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This article critically analyzes the application of charter school techniques in teacher education, especially in two noteworthy programs: the newly developed Relay Graduate School of Education and Match Teacher Residency. We describe how their approaches to teacher preparation differ from traditional teacher education programs. We also raise concern regarding the ways charter-inspired teacher preparation programs overlook the contributions of theory to good teaching, jeopardize teacher flexibility, alter understandings of the professional practice of teaching, and threaten the overarching purpose of educating for democracy that is integral to traditional teacher colleges. We emphasize educationally worthwhile approaches from this new domain of teacher preparation while also offering some words of caution regarding approaches that, given their ties to charter schooling, may be problematically celebrated by the media and public.

Abstract In this paper, we examine three unanticipated findings from a social constructionist analysis of popular media coverage of the pesticide DDT from the years 1944 to 1961. The first unanticipated finding was the early (1945) appearance of negative or cautionary claims in the media source examined, the New York Times. Second, while negative or cautionary claims about the pesticide did constitute a minority voice during this time period, it was nonetheless a persistent voice. The third unanticipated finding was the predominance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the State Agricultural Experiment Stations among those claimsmakers initially cautioning potential users about unintended and potentially deleterious impacts. The concept of "routine monitoring mechanisms" is introduced to explain this third finding. We conclude by considering the potential impact of this coverage on the subsequent development of the controversy.

Introduction of biotechnologies, particularly genetically modified (GM) technologies, have led to varying public responses from the government, general public and concerned farmers who use the technological products at the field level. Introduction of Bt cotton in India over the last five years generated considerable debate from the time open field testing of Bt cotton commenced towards the late 1990s. This paper is a modest attempt to map the contours of this debate and analyse it from a sociological perspective of the actors. Most significantly, actors in government and industries express trust in the ar rangements governing biotechnology, while actors in civil society point out problems with the functioning of the relevant governing bodies. We first present a brief overview of the events of the controversy, and then proceed with the body of our study.