Convergent synthesis of a steroidal antiestrogen-mitomycin C hybrid using “click” chemistry

A convergent synthesis of a novel estrogen receptor-targeted drug hybrid was developed based on structures of the potent anti-proliferative mitomycin C and the steroidal anti-estrogen RU 39411. The steroidal antiestrogen was prepared with an azido-triethylene glycoloxy linker while the mitomycin C derivative (porfirimycin) incorporated a complementary 7-N-terminal alkyne. The two components were ligated using the Huisgen [3 + 2] cycloaddition (“click”) reaction. Preliminary biological assays demonstrated that the final hybrid compound retained both potent anti-estrogenic and anti-proliferative activities.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant PHS 5R01 CA 086061-09

2013 Dewey Lecture: College—What Is It Good For?

In this 2013 John Dewey Society Lecture I examine the history and the structure of the American system of higher education. I argue that the true hero of the story is the evolved form of the American university and that all the things we love about it, like free speech, are the side effects of a structure that arose for other purposes. I tell this story in three parts. First I explore how the American system of higher education emerged in the nineteenth century, without a plan and without any apparent promise that it would turn out well. Then I show how this process created an astonishingly strong, resilient, and powerful structure, which deftly balances competing aims – the populist, the practical, and the elite. Then I veer back toward the issue raised in the title, to figure out what the connection is between the form of American higher education and the things that it is good for. I argue that the form serves the extraordinarily useful functions of protecting those of us in the faculty from the real world, protecting us from each other, and hiding what we’re doing behind a set of fictions and veneers that keep anyone from knowing exactly what is really going on. Awkwardly, this means that the institution depends on attributes that we would publicly deplore: chaotic complexity, hypocrisy, and opacity. I end with a call for us to retreat from substance and stand shoulder-to-shoulder in defense of procedure

Welfare and education in British colonial Africa, 1918–1945

The relevance of historical research for an explanation of the roots of contemporary educational policy and its relationship to notions of equity, democracy and development has been sadly neglected in recent years. This means that policy makers have forfeited the advantages of reflecting on the traditions and experience of past endeavors and examining them critically for potential understandings of present and future policy making. The aim of this paper was to direct the attention of researchers to the complexities and multifaceted nature of educational policy development in inter-war era (1918–1945), with specific reference to British colonial Africa and South Africa. It will also hopefully provide a set of elementary tools for all of those interested in educational policy-making strategies that seek to promote meaningful social, economic and political change in an age of uncertainty

Bookshelf: <i>Kappan</i> authors on their favorite reads

In this monthly column, Kappan authors discuss books and articles that have informed their views on education. David Labaree recommends Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. And Laura Bornfreund recommends First Things First: Creating the New American Primary School. </jats:p

Power, Knowledge, and the Rationalization of Teaching: A Genealogy of the Movement to Professionalize Teaching

In this article, David Labaree presents a genealogy of the current movement to professionalize teaching, focusing on two key factors that define the lineage of this movement and shape its present character and direction. First, he argues that teacher professionalization is an extension of the effort by teacher educators to raise their own professional status. Second,he examines the closely related effort by this same group to develop a science of teaching. Given these roots, the reforms proposed by the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession and The Holmes Group may well do more for teacher educators than for teachers or students. More importantly, they may promote the rationalization of classroom instruction by generating momentum toward an authoritative, research-driven, and standardized vision of teaching practice.</jats:p