Reginatto, Emilia (1993). Improving Knowledge and Competency of Early Childhood Providers Through an In-Service Multicultural Bilingual Program. This practicum was designed to provide a multicultural, bilingual inservice training program for the staff of six early childhood centers serving a large Hispanic population. The inservice training consisted of weekly seminars, guest lectures, classroom observations, and feedback interviews with center directors and executives of agencies that cater to a Hispanic clientele. Assessment instruments were developed and administered to evaluate the teaching knowledge and competency of the 10 participants before and after the intervention. Pre- and postintervention tests demonstrated that all 10 participants increased their teaching knowledge and competency, especially in relation to the importance of a bilingual, multicultural approach to teaching. Three appendixes contain questions asked of agency executives, questions asked of center directors regarding their perceptions of the caregivers on their staff, and a copy of the teaching practices assessment instrument. (MDM)… [PDF]

Cozic, Charles P., Ed. (1992). Education in America. Opposing Viewpoints. This book, part of a series about differing viewpoints on education in America, examines how education can be improved for this and future generations of America's youth. The following papers and their authors are included: "Public Education Needs Extensive Reform" (John Taylor Gatto); "Public Education Does Not Need Extensive Reform" (Gerald Bracey); "A Longer School Year Would Improve Public Education (Chester Finn); opposing view–Colman McCarthy; "Eliminating Standardized Tests Would Improve Schools" (D. Monty Neill, Moe J. Medina); opposing view–Gregory J. Cizek, Ramsay Selden; "National Teacher Certification Would Improve Teaching" (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards); opposing view–William Raspberry; "Merit Pay Programs Would Improve Teacher Performance" Lamar Alexander; opposing view–Keith Geiger; "Extended Teacher Education Produces More Effective Teachers" (Robert G. Carroll); opposing…

Barer-Stein, Thelma, Ed.; Draper, James A., Ed. (1989). The Craft of Teaching Adults. The chapters and authors in this volume are as follows: "The New World of Continuing Education" (Thomas); "Compared to What? Comparison Studies as an Added Dimension for Adult Learning" (Kidd); "Culture in the Classroom" (Barer-Stein); "Planning for Learning: A Model for Creative Decision Making" (Herman); "Application of Learning Theory to the Instruction of Adults" (Brundage, Keane, MacKneson); "Program Evaluation for Instructors of Adults" (Davie); "Holistic Learning/Teaching in Adult Education: 'Would You Play a One-String Guitar?'" (Griffin); and "Advice and Empathy: Teachers Talking with Teachers" (Draper). Each chapter begins with a practitioner's summary and ends with a bibliography. The book concludes with the names and addresses of Canadian and international adult education organizations and an annotated bibliography of 107 selected Canadian writings on adult education. (CML)… [PDF]

Blankenship, Glen; And Others (1986). The United States and Canada: A Common Heritage, a Shared Future. Designed to familiarize students with Canada and how it compares and contrasts with the United States, this collection of 18 lessons is designed to be used in a variety of ways. The lessons may be used individually, infused as case studies into a variety of course topics or used as a complete unit. Each lesson is divided into six sections: lesson content/concepts; skill strand/s; objectives; materials; strategies; and teacher evaluation. The lessons are: Impressions of Canada; Canada in the World; Canada in North America; Canada the Nation; Canadian Population; Geographic Regions of Canada; Native Canadians; Canadian Explorers; People of Canada; Ethnic Groups in Canada; Canadian History; Symbols of Canada; Canadian Holidays; Metric System in Canada; Languages in Canada; Canada and U.S. Trade; Interdependence; and Acid Rain. The collection also includes three extensions: Current Events in Canadian Studies; Political Cartoons about Canada; and Canadian Government. (AG)…

Cornejo, Ricardo J.; Rodriguez, Ana Maria (1982). Project ASSERT. Advanced and Specialized Study in Educational Research Techniques. Final Report, November 1979 to November 1981. Project ASSERT, an experimental project conducted at San Diego State University (California), was designed to prepare, demonstrate, and disseminate strategies to increase the participation of women and minorities in education research. The program trained faculty researchers in advanced research methodologies and provided practitioners with research skills. The training program for faculty researchers was a series of special projects symposia led by well-known researchers in education and other disciplines. Faculty researchers were given fellowships to pursue research on issues that affected minorities and women. Training for the practitioner participants consisted of intensive study and instruction from the faculty researchers, who acted as their mentors. Practitioners were given research associate internships. Research areas addressed by the practitioners are listed and described. Appendixes contain: (1) the selection procedures for mentors and practitioners; (2) material on… [PDF]

