(1990). Discourse in Professional Situations. A classroom technique called "ubertragung," used for exercise and evaluation of oral communication, is explained as it is applied in a course in business German for native speakers of Norwegian. Learners read a text in Norwegian containing information relevant to the study of German for international trade. Later, students use the information in simulation of a professional situation in German. Generally, students speak in a dialogue but may also record a message or make a short presentation to an audience. Learners are encouraged to address a partner, to stimulate feedback. Pragmatic structure of communication in a professional situation is emphasized. A sample exercise, including the background article in Norwegian, is supplied. In construction of the instructional model, research on discourse processing was consulted. The objective is free speech production with specific content in project-oriented exercises. Students are made aware of the rules of interactive discourse…
(1977). Language Dominance, Predicting Oral Language Sequences and Beginning Reading Acquisition: A Study of First Grade Bilingual Children. Free speech samples and aural cloze test scores were collected from 24 Spanish-surnamed children at the beginning of first grade. The children were members of two classrooms, and each class received instruction from a Spanish-speaking bilingual teacher and an English-speaking monolingual teacher. The children were learning to read in Spanish and English. Spanish and English speech samples, which represented stories formulated by the children from picture books without words, were scored for grammaticality, verb tenses and sentence transformations. The scores were subsequently grouped into high, medium and low language control categories. Spanish and English cloze tests, administered in oral form, were scored for exact matching, appropriate synonyms and retention of appropriate syntax or meaning. A high relationship appeared to exist between the ability to perform predicting tasks, such as the cloze, and high control of language. When these language tasks were compared with teachers'… [PDF]
(1965). Intellect and Commitment: The Faces of Discontent. An analysis of student protest movements on 3 separate campuses revealed that leaders of the movements were brighter than average, usually classified themselves as non-religious, but were morally concerned about social and political issues. Participants in the Free Speech Movement (FSM) at Berkeley were found to have similar characteristics, and Center researchers conducted a more detailed study on initiators of and participants in the movement. Three hypotheses were used to compare FSM students with non-participating or average students: (1) that FSM participants are better students, more autonomous, have broader intellectual dispositions and obtain higher GPAs, (2) that there is a larger percentage of transfer students in the FSM group, and (3) that the majority of transfer students come from selective liberal arts, private, and public institutions. Three student samples were surveyed: 188 FSM participants who had been arrested, 60 FSM volunteers, and a randomly selected group of… [PDF]
(2002). Protected Classroom Speech of Public School Teachers: Pickering and Its Progeny. The concept of academic freedom originated in situations related to higher education. Although academic freedom may apply to professors, it is far from clear how, and even why, academic freedom applies to classroom K-12 teachers. This paper treats the balancing of teacher and school district rights in suits brought by teachers who claimed that their school districts retaliated against them, thereby violating the teachers' First Amendment academic-freedom rights. Analysis starts by describing current legal aspects of teacher in-class free speech, including significant court decisions, such "Pickering versus the Board of Education,""Connick versus Myers," and "Cockrel versus Shelby County School District" ("Cockrel II," which is still awaiting trial). Courts across the country are split as to which decision they base their judgments on because each decision is based on a different interpretation of teachers' rights, engendering the use of…
(1998). The Academic Senate of the University of California. Its Role in the Shared Governance and Operation of the University of California. The Clark Kerr Memoirs Project. This essay reviews the history of the University of California's Academic Senate, focusing especially on how the senate came to be what it is today, how it acquired its significant role in the shared governance of the university, and how its mode of operation adapted as the university increased in size and complexity. The essay is organized around specific university crises or eras, including the governance of academic affairs and grant of authority assigned to the senate in 1920 at the conclusion of Benjamin Wheeler's presidency; adjustments to the Great Depression (1930s); the loyalty oath controversy (1949-52); the effort to secure formal regental provision of academic tenure (1958); expansion of the university to serve rapidly increasing student numbers (1960s); reorganization of the senate's structure and mode of operation to adapt to the growth of the multicampus university (1963); year-round operations of the university (1960-68); the "free speech" movement…
