à 1978 et, finalement, de 1978 à aujourd’hui. L’évolution statistique selon le sexe permettra, peu à peu, de constater s’il existe un problème de promotion pour les femmes en s’interrogeant sur l’installation de la division sexuelle à l’université, sur son évolution et les formes qu’elle a revêtues. Cette étude, grâce aux nombreux tableaux qui l’illustrent, montre, qu’au sein de l’institution, le travail des femmes n’a pas encore la même légitimité que celui des hommes. Ce parcours ponctué de témoignages et d’extraits de procès‐ verbaux met en lumière les différences qui caractérisent les institutions universitaires dont la division sexuelle des postes. En guise d’exemple, les données de la recherche soulignent que le « premier cycle semble davantage un domaine concédé aux femmes, parce que moins prestigieux et plus sujet à la critique. » (p. 82) Le chapitre suivant aborde, avec force données et références, la différence culturelle qui existe dans les universités entre le secteur académique et le secteur administratif. Les conclusions qui s’en dégagent montrent que les hommes et les femmes « entretiennent une vision de leur poste reliée à l’éthique masculine : leur poste est vu comme un défi plutôt qu’un plaisir, et leur préférence va à la direction plutôt qu’à l’animation. » (p. 112) En regard des données statistiques obtenues et traitées, la chercheure conclue « que la situation des femmes cadres dans le secteur administratif est plus difficile que celui qui prévaut dans le secteur académique. » (p. 113) La mobilité des sexes (chap. 3) examine plus à fond les éléments qui ont aidé ou, au contraire, ont nuit à mener une carrière de cadre universitaire depuis le noyau familial d’origine. C’est ainsi que sont vérifiées les influences parentales sur la mobilité sociale. Il est intéressant de noter que parmi les nombreuses caractéristiques relevées, celle qui semble dominer est la qualité des rapports entre les parents et leur fille qui permet la mobilité sociale et la mobilité des sexes. La chercheure ajoute que « cette capacité acquise par les filles de pouvoir tabler sur les caractéristiques attribués aux deux sexes semble favoriser

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leur accès ou leur promotion à ces postes universitaires où s’élaborent diverses décisions. » (p. 151) Au gré des chapitres étayés de nombreux tableaux et figures, l’auteure tente de comprendre pourquoi, en dépit d’une démocratisation de l’institution universitaire, les femmes accèdent si difficilement à l’administration universitaire. Boudoux a cherché à comprendre pourquoi les difficultés sont pour les femmes plus importantes dans le secteur administratif que dans le secteur académique, plus empreint de collégialité, constate‐t‐elle. Les questions posées, tout au long de cet ouvrage, sont très pertinentes et demeurent à l’ordre du jour, malgré des avancées positives récentes. Par son propos et son traitement, cet ouvrage mérite d’être lu, car il vise essentiellement à démocratiser l’institution universitaire par une présence accrue des femmes cadres dans la gestion collégiale et bureaucratique. _____________________________

John Parkinson. (2004). Improving Secondary Science Teaching. New York: RoutlegdeFalmer, Taylor & Francis Group. 280 pages. ISBN 0‐415‐25046‐ 3 (paperback).

Geri Salinitri, professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Windsor

As noted by the National Academy of Science Education (1997), science teaching is much more difficult than most faculty are willing to acknowledge. John Parkinson has written a timely research based textbook for science educators. Although Parkinson examines various common teaching strategies in science, he reflects further on departmental practices and issues of management. Research provides the underlying support for Parkinson’s claims for improving science education.

In The Improvement Process, Parkinson takes the reader through concepts and theories to embrace the improvement of science education.

He begins with the conceptual framework and the theoretical attitude necessary to accept the need for improvement by accepting the need to change. Concrete examples tie the global with the relevance to science teachers, both new and experienced.

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In chapter 1, Parkinson identifies the complexity of issues around school effectiveness. Examining a myriad of research, Parkinson highlights effective ways teachers can take action in initiating school improvement. Citing Fullan (1997) among other change theorists, he draws out the underlying challenges that cause resistance. He strengthens his findings by analyzing exemplary international projects to identify the common thread for school improvement interventions.