Benedict, Annette (1978). Title VII Bilingual-Bicultural Program, Final Evaluation Report, 1977-1978. After reviewing recent legal decisions on bilingual education, this report describes the goals and requirements of a bilingual program in a New York City community school district with a large number of Spanish speaking pupils, and the methods by which these goals were to be attained. The training and responsibilities of staff are discussed, with particular attention to the participation of bilingual teachers in inservice workshops. The program is evaluated and the extent to which its objectives were fulfilled is discussed. Areas evaluated include student growth in verbal and mathematical skills and cultural history, cross-cultural activities for students, parent-school rapport, and the development of a multi-media laboratory. Tables are included. (Author/WP)…

Moore-Eyman, Evelyn (1981). The Support Service Approach to University Education for Native Students in Alberta. Of the four universities within the Province of Alberta, the University of Calgary has most effectively met the bicultural needs of Native students. Athabasca University's correspondence courses are usually not effective for Native students. The University of Alberta's "Morningstar" program allows teacher certification before completion of degrees and offers its course off-campus in an Indian controlled institution; of the 37 students completing the 2-year training, 24 have taught for at least a year and 13 (some included in the 24) have completed their degrees; these 13 exceed the total number of Native teachers in the Province when the project began. The University of Lethbridge has, in association with the Blackfoot Tribe, created a department of Native American Studies and has a full-time student advisor on its staff; since the establishment of the department, 23 Native students have graduated in all disciplines. The University of Calgary offers support services for…

Gounaris, Marilyn (1979). Understanding The Lau Decision. In a question and answer format, this booklet describes the Lau v. Nichols decision in which the Supreme Court ruled that the San Francisco Unified School District was guilty of discrimination because non-English speaking students were not given special language instruction. The booklet presents the basis for the Lau decision, describing a Department of Health, Education and Welfare memo which interpreted Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as making school districts responsible for providing equal educational opportunities to national origin minority group children deficient in English language skills. The impact of the decision is explained in terms of the Lau Remedies, the guidelines set to assist school districts in compliance. The requirements of the Lau Remedies are described, as well as descriptions of appropriate programs. The Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 is also explained as an additional guarantee that non or limited English speaking students receive…

Gay, Geneva (1988). Redesigning Relevant Curricula for Diverse Learners. Education and Urban Society, v2 n4 p327-40 Aug. Discusses the problems of designing a multicultural curriculum that meets the needs of students from a wide variety of social and ethnic backgrounds without compromising their cultural identity or personal integrity. (FMW)…

Campbell, Jean B.; Mills, Thomas J. (1994). Educational Use of Foreign Students and Americans Returned from Study Abroad: A Project To Improve Global Education. This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a three-year project at the University of Oregon to utilize Americans returning from study abroad and international students as educational resources in global education to campus, K-12 schools, and the community. Courses were initiated on overseas study predeparture, overseas study re-entry, cross-cultural issues, and global education for teachers. The project involved 93 students returning from study abroad who made 218 visits to K-12 schools and participated in a variety of related campus and community activities. International students made presentations and spoke to language classes. Two courses for teachers were designed and three one-credit courses for students preparing or returning from study abroad and international students were implemented. The study was evaluated positively by participants and those receiving their services and major project goals were met. Individual sections of the report describe the… [PDF]

Algozzine, Bob; Obi, Sunday O.; Obiakor, Festus E. (1999). Empowering Culturally Diverse Exceptional Learners in the 21st Century: Imperatives for U.S. Educators. This article examines issues in the education of culturally different students in the nation's schools. The first section examines factors underlying the future education of this population including demographic increases in numbers of culturally diverse students in the schools, historic discrimination against these groups, and under-representation or over-representation of some ethnic minorities in certain special education categories. The second section addresses multidimensional needs of culturally diverse exceptional learners such as nonbiased assessment, bilingual education, and direct intervention to reduce prejudice. The last section suggests ways to enhance empowerment possibilities for culturally diverse exceptional learners. Educators are urged to: (1) understand fundamentals of general and special education; (2) shift assessment and instructional paradigms, and (3) put practical perspectives on learned concepts. (Contains 59 references.) (DB)… [PDF]

Ming, Racy (2002). Desegregation in a Diverse and Competitive Environment: Admissions at Lowell High School. Urban Education, v37 n2 p173-92 Mar. To comply with the district desegregation plan, the San Francisco Unified School District previously required higher scores for Chinese American applicants to its academic magnet high school than for more underrepresented groups. Examines the admissions debate, suggesting that exclusion of Asian and Latino concerns in district policymaking led to a lawsuit by several Chinese parents. Highlights school enrollment figures, discussing misconceptions about high-achieving African American and Latino students. (SM)…

