(1997). Culturally Responsive Teaching. A Review of Research and Literature. Oak View School, Huntington Beach (California) is reflective of demographic changes due to the rapid increase in the number of ethnic minority students. The school has created goals for quality education for immigrant and minority children and is attempting to respond to the needs of its culturally diverse, although largely Hispanic, population. Teachers are challenged to respond to diversity, and this review has been designed to explore how a teacher's culture affects classroom dynamics, how the different cultures of the students affect those dynamics, and how culturally responsive teaching can improve classroom dynamics. A look at educational history shows that schools in the United States have always had to respond to the country's attitude toward cultural diversity. Educational research in recent years has begun to focus on student language as one of a number of factors related to student success. It is increasingly recognized that teaching should be culturally responsive, and… [PDF]
(1997). The Challenge of Eastern Asian Education. Implications for America. SUNY Series, Frontiers in Education. Contributions to this book were prepared by specialists on Asian education. They explore curricular and classroom processes for basic education, new developments in secondary education, innovations in private education, linkages of education and society, and systemic issues in Asian education, considered for their implications for education in the United States. The following are included: (1) "The Roots of Japanese Educational Achievement: Helping Children Develop Bonds to School" (Catherine C. Lewis); (2) "The East Asian Version of Whole-Class Teaching" (Harold W. Stevenson and Shinying Lee); (3) "Looking in the Chinese Mirror: Reflecting on Moral-Political Education in the United States" (Gay Garland Reed); (4) "Chinese Teachers as Mirrors of Reform Possibilities" (Lynn Paine); (5) "Restructuring Japanese High Schools: Reforms for Diversity" (Nobuo K. Shimahara); (6) "Disruption and Reconnection: Counseling Young Adolescents…
(1997). Managing Diversity-Based Conflicts among Children. Fastback 414. This guide is designed to provide assistance in handling complex situational conflicts involving diversity through appropriate conflict management strategies for diverse classrooms at the elementary and middle school levels. Diversity-based conflict is not new in the United States. The classroom is, as it has been historically, one of the major arenas for socialization. In addition to the traditional "three R's," students need to master the "R" of relationships, and teachers must help them accept diversity and learn to resolve conflict. Conflicts can be positive if they result in increased communication and understanding. Teacher communication with children is a critical element in promoting cultural harmony in any classroom. Teachers must also recognize their own cultural biases when communicating with students. They should try to model affirmation, appreciation, and acceptance for their students to create a supportive learning environment. The Peace Maintenance…
(1996). Waging Peace in Our Schools. The Resolving Conflicts Creatively Program (RCCP) described in this book asserts that schools must educate the child's heart as well as the mind. RCCP began in 1985 as a joint initiative of Educators for Social Responsibility Metropolitan Area and the New York City Board of Education. The program started in 3 schools in New York City and has expanded to more than 325 schools nationwide, serving over 150,000 students. RCCP focuses on three dimensions of creating safe and caring schools: (1) conflict resolution; (2) valuing diversity; and (3) enhancing social and emotional learning. Chapter 1 describes a vision of learning that promotes emotional literacy, conflict resolution, and diversity education. Chapter 2 describes the "peaceable" classroom in which this vision is enacted. In Chapter 3, "How To Wage Peace: The Skills of Conflict Resolution," and Chapter 4, "Valuing Diversity: Creating Inclusive Schools and Communities," the specific concepts and…
(1996). Encouraging Students To Analyze/Articulate Their Beliefs about Cultural Diversity. This paper offers suggestions for teaching high school and college students about cultural diversity and for providing them with multicultural educational experiences. After presenting a background and rationale for such teaching, the paper gives a list of classroom activities, including student reactions to statements regarding racism and affirmative action and a video analysis exercise. Among the suggestions are that students write down their feelings and reactions to the video, then share what they have written in a class discussion, guided by the teacher. (CR)… [PDF]