(1992). Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part V: Media and Law, Section B. Section B of the Media and Law section of the proceedings contains the following nine papers: "The Professional Person as Libel Plaintiff: Reexamination of the Public Figure Doctrine" (Harry W. Stonecipher and Don Sneed); "The Anti-Federalists and Taxation under the Free Press Clause of the First Amendment" (Brad Thompson); "Independent State Constitutional Analysis in Defamation Litigation: State High Court Decisions, 1986-1991" (James Parramore); "(Don't) Express Yourself: Can State Constitutions Protect Freedom of Speech and the Press during the Rehnquist Years? A 50-State Survey of Free Speech Provisions and a Digest of Selected States and How They Might Fare" (Nancy K. Bowman); "Inquiring Minds Have a 'Right' to Know: The Role of Tautology in Private Facts Cases" (Elizabeth M. Koehler); "Ideological Exclusion of Foreign Communicators: The Lingering Shadow of a McCarthy Era Xenophobe" (Yuming J. B. Hu); "Supreme… [PDF]
(1993). The Role of Social Context and Agent in the Development of Abstract Rights Concepts. Research suggests that adolescents as young as 13 years old reason about such abstract rights as freedom of speech and religion. It is unclear whether such reasoning develops earlier. Also unclear is the role of adults as agents in inculating in children the adults' views on such rights. A study examined 184 Canadian students in the first, third, and seventh grades. Researchers interviewed half the students concerning free speech issues and the other half on religious freedom questions. The students reacted to stories in which an authority prohibits agents from exercising the right in question. The research examined such issues in three social contexts: (1) the general level of society; (2) the school setting; and (3) the family. In the stories, the agents were either adults or eight-year olds. Researchers assessed the legitimacy of the prohibition, evaluation of the rule, universality, and evaluation of the violation. In general, affirmations of freedom tended to increase with age… [PDF]
(1993). Insights and Implications of Campus Hate Speech Codes. Student affairs personnel must both ensure the safety and basic civil rights of students and also find ways to expose students to the consequences of their actions and speech. These obligations involve tensions between students' rights to free speech and their rights to equal protection under the Constitution, thus to education free from harassment. Among current policy options is the Chaplinsky "fighting words doctrine" to be used in place of vaguely-worded policies; other policies or refinements also exist. Regardless of which approach an institution chooses, several factors must be considered when developing and implementing a hate speech policy. Among these are which minority groups are to be affected, whether the policy includes faculty as well as students, whether it extends to off-campus activities, whether harm must be actual or merely potential, how the policy will be enforced, and what the range of sanctions is to be. Institutions should take a comprehensive… [PDF]
(1983). A First Look at Sandra Day O'Connor and the First Amendment. First Amendment students were unhappy to see Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart retire because his voting record demonstrated a favorable attitude toward freedom of speech and press. His replacement, Sandra Day O'Connor, was predicted to be a conservative or moderate who probably would vote consistently with Stewart in other areas, but her predilections about freedom of expression were unknown. In 184 cases in her first term and a half, O'Connor tended to side with the conservative justices in both First Amendment and other cases. Her decisions and opinions articulate a view that the role of the Court is limited and that deference to the states and to the political branches of the federal government should be the norm. In 23 free speech and press cases, O'Connor tended to side with the majority and with conservative justices. Her assertions of the values in the First Amendment pale in comparison with those of Stewart and other justices. Previous justices have developed a better…
(1987). "In Loco Parentis" Revisited and Commercial Speech on Campus. ASHE 1987 Annual Meeting Paper. The applicability of "in loco parentis" and the issue of commercial speech (e.g. sales pitches and advertising) on campus are discussed. While in previous years the principle of in loco parentis allowed colleges to dicate the behavior of its students, colleges must now take reasonable steps to guarantee the physical safety of students. This doctrine was weakened by the arrival on campus of veterans and by the lowering of the age of majority to 18. In loco parentis is still legally viable at any college that elects to stand in the place of a parent whose minor child matriculates there. At more mainstream schools, plaintiffs are using this doctrine to try to hold the college liable for injuries they have suffered. The issue of commercial speech on campus also centers on responsibility of the college to protect students. The focus here is the public sector and the protections cited in the First Amendment, including those that guarantee free speech. It is emphasized that…