Friend, Gloria; Seidl, Barbara (2002). Leaving Authority at the Door: Equal-Status Community-Based Experiences and the Preparation of Teachers for Diverse Classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education, v18 n4 p421-33 May. Describes a cross-cultural, equal status internship designed to prepare teachers for diverse classrooms, examining its influence on prospective teachers' emerging sociocultural perspectives and raced identities and exploring successes and challenges of this experience and what has been learned about supporting more mature anti-racist identities in the 3 years that students have been engaged in this internship.(SM)…

Reich, Alice (1989). Cleaning Up after the Show: Anthropology in a "Value-Centered" Curriculum. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development, v18 n1 p121-27 Spr. Contrasts the values taught in a cultural anthropology course with those pervasive in contemporary American culture. Discusses the relationship between values and attempts to define what it means to be human. Argues that teaching using a cross-cultural perspective empowers students to discover what is truly meaningful to their lives. (JS)…

Davies, Julie (1995). Teaching Diversity Skills in Law School: One School's Experience. Journal of Legal Education, v45 n3 p398-414 Sep. The evolution of a diversity education program at McGeorge School of Law (University of the Pacific, California) is chronicled and response to it is discussed. The program involved a lecture on cultural sensitivity and follow-up small-group discussion sessions involving faculty and students. While the program did not meet the expectations of all constituencies, tangible benefits were seen. (MSE)…

Stahl, Abraham (1994). The Fourfold Gap: Preparing Teachers for Educating the Culturally Different. European Journal of Teacher Education, v17 n3 p241-51. Frequently, teachers from dominant cultural groups confront diverse students. Teachers must learn to handle problems caused by the differences. The paper presents a model of a fourfold gap between teachers and students (linguistic, cognitive, cultural, and social), using examples from Israeli schools. Suggestions for counteracting possible negative effects are offered. (SM)…

Clark, Leilani; And Others (1992). Teaching Teachers to Avoid Having Culturally Assaultive Classrooms. Young Children, v47 n5 p4-9 Jul. Children in a class were divided into two groups. Members of one group were called "Indians," and members of the other were called "non-Indians." Members of the so-called Indian group assaulted the cultural values of the "non-Indian" group. Children's reactions are discussed. (BG)…

Avery, Patricia G.; Walker, Constance (1993). Prospective Teachers' Perceptions of Ethnic and Gender Differences in Academic Achievement. Journal of Teacher Education, v44 n1 p27-37 Jan-Feb. Reports on a survey of preservice teachers regarding their perceptions of gender and ethnic disparity in academic achievement. Most of the subjects recognized the ways that society and school contribute to gender disparities, and over half mentioned society and school as factors contributing to ethnic disparities. (SM)…

Miramontes, Ofelia B. (1991). Organizing for Effective Paraprofessional Services in Special Education: A Multilingual/Multiethnic Instructional Service Team Model. Remedial and Special Education (RASE), v12 n1 p29-36,47 Jan-Feb. The paper explores elements necessary to develop a stable, well-prepared itinerant instructional team (the Multilingual/Multiethnic Instructional Service team) to serve linguistically diverse exceptional students. Such a team would utilize paraprofessionals under the direct supervision of a certified special education teacher, allowing districts with limited bilingual/bicultural personnel to maximize their resources. (Author/DB)…

Tyack, David B. (1993). Constructing Difference: Historical Reflections on Schooling and Social Diversity. Teachers College Record, v95 n1 p8-34 Fall. Discusses the long history of social and political constructions of differences in United States society and public schools, including the social constructions of diversity, educators' policies for handling diversity, the influence of white ethnic groups, and racial and sex discrimination. (SM)…

Epstein, Erwin H. (1992). Social Paradoxes of American Education. Oxford Review of Education, v19 n3 p201-12. Identifies four issues that will shape the future of U.S. elementary and secondary education: (1) decentralized governance of schools; (2) education of all students and level of achievement; (3) opportunity for educational equality; and (4) cultural diversity and ethnicity. (CFR)…

Mahan, James M.; Stachowski, Laura L. (1998). Cross-Cultural Field Placements: Student Teachers Learning from Schools and Communities. Theory into Practice, v37 n2 p155-62 Spr. Presents two cultural immersion projects where student teaching and community involvement interact synergistically. Also discusses learning outcomes of the projects, examines the importance of service learning, and explains how traditional student teaching assignments can incorporate many of the design principles that characterize cultural learning and preparation for diversity. (SM)…

Ellington, Lucien (1998). Multicultural Theorists and the Social Studies. Social Studies, v89 n2 p57-60 Mar-Apr. Questions the multiculturalists' vision that an ethnic group's self-esteem and subsequent academic achievement can improve through the study of its culture. Cites the paucity of studies supporting the effectiveness of interventions to improve inter-ethnic group attitudes. Maintains that some multiculturalists are more interested in superficial appearances than substantiative multicultural content. (MJP)…