Moving through the chapters, Leading and Managing the Science Department, Self‐improvement, and Planning for Continuity and Progression, department heads and teacher educators are given lucid, practical, and comprehensive strategies for effective management of departments and teaching of new science teachers.

From Chapter 5 through to the end of the book, Parkinson’s focus becomes the learner/student and the strategies needed by the teachers to effectively facilitate learning. By addressing Vygotsky’s constructivism, Piaget’s contribution to learning and the social perspectives on learning from various theorists, the author substantiates his expertise in cognition and learning. Relevance to science teaching emerges through the concrete examples illustrated in the tables integrated through the text.

As a reflective practitioner, Parkinson has the reader consider scenarios and approaches to dealing with racial, gender, socio‐economic, and cultural difference through science teaching. His Things to Consider boxes are thought provoking, provide a venue for team building, provide a venue to department meeting discussions, and a plan for department and individual teaching improvement.

In the last decade, the use of authentic assessment in education is at the forefront of reforms and teacher education programmes (Ontario College of Teachers, 1999). Parkinson hones in on effective strategies for diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment. In particular, he takes the reflective approach to task analysis and questioning techniques (pp.150‐160). He included concerns with self‐assessment, the quality of tests, record keeping, and accountability.

In Learning About the Nature of Science (Chapter 8), Parkinson identifies the complexity of this concept for students and for teachers. He further discusses misconceptions and the use of visuals and modelling to assist in transference for the learner. Similarly, in Chapter 9, he provides

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a comprehensive look at the impact of learning through practical work and action research. Further, the hot topic of enquiry‐based learning is addressed in a very practical and effective manner. Tables and charts give practitioners a quick guide or reference point for implementation of the suggested strategies. Integration of technology within these strategies is creatively addressed in Chapter 10, while in Chapter 11 he emphasizes the importance of integrating oral and written work for learning and authentic assessment.

Parkinson leaves the reader with this final statement, “Changes in the science curriculum are only going to be successful if they have the full support of those who are going to deliver them” (p. 272). For the teacher educator, the science department head, and the practitioner, Parkinson effectively integrates learning theories with best practices in enhancing student and teacher learning beyond the classroom. Guided by principles of change theories, he addresses practical ways to move forward with science to be meaningful for all types of learners based on sound curriculum approaches.

Although it is written for the British audience, the principles involved and examples used are applicable to the American and Canadian science curriculum once the reader disregards the British acronyms. I highly recommend this book to science department heads, teacher educators, and reflective science teachers.

REFERENCES National Academy of Science Education (1997). The National Science Education Standards.

Retrieved December 20, 2006, from http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/ Ontario Ministry of Education. (1999) Ontario Secondary Curriculum. Retrieved December 20, 2006, from http:// www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/ curriculum/secondary/

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Janice F. Almasi. (2003). Teaching Strategic Processes in Reading. New York & London, UK: The Guilford Press. 256 pages. ISBN: 1‐57230‐807‐9 (hard cover); 1‐57230‐806‐0 (paperback).

Kari‐Lynn Winters, doctoral candidate, Department of Language and Literacy, University of British Columbia.

In Teaching Strategic Processes in Reading, Janice Almasi connects research to practice in the area of strategic reading with clarity and empathy. She understands that becoming a teacher of strategic reading processes is not easy, but extremely valuable for enhancing students’ learning and academic success, one of the greatest contributions of this book. With the resurgence of interest in comprehension instruction over the last twenty years, Almasi’s book, which includes strategies for teaching proficient and less proficient readers, could not have come at a better time.

Grounded in theory, research, and clinical practice, she offers concrete suggestions for elementary school, high school, and college or university teachers on integrating a key research finding—that good readers use strategies to recognize unknown words, to monitor their understandings, and to become flexible meaning‐makers of multiple forms of text.

One aim of this book, to educate teachers about what it means to be strategic, is accomplished in the first two chapters. Chapter 1 describes what is involved in strategic processing, including characteristics of good strategy users. Chapter 2 offers suggestions to assess strategic processing.