(1992). Hiring, Promoting and Retaining African American Faculty: A Case Study of an Aspiring Multi-Cultural Research University. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper. This paper presents the findings of a committee at the University of Maryland (College Park) charged with studying the effectiveness of programs on campus aimed at achieving higher rates of participation and success for black faculty. Fourteen sections present results of the committee's survey and interviews, examination of specific issues, and recommendations for the future. Section I describes the charge of the committee, the context for the committee's work, and the nature of the study. The second section looks at data on UMCP faculty and discusses how to compare that data usefully with that of other institutions. Section III looks at faculty advancement and minority success. Section IV presents findings of a survey on job satisfaction. Section V discusses faculty expectations given by the hiring process. Section VI looks at how department chairs can help or hinder young faculty aiming for tenure. Section VII describes faculty collegiality and its value. Section VIII looks at… [PDF]
(1995). Language Arts: Content and Teaching Strategies. Third Edition. Reflecting an integrated, constructivist approach to teaching, this book presents the content of the language arts curriculum and effective teaching strategies for teaching this content so that elementary and middle-school teachers can help students develop communicative competence. This third edition emphasizes the multicultural classroom, reading and writing connections, and authentic assessment. Each chapter begins with a question to direct readers' thinking, lists of topics for minilessons, lists of ways to modify instruction to students' individual needs, lists of trade books and steps in teaching strategies, chapter summaries, and extension activities. Chapters in the book are: (1) Learning and the Language Arts; (2) Teaching Language Arts; (3) Listening to Learn; (4) Sustaining Talk in the Classroom; (5) Writing in Journals; (6) The Reading and Writing Processes; (7) Emergent Literacy; (8) Looking Closely at Words; (9) Reading and Writing Stories; (10) Reading and Writing…
(1995). Violence in Schools; How To Build a Prevention Program from the Ground Up. OSSC Bulletin, v38 n5 Jan. The solution to the problem of violence in the schools lies not only in the protection of students, but the prevention of aggressive, antisocial behavior. This monograph is designed to help schools build a violence-prevention program from the ground up. Following the introduction, chapter 1 discusses how the causes and consequences of violence in the schools are inseparable from the roots of violence in American society. Chapter 2 examines the processes of assessing and establishing policies, programs, and facilities that research indicates are useful in preventing violence. Chapter 3 describes responsibilities at the district, school, and classroom levels. The fourth chapter provides an overview of violence-prevention programs under way in Oregon, including counseling programs, intensive primary prevention, a violence-prevention curriculum, conflict resolution and peer mediation, domestic-violence prevention, multicultural issues, anger management, substance abuse, and gangs…. [PDF]
(1994). Contrasting District Practices: School Districts That Effectively Serve Educationally Disadvantaged Children. This is an interpretive summary of information from a multiple case study of 11 school districts in California, Arizona, and Nevada conducted in the spring and fall of 1992 as part of a larger set of strategies to work on solutions to the challenges facing schools in metropolitan areas of the Pacific Southwest. Rather than presenting a set of empirical findings, this paper constructs a hypothetical district as a composite ideal, the "high-performance district." The high-performance district has a distinctive pattern of organization attributed to: (1) the school board, the superintendent and other administration, (2) the structure of authority and incentives, and (3) school programs and support facilities. Its programs are the logical outcomes of its history, and characteristically include innovation, a multicultural focus, high standards, and flexible organizational designs. The teachers are regraded as competent, treated as professionals, and provided with inservice… [PDF]
(1993). Out of the Melting Pot: The Battle over the Booklist. Teaching Cases in Cross-Cultural Education No. 12. In the form of a teaching case, this paper recounts the difficulties of an English teacher whose reading list was challenged as being racist. In introductory materials, the paper explains that teaching cases help develop students' abilities to spot issues and frame problems in an ambiguous, complex teaching situation. The paper presents the case in narrative form, discussing: (1) the accusations made by a parent of a Hispanic student that the book list was "unrepresentative" and that her child was given less difficult tasks to do in class; (2) the book list itself; (3) progress reports sent to parents; (4) the teacher's perspective on the "classics"; (5) an earlier racially-related incident at a neighboring school; and (6) the teacher's decision. The book list, the parent's letter to the school board, the student's progress report, an assignment for "Brave New World," and a list of five questions to consider are attached. (RS)… [PDF]
