Aikenhead, Glen S. (1998). Many Students Cross Cultural Borders to Learn Science: Implications for Teaching. Australian Science Teachers' Journal, v44 n4 p9-12 Nov. Points out the purpose of strengthening Aboriginal science education aimed at teaching Western science and enhancing students' cultural identity. Supports a curriculum designed for practical ends as defined by the Aboriginal community. Highlights the economic development, environmental responsibility, and cultural survival of the Aboriginal community, and how they impact curriculum. (Author/CCM)…

Hron, Benjamin; Ryan, John Paul (1999). The Evolution of Human Rights in the Age of Biotechnology. Social Education, v63 n5 p303-308 Sep. Examines some of the main issues and developments within biotechnology that legislators must address. Suggests how these can be utilized in the social studies classroom. Includes three articles by Hilary Glazer and Hannah Letterman, Elizabeth M. Yang, and Ami S. Jaeger. (CMK)…

Fauske, Chris (1998). Some Other Culture: Maori Literature as a Unifying Force in a Multicultural Classroom. Teaching English in the Two-Year College, v26 n1 p18-24 Sep. Argues that using unfamiliar texts in a multicultural classroom allows students to read and write without interference from existing cultural tensions. Describes how, finding their own defenses and prejudices suddenly meaningless, students realize just how much common ground they share. Illustrates this by describing use of a Maori poem the author has found particularly powerful and effective. (SR)…

Thomson, Mark (1998). The Migration of Smallpox and Its Indelible Footprint on Latin American History. Junior Division Winner. History Teacher, v32 n1 p117-131 Nov. Addresses the migration of smallpox into the New World where it caused the extinction of entire indigenous civilizations and altered the survivors' cultures. Discusses the historical origins of smallpox and highlights the migration and consequences of smallpox in Central and South America. Includes an annotated bibliography, research description, and two maps. (CMK)…

Nicholson, Rob (2000). Az-Tech Medicine. Natural History, v108 n10 p54-59 Dec-Jan 1999-2000. Created in 1552 as a gift for Spain's king, the Badianus Manuscript is a repository of Aztec traditional medicinal knowledge and contains the earliest surviving illustrations of New World plants. At the College of Santa Cruz (Mexico City) for Aztec nobility, an Aztec healer who became the college physician compiled plant descriptions and medicinal uses, later translated into Latin. (SV)…

Crook, Marion (2000). Writing To Control the World: Aboriginal Teen Women and Their Ability To Write Their Own Stories. English Quarterly, v32 n3-4 p58-62. Suggests that writing about their lives allows Aboriginal teen women to define their strengths and explore their problems; it provides them with opportunities to explore their own attitudes to race, class, and gender issues; and it invites them to look at cultural, economic and institutional pressures on them. (RS)…

Ho'omanawanui, Ku'ualoha (2004). Ha, Mana, Leo (Breath, Spirit, Voice): Kanaka Maoli Empowerment through Literature. Commentaries. American Indian Quarterly, v28 n1-2 p86-91 Win-Spr. Until American Calvinist missionaries created a Hawaiian alphabet and writing system after their arrival to the Hawaiian islands in 1819, all Kanaka Maoli literature was oral. By inventing a Hawaiian alphabet, the missionaries were able to teach Kanaka Maoli reading and writing; by the early 1830s the first missionary-controlled printing press was established, and by 1861 the first of several dozen independent Kanaka Maoli Hawaiian-language newspapers, which flourished from 1861 through the 1930s, came into existence…. [Direct]

Awasty, Vinita; Choksi, Archana; Dyer, Caroline; Iyer, Uma; Moyade, Renu; Nigam, Neerja; Purohit, Neetu; Shah, Swati; Sheth, Swati (2004). Knowledge for Teacher Development in India: The Importance of "Local Knowledge" for In-Service Education. International Journal of Educational Development, v24 n1 p39-52 Jan. The need to enhance the relevance and quality of pre- and in-service teacher education in India has long been recognised in official commentaries. Despite the structural innovation of District Institutes of Education and Training to enhance systemic responsiveness to local contexts, training messages mediated through DIETs are largely not having the expected impact on classroom processes. Using qualitative data generated from six case study sites, this paper examines in-service training in DIETs and how they have responded to teacher development challenges. It finds that formal teacher education continues to have low "ecological validity", and highlights tensions in the recruitment and technical expertise of DIET staff, and in their attitudes towards elementary teachers, that constrain engagement with local contexts. The paper then considers several aspects of elementary teachers' local knowledge which underline the need for a review of the dominant "skills and… [Direct]