Chapters 3 through 5 then describe how to design curricula for implementing strategic comprehension. These chapters include a variety of valuable educational resources that can be employed by teachers in most reading classrooms, such as lesson plans for teaching a variety of strategies, diagrams to illustrate procedures, models of instruction and assessment, samples of text interviews, graphic organizers for learning, and charts depicting various strategies and instructional approaches.

Chapter 4, in particular, focuses on theoretical explanations about why some students struggle with comprehension. These chapters were helpful in many ways. In addition to offering instructional strategies for

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teaching, Almasi discusses research studies about reading comprehension, demonstrating that research can inform practice, and also that practice can inform research. In this way, these chapters can be useful for preservice and experienced teachers and also for college and university students.

In Chapter 6, the focus changes from comprehension strategies to word recognition strategies. Almasi discusses how readers learn to recognize words and how they can implement strategic word processing strategies. Again, another informative and valuable chapter for educators.

A second aim of the book, found in Chapter 7, highlights the journeys of Almasi’s graduate students as they moved towards becoming teachers of strategic reading. She demonstrates through reflective journals kept by her students the difficulties and frustrations, as well as the triumphs, of learning how to be a strategic reading teacher.

As Almasi quotes, “Becoming a teacher of strategic reading processes is extremely difficult … because it permeates all subjects” (p. xi). However, this chapter also convincingly demonstrates strategic reading’s potential rewards for all types of learners.

What I value most about chapter 7 is Almasi’s way of providing possible avenues to explore strategic reading instruction with students, while still encouraging teachers to consider the socio‐cultural settings in which the learning is embedded. Although she shares many examples of how research can inform the teaching of strategic reading processes and how one might teach specific strategy lessons, she makes it clear that these are just examples. She suggests that all teachers who would like to embark on such a journey follow their own paths: strategy instruction is not automatic, nor is it the same for all teachers or learners. She encourages teachers to make sense of and reflect on their own contexts and styles of instruction—to push their own thinking to better enable their students to make meaning from printed texts in more flexible and sophisticated ways.

Almasi’s book contributes to the field of reading instruction in several ways. First, it demonstrates why learners should, and how they can, implement strategies while reading. Second, Almasi explains why it is important to discuss strategy instruction with students and when to

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scaffold students’ strategic reading processes. Third, by providing teachers with word recognition, comprehension, and fix‐up strategies, this book offers a multitude of ways to help students become reflective, independent readers. Finally, Almasi offers personal insights into several teachers’ transformative processes.

Teaching Strategic Processes in Reading provides teachers the background and framework for introducing strategic reading instruction with their learners. The contents are clear and accessible. It is an invaluable resource for educators interested in developing their students’ strategic processes in reading. _____________________________

Diane Lapp, Cathy Collins Block, Eric J. Cooper, James Flood, Nancy Roser, & Josefina Villamil Tinajero. (Eds.). (2004). Teaching All the Children: Strategies for Developing Literacy in an Urban Setting. New York & London, UK: The Guilford Press. 353 pages. ISBN: 1‐59385‐008‐5 (hardback); 1‐59385‐007‐7 (paperback).

Vetta Vratulis, doctoral student, Department of Language and Literacy, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia

The authors of this text purport that the literacy needs of American children attending urban schools are not being met; the literacy gap is growing as urban educators struggle to achieve educational equity. A step toward the solution, as suggested by these authors, is to develop new policies and practices that emerge from curriculum, instruction, and assessment strategies appropriate to the urban school context. This solution involves teachers understanding the complex reality in which many urban students live. Teachers also require professional development to acquire the skills and knowledge to teach linguistically and culturally diverse student populations, especially struggling readers.

Without such support, teachers may not know how to create learning conditions ideal for improving urban students’ chances for academic success. The premise of this text is that if teachers, parents, students, and communities work collaboratively to support urban students’ learning, these poor minority children will realize their potential.