(1978). Public Forum Theory in the Educational Setting: From the Schoolhouse Gate to the Student Press. Since 1939, legal recognition of the public forum concept has been gradually extended to include the public schools. This expansion of the free speech right has been accompanied by a movement of similar intensity aimed at narrowing the scope of regulatory action that might inhibit First Amendment freedoms. Ultimately, recognition of the public school as a public forum was coupled with the narrowed scope of allowable regulatory action. The result has been a philosophical revolution in which the student press, once conceived as an educational tool fully controlled by school authorities, is now seen as enjoying the same freedom from regulation afforded any other speech activity in a public forum. While this philosophy has not been universally accepted as yet, it has been recognized by all levels of federal courts and several state courts. The implication of these developments is that students who edit, produce, or distribute literature on school grounds are subject to regulatory action… [PDF]
(1967). Commitment and Conformity in the American College. Journal of Social Issues, v23 n3 p34-51. The major thesis of this paper is that the intense political activism observed on some campuses is not pervasive and is representative of only a small proportion of college students in the US; and that the great majority of students today largely manifest the apathy and conformity that have characterized students in the past, rather than the kind of commitment and autonomy that leads to political activism or serious political involvement. To substantiate this, the extent of dissent in colleges across the country is discussed and a portrait of the "average" student is drawn based on a national sample of 10,000 high school graduates. A comparison is made of personality traits of Free Speech members, of their contemporaries in professionally oriented programs, and of students in the national sample. This last analysis, which includes data on both college and noncollege peer groups, is especially pertinent to 1 of the major themes: that college can provide the environment for…
(1996). Fighting Words. The Politics of Hateful Speech. This book explores issues typified by a series of hateful speech events at Kean College (New Jersey) and on other U.S. campuses in the early 1990s, by examining the dichotomies that exist between the First and the Fourteenth Amendments and between civil liberties and civil rights, and by contrasting the values of free speech and academic freedom in the university to the failure to provide equal protection to students. An introductory chapter reviews the precipitating events at Kean College, when speakers from outside the college (Leonard Jeffries, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, and Louis Farrakhan) polarized the campus. African Americans felt their cultural event had been treated with disrespect; Jewish students, faculty, and staff were upset that a speaker known for anti-Semitic attitudes was allowed to speak without confronting those whom he defamed; Hispanics saw a plot to get rid of the Hispanic president. Succeeding chapters cover changing U.S. demographics and attitudes; the…
(2005). The Public Library as a Public Forum: The (De)Evolution of a Legal Doctrine. Library Quarterly, v75 n1 p1-19 Jan. When dealing with First Amendment free speech issues in the context of public libraries, courts have merely cited the supposition that constitutional public forum analysis leads to the conclusion that the public library is a limited public forum for the purposes of First Amendment analysis. By focusing narrowly on the issue of whether Internet access in libraries constitutes a public forum, and determining that it does not, the U.S. Supreme Court not only misses an opportunity to refine the concept of the public forum in modern-day terms but also somehow implies that public library activities are different from other speech activities and are subject to the managerial authority of the government. This article makes the argument that a redefinition of the public forum doctrine would bring under its ambit the public library, to join the "traditional" public forums such as streets, sidewalks, and parks–a departure from the current designation of the public library as a… [Direct]
(2006). One Hundred Semesters: My Adventures as Student, Professor, and University President, and What I Learned along the Way. Princeton University Press In "One Hundred Semesters", William Chace mixes incisive analysis with memoir to create an illuminating picture of the evolution of American higher education over the past half century. Chace follows his own journey from undergraduate education at Haverford College to teaching at Stillman, a traditionally African-American college in Alabama, in the 1960s, to his days as a professor at Stanford and his appointment as president of two very different institutions–Wesleyan University and Emory University. Chace takes us with him through his decades in education–his expulsion from college, his boredom and confusion as a graduate student during the Free Speech movement at Berkeley, and his involvement in three contentious cases at Stanford: on tenure, curriculum, and academic freedom. When readers follow Chace on his trip to jail after he joins Stillman students in a civil rights protest, it is clear that the ideas he presents are born of experience, not preached from an ivory… [Direct]