(1997). Japan: Images of a People. Art to Zoo: Teaching with the Power of Objects, Jan-Feb. This issue of "Art to Zoo" focuses on Japanese art and is adapted from materials developed by the education department of the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. After learning how to look at paintings, students make paper screens that resemble Japanese screens. Background essays about Japan place the art lessons within a larger social studies unit on Japan. Sections of the lesson plan include: (1) "Geography of Japan"; (2) "Looking for Clues: Paintings as Information Sources"; and (3) "Japanese Screens." Worksheets, take-home pages, and a resources list conclude the unit. Lessons are designed for grades 4-9 and address art, geography, and social studies. (EH)… [PDF]
(1998). Focus on Pre-K and K (Ages 4-6): A Quarterly Newsletter for the Education Community, 1997-1998. Focus on Pre-K and K, v10 n1-4 Fall 1997-Sum. These four quarterly newsletter issues address various topics of interest to teachers of young children. Each issue focuses on a theme and includes an article on that theme, along with regular columns. The Fall 1997 issue focuses on kindergartners as inquirers and on using a negotiated curriculum in the early childhood setting. The vice president's column for this issue discusses father-daughter relationships. The topic of the Winter 1997 issue is \Creating a True Multicultural Setting.\ A sidebar explores coping with speech difficulties, while the vice president's column addresses redefining roles and expectations in teacher-student relationships. The Spring 1998 newsletter focuses on today's playground, discussing the new call for an end to traditional playgrounds in favor of ones designed to support children's development and play. A sidebar describes Georgia's voluntary prekindergarten program, and the vice president's column addresses listening to and supporting children's… [PDF]
(1996). Visions of History: The Aztecs and the Spanish. This unit is guided by the question "How is history constructed?" In this unit, middle to secondary school students explore a variety of accounts of the clash of cultures that occurred between the Spanish and the Aztecs. Students examine a variety of primary sources and analyze the various perspectives presented. The six activities include: (1) "The Letters of Hernando Cortes"; (2) "The 'True' History of the Conquest"; (3) "The Florentine Codex"; (4) "Songs of Sorrow"; (5) "Danza de la Conquista"; and (6) "The Aztecs and the Spanish in Diego Rivera's Murals." Each activity is introduced with background information for the teacher and includes student resource materials. A closure activity ends the unit. (EH)…
(1990). Prejudice and Underlying Assumptions. In recent years European textbook research has begun to examine the topics of ethnic minorities, multiculturalism, hostility to foreigners, and racism. Its task is not only to ask whether textbooks should present such topics but also how they should be presented. In addressing the issues, an important question to answer is whether the textbooks themselves–either consciously or unconsciously–inaccurately represent ethic groups and promote prejudices, stereotypes, or racist ideas. This paper suggests 10 categories to be used in making an analysis of textbook content and to identify the degree to which bias or prejudice is represented and promoted. The 10 categories are: (1) individual consideration of ethnic minorities; (2) reasons for migration; (3) information about their home country; (4) problems and disadvantages facing them in their new homeland; (5) results of and criticism of hostility to foreigners; (6) causes of hostility to foreigners or racial prejudice; (7) historical…
(1993). African Americans in Science, Mathematics, Medicine, and Invention, Curriculum Guide. A Multicultural Curriculum. "The Contributions of African Americans to Science, Medicine, and Invention" is a 39-minute videotape developed for elementary and middle school students and staff. The video, the script, and the curriculum guide in this kit provide significant historical information that is not often available. The video uses student actors to stress the economic and social impact of many contributions made by Africans and African Americans in science, medicine, and invention. Curriculum activities, which are both teacher-and student-directed, use social studies, science, language arts, and mathematics skills to explore other topics introduced by the video. Four sets of task cards and two sets of puzzle cards, correlated to each section of the video; and a list of 73 sources for additional reading, marked for the appropriate age group, are included. (SLD)…