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As a secondary English teacher and researcher, I am intrigued by the potential of this text to bridge theory with practice. The authors thread together past and current research in the area of urban literacy learning, yet they also address the perspectives, experiences, and practical knowledge of teachers. This coalescence diffuses the oftentimes dichotomous worlds of academia and teaching, making the text invaluable to researchers, preservice, and experienced teachers. The authors also include teacher / student narratives. The authors empower urban students through their narratives to show their struggle for academic survival in a system that is not inherently just. These narratives not only bring authenticity and perspective to the theoretical framework of the text, but relevance and urgency to the need for educational change.

The authors have divided this text into four sections; each section delineates a pertinent reality impacting teaching/learning in urban schools. In the first section the authors explore how changing demographics, for instance immigrant students’ limited English proficiency, has had an impact on urban students’ literacy learning. They not only elucidate the political, cultural, and economic reasons for achievement disparity, but the existing societal biases and stereotypes that hinder the potential for educational equity. They emphasize the necessity for teachers to support students’ home language while encouraging them to learn “mainstream English” or the language of “success.” This section ends on a cautionary note: children are at risk when parents and teachers are not united in their vision of how to support the development of student literacy. The authors note that current research suggests that urban students’ parents do not feel qualified to help in their child’s literacy learning, despite teachers’ requests that they become actively involved. As one parent explained, “I don’t want to teach him wrong. I know the teacher can do it right” (p.

66).

The second section deals primarily with the in‐school factors that have an impact on urban students’ potential to learn. I found the authors’ attention to the lack of evidence available to establish the effectiveness of “proven programs” to be especially intriguing. Research evidence has confirmed that improving teachers’ expertise and

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knowledge directly translates into an increase in students’ reading achievement; yet educational policymakers continue to put money into programs that are simply not working. For instance, why is more money not going into effective professional development for teachers? Is there even a chance for change when the connotations of words such as “proven and scientific” are perpetuating a myth that existing programs work?

The third section examines how a school‐university partnership model can improve student achievement. Once again, the authors emphasize the urgency for effective professional development for teachers. They include current research by neuroscientists revealing how an improved understanding of brain function might inform the development and application of new instructional strategies. The authors have not limited their research to the field of education; instead they have extended their focus to include the expertise of scientists, by which they model a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to answer educational challenges, an approach they explicitly and implicitly advocate throughout the text. This section ends with a focus on the growing need for research regarding culturally and linguistically diverse learners in special education classrooms.

In the final section, the authors purport that progress is possible only if teachers work collaboratively. Despite the written objectives of programs such as No Child Left Behind, for example, research indicates that reducing the achievement gap requires teachers to “bind together” not by the “programs they use but by the practices they implement” (p.

266). Thus, educators will benefit from merging their practical and content area expertise towards the common goal of improving student achievement. Otherwise, the proliferation of the achievement gap will continue, creating even more challenges for teachers in urban schools.

Although the authors have drawn attention to current barriers to improving urban student literacy, the reader is armed with resources, instructional strategies, and genuine proof that successful initiatives exist at the national, state, and school district level. This leaves the reader with a sense of hope, as though any teacher could serve as a catalyst to change. The authors expand upon existing research, open new discussions, raise pertinent questions, and create a framework for better

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understanding how and why becoming actively involved and accurately informed is critical. A collaborative effort is requisite not only because of the potential to learn from each others’ expertise, but because literacy teachers work a much larger context. The authors stress that no individual factor contributes to the difficulties of teaching / learning in urban schools or can be explored in isolation. In short, teachers, policy makers, or researchers immersing themselves within the web of “contextual messiness” is the beginning to the end of the injustice of existing achievement gaps in urban schools. _____________________________

Agnes D. Walkinshaw. (2004). Integrating Drama with Primary and Junior Education: the Ongoing Debate. [Mellon Studies in Education, v.93] Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press. 220 pages. Volume 93 ISBN: 0‐ 7734‐6476‐0; MSE Series ISBN: 0‐88946‐935‐0.