Smith, Bob (2004). "Boys Business": An Unusual Northern Australian Music Program for Boys in the Middle Years of Schooling. International Journal of Music Education, v22 n3 p230-236. The Northern Territory's population commingles Anglo, European and Asian cultural communities. At over 25 percent, it also has Australia's proportionately largest indigenous population. Consequently it presents an amazing proving ground for people-related research projects. One such project is "Boys Business", involving middle years' boys with learning in school and for life. What is unusual about the project is its use of music as the primary vehicle to inspire boys. The program operates in part from a belief that boys themselves are actually alright but that they seek affirmation in their engagement with an increasingly challenging world. Literacy may provide one such challenge, constraining many boys' learning. The program addresses this, as it encourages acquisition of oral and emotional literacy through music making and related activities. So effective is "Boys Business" in the ways it addresses these and other issues that it is now moving across state and… [Direct]

Troy, Jakelin; Walsh, Michael (2004). Terminology Planning in Aboriginal Australia. Current Issues in Language Planning, v5 n2 p151-165 May. Australia, as far as Aboriginal languages are concerned, is not yet engaged in systematic language planning exercises. This is in contrast to other parts of the world where language planning is institutionalised and enforced. In this paper we chronicle some of the language planning exercises we have observed, been involved in, or have studied of from the historical record. Terminology planning will obviously vary according to the language situation under consideration and we claim here that much of the terminology planning in Aboriginal Australia has been highly localised, ad hoc and much less institutionalised than elsewhere. With 250 Aboriginal languages existing at first significant European contact, it is not so surprising that efforts should be localised. The better documented cases of terminology planning are mostly to be found in northern Australia where the effects of outside contact have been more recent, so that some languages are still being spoken by children. In recent… [Direct]

(1996). Participation and Attainment of Individual Client Groups within Vocational Education and Training. This report examines participation in vocational education and training (VET) of four groups of Australians: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, women, people from a non-English speaking background (NESB), and people with disabilities. For each group, the following are presented and depicted in figures and tables: background, context (population and labor force analysis, educational attainment, training within the VET sector, and outcomes from VET). In the chapter on women, additional sections discuss participation in postcompulsory education and analyze participation in eight Australian states. The conclusions are summarized as follows: (1) Aboriginal and Torres Island Strait peoples have low levels of educational attainment, low participation in the labor force, overrepresentation in low-skilled jobs, and underrepresentation among graduates of Technical and Further Education (TAFE); (2) although women have lower levels of VET and labor force participation than men,… [PDF]

Lister, Ronah; Nagai, Yasuko (2003). What Is Our Culture? What Is Our Language? Dialogue towards the Maintenance of Indigenous Culture and Language in Papua New Guinea. Language and Education, v17 n2 p87-104. Three local elementary school teachers in the Milne Bay province of Papua New Guinea are trying to determine their real culture and language in order t devise better ways to maintain them. Portrays the experience of these teachers' dilemmas and frustrations, as well as their joys throughout the process of innovation. (Author/VWL)…

Gruber, Donald (2003). Exploring American-Indian Art: Making a Parfleche. Arts & Activities, v132 n5 p28-29,49 Jan. Provides background information on the Plains People. Describes an art project used with seventh- and eighth-grade students to introduce to a lesson on the Plains People in North America. Explains how the students created a parfleche in detail. (CMK)…

Allen, Nancy; Christal, Mark; Resta, Paul E. (2002). Technology and Tradition: The Role of Technology in Native American Schools. TechTrends, v46 n2 p50-55 Mar-Apr. Describes the Four Directions project, funded by the Department of Education for using technology to create and disseminate culturally responsive curriculum for American Indian students within the 19 participating tribal schools and throughout the country. Highlights include technology in American Indian communities; Web-supported interaction; and a virtual museum project. (LRW)…

Leavitt, Robert M. (1991). Language and Cultural Content in Native Education. Canadian Modern Language Review, v47 n2 p266-79 Jan. It is possible to provide culturally appropriate education for native Canadian Indian and Inuit children within the framework of the European schooling model by finding a balance between building on the children's native experiences and taking from English language and pedagogy what they can use appropriately in their own culture. (25 references) (MSE)…

Stairs, Arlene, Ed. (1994). Culture and Education: Aboriginal Settings, Concerns, and Insights. Canadian Journal of Education, v19 n2 p121-96 Spr. The introduction, five articles, and book review of this special issue highlight the educational development of aboriginal populations in Canada and demonstrate the richness aboriginal encounters with formal schooling bring to the understanding of the essentially cultural nature of education, moving beyond the universalism of the Western educational tradition. (SLD)…

