Education and the USA

Edited by Laurenz Volkmann.

The present volume explores the ramifications of the American education system and its representations in various media. It opens up new vistas on controversial transatlantic debates on education in the USA, critically reflecting on historical and contemporary developments in the USA and their impact on European perceptions of a model which for many seems worth emulating. The first section of contributions offers fresh perspectives on political, social, and theoretical concepts of higher education in the USA, specifically targeting issues such as diversity, political objectives, and ideological controversies with regard to education. The second section offers a discussion of important, though sometimes neglected, historical aspects and tendencies within the American system of education. The third section focuses on literary and media representations of education in the USA. In addition, a fourth section highlights the German perspective with a special emphasis on problems of didactic conceptualization and selection of US-relevant teaching matters and materials. The contributions by fourteen experts from this field represent a choice selection of papers presented at the 2009 Jena conference of the German Association of American Studies. 14 essays, divided into in four chapters: 1. Different Perspectives; 2. Historical Aspects; 3. Representation in the Media; 4. German Perspectives. - Contents: Paula M. L. Moya: Educating for a Diverse Society in "Post-Race" America. - Christian Kloeckner: David Horowitz, Intellectual Diversity, and the Politics of Academic Freedom. - Charlie Wesley: Bridging the Gap. Radicalism and Conformism. - Bärbel Höttges: Save the Man? Religious Instruction and the Ideology of Ethnicity in Antebellum America. - Sabine N. Meyer: "Mak[ing] Noble, Law-Abiding Citizens". Scientific Temperance Instruction in American Public Schools. - Anja Werner: Striving for the Top. Reevaluating Regional and Transatlantic Influences in the History of U.S. Higher Education. - Marco Althaus: For-Profit Higher Education in America: Reform-Minded Teaching and Learning in a Commercial University Model. - Stefanie Miiller: The State Nobility? The Power of the Academic Elite in Donna Tartt's "The Secret History". - Nicole Waller: Oppositional Pedagogy. Lessons about Teaching in Michelle Cliffs "Free Enterprise" and Ernest Gaines's "A Lesson Before Dying". - Katja Kanzler: "To Sue and Make Noise". Legal Theatricality and Civic Didacticism in "Boston Legal". - Ulla Kriebernegg: Unlocking Potential. The Role of American Studies for the Bologna Process. - Peter Freese: American Studies in the Advanced EFL-Classroom in Germany. - Daniel Stein: American Cultural Studies, Media Studies, and Intercultural Competence. Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" as Educational Resource and Didactic Model. - Gerhard Finster: Teaching US Youth Cultures as Represented in Recent Movies and Literature. XIX,246 Seiten mit 14 Abb., gebunden (American Studies - A Monograph Series; Vol. 207/Universitätsverlag Winter 2011) leichte Lagerspuren/minor shelfwear