Greg Wetterstrand, a professor in teacher education and drama education, University of British Columbia Okanagan

Agnes Walkinshaw examines and analyzes the practices and theories of drama educators Winifred Ward, Peter Slade, Brian Way, Dorothy Heathcote and David Hornbrook. To achieve this task, Walkinshaw uses Aristotle’s six criteria offered in the Poetics as elements in any well‐ written play.

Thus the six elements of plot, character, theme, diction, music, and spectacle become the threads that run through Walkinshaw’s thesis.

Additionally she includes a seventh analytical category borrowed from Robert Cohen (1981, p. 39), the category of convention. Unfortunately Walkinshaw’s analytic choice immediately disenfranchises any dramatic form that is not theatrically oriented. Thus, her analysis of the five theorists becomes an arduously long journey, which, if a reader wishes to reach the end of the book, he or she must endure.

Walkinshaw commits one major error and one minor error and thus her work is a less valuable contribution to the debate than it could have been.

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The first and most serious of her errors is that she elects to use old icons and dated issues. Walkinshaw examines five educational drama specialists, whose work, while forming much of the foundation of educational drama, has long since been surpassed by several new generations of theorists, practitioners, and specialists in drama education. The topic of her work and the choices she makes are dated and of little interest to anyone who is presently working, creating, and implementing drama with children. As a historical review, Walkinshaw’s work is moderately interesting, but only as a reminder of ages past. Granted the works of Ward, Slade, Way, Heathcote, and Hornbrook are more available than those of current practitioners, but the field has long since moved beyond the issues that fascinated these five theorists. That is not to suggest that drama educators are not standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before, but to bring their concerns into the twenty‐first century devalues Walkinshaw’s work.

Within her analysis she appears to reject what these theorists did in order to apply Aristotle’s (and Cohen’s) categories of theatrical practice.

When Aristotle wrote about the well‐written play and what might constitute a substantive work, he referred to “tragedy (by which he meant a serious play)” (Cohen, 1988, p. 34). Aristotle was not referring to educational drama with learners in schools, but to the major works presented during the rich tradition of the Dionysian festivals.

Admittedly, Aristotle’s elements can still form the backbone of any serious critique, but these are critiques of theatrical productions or scripted plays, which are far from the realities of drama in the classroom.

What is bewildering is that a simple review of the titles of their books should provide some clue that a theatrical analysis will provide little insight. For example, these are the titles of the books the five drama theorists have written:

Ward – Playmaking with children: From kindergarten through junior high school Slade – Child play: Its importance for human development; Introduction to child drama; Child Drama Way – Development through drama

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Heathcote – Drama for learning (Wagner – Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a learning medium) Hornbrook – On the subject of drama; Education and the dramatic arts; Education in drama: Casting the dramatic curriculum.

It is clearly apparent that these theorists were interested in forms of educational drama. (Hornbrook is the only theorist who challenges the dramatic orientation for a theatrical one.) As Walkinshaw repeatedly tries to fit square pegs into round holes, the reader wonders ‘when will this end?’ This analytical choice becomes Walkinshaw’s Achilles heel and ultimately renders her work less than valuable for the practising classroom teacher or drama specialist today. Aristotle based his elements on theatre. It should come as no shock to discover that these drama theorists don’t fit well into Aristotle’s tidy categories.

Ultimately the reader learns nothing about the debate that is, at least in Walkinshaw’s mind, still going on. Her energy could be more profitably invested analyzing current practitioners to learn what they are struggling with and to update her debate perception.

The second error Walkinshaw makes is not entirely her fault. Her writing reads like a dissertation. Indeed, in all likelihood it is, because she thanks members of her committee for their guidance and support.

This is probably a doctoral dissertation turned into a book. It has the markings and writings of inflated language usually associated with graduate students seeking to impress – I know I was one. But I believe Walkinshaw could make her book much more reader friendly by abandoning the academic style.

Commendation should be given to Walkinshaw for dutifully completing her task of analysis. For contributing to our understanding of educational drama and the “ongoing debate” Walkinshaw leaves herself open to criticism and censure.

REFERENCES Aristotle. (1961). Aristotle’s poetics. S.H. Butcher (Trans.) New York: Hill and Wang.

Cohen, R. (1981). Theatre. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.