Psacharopoulos, George (1993). Ethnicity, Education, and Earnings in Bolivia and Guatemala. Comparative Education Review, v37 n1 p9-20 Feb. In Guatemala and Bolivia, countries with high proportions of ethnic (Native) population, indigenous workers had lower educational attainment and earned less at every educational level, relative to nonindigenous workers. The differences between ethnic groups were greater in Guatemala than Bolivia. (SV)…

Crosby, Alfred W. (1991). Infectious Disease and the Demography of the Atlantic Peoples. Journal of World History, v2 n2 p119-33 Fall. Discusses effects of disease on the Atlantic basin after Christopher Columbus established contact between the hemispheres. Emphasizes the decimation of the native populations of the Americas when exposed to illnesses common in Eurasia and Africa. Relates the epidemics to the development of the slave trade and the rise of the middle class in Europe. (DK)…

Taylor, Anthea (1997). Literacy and the New Workplace: The Fit between Employment-Oriented Literacy and Aboriginal Language-Use. British Journal of Sociology of Education, v18 n1 p63-80 Mar. Argues that the political nature of language and literacy is evident in the positioning of adult literacy instruction within the rhetoric of employment-related concerns, particularly competence-based schemata. Identifies assumptions regarding the degree to which the vision of participation, as measured by specific-language literacy, is shared by Aboriginal Australians. (DSK)…

Sinlarat, Paitoon (2005). Changing the Culture of Education in Thai Universities. Higher Education Policy, v18 n3 p265-269. Since their establishment in 1916, Thai universities have faithfully performed the duty of transferring Western knowledge to Thai society, at the expense of creating a body of knowledge within the country. They have neglected Thai traditional knowledge. Consequently, the knowledge that has been taught in Thai universities has not been in harmony with Thai society; Thai students have become consumers and new research has been almost nonexistent. The author proposes a solution to this problem, involving the concepts of integrated systems of knowledge and a change in the "culture of education"…. [Direct]

Simonelli, Richard (1994). Traditional Knowledge Leads to a Ph.D.: Doctoral Program Designed around Native Heritage. Winds of Change, v9 n4 p43-48 Fall. Ph.D. program at California Institute of Integral Studies trains Native Americans and other indigenous peoples to deepen their traditional knowledge and strengthen its environmental impact. A parallel program helps Euro-Americans discover their own indigenous values. Both programs focus on integrating Earth-based knowledge with Western science. (RAH)…

Ball, Jessica; Schwartz, Christine (2001). Evaluation of an Effective Postsecondary Program in Canadian Aboriginal Communities: Students' Perspectives on Support. The purpose of this study was to identify significant sources of support for Canadian aboriginal students in a unique early childhood education program developed between the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and seven across Canada. The approach of this study provided a fresh perspective in that it gave students the opportunity to name unlimited sources of support without restricting the definition of support. Thus, it enabled a quantification of the importance of sources of support and the possibility of identifying support sources previously overlooked in the research literature. Commentary was invited from a broad spectrum of community members who had been involved in or affected by the program. The impacts of the training program across groups of participants were uncovered by an ecologically comprehensive research method that consisted of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses that included interviews and questionnaires. The focus of this report is on… [PDF]

Jimenez, Wilson; McEwan, Patrick J. (2002). Indigenous Students in Bolivian Primary Schools: Patterns and Determinants of Inequities. A World Bank Study. This paper examines the patterns and determinants of inequities between indigenous and non-indigenous students in Bolivian primary (elementary) schools, using a 1997 survey of third and sixth graders. Analysis shows that, on average, indigenous students are of lower socioeconomic status, and their schools appear to have fewer instructional materials and poorer infrastructure. There is notable student segregation by linguistic status. Indigenous students score 0.28-0.47 standard deviations lower than non-indigenous student on tests of mathematics and Spanish achievement. Approximately two-thirds of the difference between indigenous student and non-indigenous student scores is explained by the unequal distribution of family and school variables. The remaining difference in scores may be explained by the unique linguistic background of students, or by unobserved features of families and schools. In the early grades, Bolivia scored below the regional mean of 11 Latin American countries….