Monts, Lester P. (1995). Diversity and Multiculturalism: Institutional Leadership at the University of Michigan. Journal of Dental Education, v59 n12 p1113-18 Dec. Initiatives taken at University of Michigan to address complex nature of diversity and multiculturalism in higher education are described, including a 1988 administrative strategic plan to link academic excellence and social diversity among faculty and students, a plan to improve women's representation among faculty, a longitudinal study of impact of diversity on the class of 1994, and curriculum reform. (MSE)…

Gomez, Mary Louise; Page, Michelle L.; Walker, Anne Burda (2000). Personal Experience as a Guide To Teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, v16 n7 p731-47 Oct. Analyzes teacher educators' experiences using storytelling about teaching to prepare second-career teacher candidates to critically reflect on their practice and teach for diversity. Using stories, prospective teachers developed retrospective explanations and justifications for their teaching practices, constructing platforms from which to launch future actions. Stories helped them author identities that reinscribed their personal experiences as guidelines for teaching others. (SM)…

Dunn, Rita; Griggs, Shirley A. (1995). Multiculturalism and Learning Style. Teaching and Counseling Adolescents. This consideration of learning style and the minority student analyzes and synthesizes the research that reveals the similarities and differences among the learning styles of culturally diverse populations and describes how to teach and counsel adolescents with different learning styles. Research suggests that students whose instruction is not responsive to their learning styles achieve significantly less than children whose instruction is responsive. The implications of the varied individual, rather than the cultural group, and the learning styles of multicultural students are discussed for both teaching and counseling. The efforts of schools that have successfully reversed underachievement among culturally diverse students are described. The research on which these conclusions are based involved the participation of more than 18 professors and 60 doctoral students working collaboratively at St. John's University in New York. The instrumentation designed to identify learning style…

Kuwahara, Yasue (1995). Perspectives in Teaching: Submerged Voices in the Classroom: A Japanese in America: What Can She Do?. During the past 10 years, a Japanese instructor at an American university has learned to use her cultural background to her advantage. As a graduate student at Bowling Green State University (Ohio), she first perceived her background as an obstacle to her teaching and tried to pretend that she was not different from other faculty. But this mindset did not change students' perceptions of her, nor did it help their learning. Thus, she began to consider her role at a predominantly white university where the majority of students in her weekly group discussion were from small rural towns in Ohio. Moveover, the faculty was also predominantly white. She decided that her role was to increase students' awareness of their own and others' cultures. Additionally, she learned that some students, through their interactions with a Japanese teacher, will begin to lose their fear of the unknown. They will, with time, learn to accept a foreign accent and to understand it. Most importantly, they will… [PDF]

Wortham, Stanton (1995). The Microstructure of Multiculturalism: Experiencing the Great Books. A new approach to teaching "Great Books" in high schools calls for scholars to reconsider the question of whether classics are relevant in a multiculturally conscious age. This classroom approach, referred to as "participant examples," requires students and teachers to act out situations from books they are reading; it strives to make the universal human truths found in these books relevant to modern audiences. A study examined the risks and benefits of this approach. Eight English and history classes were observed at an inner city school over a 3-year period. The student body was ethnically mixed: 50% Black, 25% Hispanic, 15% White, and 10% Asian. Results showed that through participant examples great books have even more relevance and power in the classroom than scholars such as Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler have maintained. The study points out, however, that Great Books' power doesn't necessarily make them ideal curriculum materials; there are risks… [PDF]

Nance, Kimberly A. (1991). Recognizing Our Students' Cultural Diversity in the Foreign Language Classroom: How and Why. It is argued that while second language teachers generally recognize the value of cultural diversity, they may not be acknowledging and taking full advantage of the diversity within their own classrooms. A variety of classroom techniques to support multiculturalism are offered. One is to examine, with student participation, both positive and negative aspects of ethnocentrism and to develop an early respect among students for their own culture rather than focusing first on the target culture. Then the teacher can begin to help students move from a limited tolerance of differences to an appreciation of diversity. This includes exposure to a variety of manifestations of the target culture and presentation of a role model with enthusiasm and commitment. A sincere effort to integrate the student's own culture into classroom communication can also be useful in bringing students into the target culture, but the effectiveness of this approach depends on the teacher's style. Another is to… [PDF]

Dame, Melvina Azar (1995). Serving Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students: Strategies for the School Librarian. ERIC Digest. This digest discusses ways that the school librarian in one high school fostered a positive environment in the school library for English-as-a-Second-Language students and broadened the role of the school library in effecting literacy experiences for these students. The digest addresses how one school librarian made the library a welcoming place for ESL students, the establishment of a collection materials for these students, library resources available for both ESL and content teachers, library collaboration with agencies outside of the school, multicultural activities, and a literacy activity for native Spanish speaking students learning English and native-English speaking students learning Spanish. (Contains five references.) (JL)… [PDF]