(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)…
(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)…
(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)…
(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)…
(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]
(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)…
(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]
(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….
(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)…
(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)…
(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…
(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]
(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]
(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]
(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]