Scott, Ted (1991). Issues in Education in Remote Rural Australia. Education in Rural Australia, v1 n1 p7-11. Discusses four issues in rural education in remote areas of Australia: (1) the education of girls; (2) the education of aborigines; (3) education for lifelong learning; and (4) the need to compile current research on rural education in Australia and plan further research accordingly. (KS)…

Demmert, William; Keskitalo, Jan Henry (1998). Report from the International Steering Committee on Cross-Cultural Education in the North: Influencing Public Policy–Education in the Circumpolar North. Equity & Excellence in Education, v31 n1 p81-83 Apr. Describes the work of the Steering Committee for the International Cross-Cultural Education Seminar Series in the Circumpolar North, a committee of Native and non-Native educators and political leaders who have organized seminars in education in the circumpolar area and promoted political alliances that bring together those with interests in education policy. (SLD)…

Agbo, Seth A. (2004). First Nations Perspectives on Transforming the Status of Culture and Language in Schooling. Journal of American Indian Education, v43 n1 p1-31. One of the challenges facing Aboriginal education is how to enhance Aboriginal students' achievement through culturally responsive pedagogies. The issue involved is not merely that of methods of teaching and learning but of acquiring the necessary tools for shaping and implementing a socially and culturally oriented curriculum that recognizes Aboriginal local resources in context and reinforces and maximizes their use in education to make school learning an integral component of the social and cultural context of Aboriginal children's heritage. The paper is about First Nations' perspectives, opinions and attitudes about the status of language and culture in schooling and their suggested strategies to revitalize and preserve First Nations cultures. The paper concludes that the issue involved is not merely one of cultural education of students but also of helping Euro-Canadian teachers to attain the necessary cultural tools for determining and putting into practice a socially and…

de Courcy, Michele (2005). Policy Challenges for Bilingual and Immersion Education in Australia: Literacy and Language Choices for Users of Aboriginal Languages, Auslan and Italian. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, v8 n2-3 p178-187. This paper deals with the author's recent work on political, sociolinguistic and educational aspects of bilingual and immersion education in Australia. Among the cases considered are: the development of a professional position statement on bilingual and immersion education, to be disseminated to policy makers; advising on an Auslan (Australian language of the Deaf) bilingual programme; and a proposed investigation of why there are no Italian late immersion programmes in Victoria, despite the importance of Italian as a community language of long standing. Several aspects of heritage/community language education in Australia will be discussed: political issues of programme staffing and funding; the impact of sociolinguistic factors, relating to a particular community language and how it is viewed by its own and other communities, on the types of programmes that will be undertaken; and the effect of educational decisions taken by school administrators on the language learning… [Direct]

Bradley, Deborah (2006). Global Song, Global Citizens? Multicultural Choral Music Education and the Community Youth Choir: Constituting the Multicultural Human Subject. Online Submission, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Toronto. This study provides a critical ethnographic examination of the Mississauga Festival Youth Choir that emerged from my concerns related to mainstream community choral music education practices. The predominantly white memberships and Eurocentric repertoire of many community children's choirs suggests that traditional structures and practices are exclusionary, even when this may not be the intent of the choir's organizers. Interviews conducted with members of the Mississauga Festival Youth Choir, and analysis of my reflective teaching journal, suggest that multicultural choral music education when taught within in an anti-racism discursive framework, may contribute to a newly emerging sense of identity (and its related subjectivity) which I describe as multicultural human subjectivity. The concept of multicultural human subject is located within a cosmopolitan sociology which acknowledges that globalization impacts the local level of life within national societies, transforming everyday… [PDF]

Sternberg, Robert J. (2006). Recognizing Neglected Strengths. Educational Leadership, v64 n1 p30-35 Sep. To identify diverse student strengths and to learn how teachers can build instruction on those strengths, the author and his colleagues have conducted multiple studies among students in Alaska, the mainland United States, Kenya, and other countries. In a series of studies in Alaska and Kenya, the researchers measured the adaptive cultural knowledge and skills of native Alaskan students and rural Kenyan students and demonstrated that instruction geared to these cultural skills improved academic achievement. In another series of studies, the researchers grouped students by their cognitive areas of strength (memory, analysis, creativity, and practical intelligence) and found that students performed better when they were taught in ways that were compatible with their strengths. The author's conclusion: When schools teach in ways that respect students' different strengths, students learn and perform better. (Contains 1 figure.)… [Direct]

Bevan-Brown, Jill; Glynn, Ted (2007). "We Know What You Need…" and Other Misconceptions about Maori Learners. Kairaranga, v8 n2 p25-31. This paper challenges some of the ill-informed and misleading assumptions made about Maori students and their whanau, and about Maori teachers and education professionals. In particular it examines four prominent assumptions that impact on Maori, namely: We are all New Zealanders; We know all about Maori students and praise; We know what whanau needs are, and how to meet them; and we know what an effective partnership with Maori looks like. It is argued that non-Maori need to invest more time and energy into gaining an understanding of the worldviews and lived experiences of their Maori colleagues, students and whanau they work with. They also need to better understand how taken-for-granted Western European worldviews impact upon Maori. Deeper understanding of both issues will enable non-Maori to build close personal as well as professional relationships with Maori, and so avoid forming and acting upon untested assumptions about "Maori needs" and how they should be met…. [PDF]