(1984). The Wurzberg Conference of the Comparative Education Society in Europe. European Journal of Education, v19 n1 p7-9. The 11th conference of the society addressed these issues concerning multiculturalism in Europe and its effects on education: interdisciplinarity; policy and alternative strategies; national educational systems and ethnic or cultural minorities; problems related to immigrants, "guest workers," and refugees; relationships with the Third World; and emerging subcultures. (MSE)…
(1995). Creating Capacity: A Research Agenda for School Health Education. Journal of School Health, v65 n1 p33-37 Jan. The paper advances a number of suggestions for an enhanced research agenda in school health education, examining approaches to health education that work, noting new or enhanced directions that are suggested by current successes, and discussing directions for which there are few available data. (SM)…
(1993). Diversity and Inclusion: Toward a Curriculum for Human Beings. Teachers College Record, v95 n2 p211-221 Win. Discusses issues of unequal education and marginalization for members of various minority groups (homosexuals, women, and ethnic minorities). The paper emphasizes the need for a deepening consciousnes of inequalities, contradictions, and neglect and a curriculum that can provoke people to reach past themselves and be recognized. (SM)…
(1996). Teaching Relationship Skills in Diversity. In-class activities that provide students with intercultural interactions and supplemental lectures that define critical concepts can facilitate the appreciation of diversity in the classroom. One such activity, useful for the beginning of courses, involves the creation of two separate culture codes, or set of instructions, for introducing oneself, and printing them on different colored paper. For example, one culture code instructs students to shake hands and stand close to the other person, while the other code instructs students to do the opposite. One half of the students receive one of the codes, the other half receives the other, and students are instructed to meet students having sheets of another color and interact according to the codes. The activity demonstrates the effect of cultural influences on communication. After the activity, a lecture is used to define the following concepts and further facilitate the understanding of different cultures: (1) culture, or the shared… [PDF]
(1996). Dealing with Diversity. Ensuring Success for Every Student. Four essays consider aspects of ensuring that every child can succeed in school. The first, "Appearing Acts: Creating Readers in a High School English Class" (Joan Kernan Cone), explores the self-perceptions of students and uses them to inspire their enthusiasm for reading. The cultural sensitivity of the teacher is instrumental in making students become a community of readers. "Lessons from Students on Creating a Chance To Dream" (Sonia Nieto), uses interviews to develop 12 case studies of students from a variety of ethnic, racial, linguistic, and social-class backgrounds in junior or senior high school. The characteristics of their experiences and backgrounds that help them succeed in school are described. "Life after Death: Critical Pedagogy in an Urban Classroom" (J. Alleyne Johnson) describes the evolution of a classroom into one in which the reality of students' lives are acknowledged and addressed as central to the work of the classroom. The…
(1995). American Pluralism and the Short Story: An Interdisciplinary Approach, or, Sui Sin Far, Silko, Cisneros, and Miss Sasagawara Teach American History. This paper describes an interdisciplinary 9-unit course at Pasadena (California) City College, entitled the "American Cultures Block Program." The block is divided into three distinct sections: (1) "United States History from 1865 to the Present"; (2) "Humanities Through the Arts"; and (3) "Introduction to Literature," a hybrid literature and composition course. The goal of the course is to show the connections among history, literature, music, and the arts, and the connections and common ground of the experiences of the diverse cultural groups in the United States. Specific topics and texts are explored, along with concerns related to the course composition. (EH)… [PDF]
(1995). Middle School Multiculturalism: What Is Being Taught and Why. The purpose of this study was to examine the cultural content practices of middle school teachers. A survey was mailed to 94 teachers and 5 intern teachers in one Southeastern United States urban school system; 71 percent responded. A survey with Likert-type scaled responses and qualitative questions was used. The public school system was selected due to its large student population and its socioeconomic and cultural diversity. Seventy-five percent of the teachers used the state curriculum framework and textbook programs to the exclusion of other resources in planning cultural inclusion. Reasons cited by the respondents indicated that the curriculum was required, that using it was necessary to keep their jobs, that state testing was based on the curriculum, and that limited availability of other materials and time constraints restricted choice of content. Several responses indicated personal second language knowledge as an influence on their cultural inclusion and/or teaching… [PDF]
(1993). Teaching Stories. This book provides stories to generate ideas on how to put students at the center of curriculum and how to create a classroom environment that is not based on a \win lest you lose\ mentality. This focus is on an inclusive curriculum for all races, ethnic groups, both sexes and all \other\ groups. These stories are true, but all student and parent names have been changed, as have some details of stories. The contents of the book include: (1) \Preface\; (2) \Foreword\; (3) \The Story of Two Quilts\; (4) \Stealing Stories\; (5) \Gendered Journeys\; (6) \Random Accounts of Connected Knowing\; (7) \American Women Making History\; (8) \Angela's Ritual\; (9) \Losing It: Notes about Field Trips\; (10) \Some Middle School Strategies for Black History Month\; (11) \The NOW Contests\; (12)\Notes about Problems\; (13) \Kerry\; (14) \Notes on Teacher-Centered Resource Time\; (14) \More Notes\; and (15) \Selected Bibliography.\ (EH)…
(1997). Tulsa Community College, Exploring America's Communities. Progress Report. In 1996, Oklahoma's Tulsa Community College (TCC) participated in the American Association of Community Colleges' Exploring America's Communities project, which works to strengthen the teaching and learning of American history, literature, and culture at U.S. community colleges. TCC's primary goals were to promote professional development, to develop and enhance curricula, and to raise the general institutional awareness of the issues surrounding American plurality and identity. The first priority was to involve faculty and staff in activities that encourage the incorporation of American pluralism and identity into the curriculum. Activities to meet this goal have included faculty and staff monthly meetings and parallel groups reviewing articles and books. The goal of enhancing the curricula has been met through the American Conversations study group, which compiled an annotated bibliography and made recommendations for collecting the appropriate materials. Additionally, a new… [PDF]
(1993). Zora Neale Hurston: A Storyteller's Life. Unsung Americans. The live and work of Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer and a folklorist (1891-1960), are described for children aged 10 years and older. Emphasis is placed on the author's childhood in rural Florida and her struggles to receive an education. Over the course of her career, Hurston, a trained folklorist, collected two volumes of black folklore, and wrote four novels, an autobiography, and numerous short stories and essays. Relatively less emphasis is placed on her writings, but they are described for children as a celebration of the African American spirit. A chronology outlines Hurston's life, and an epilogue tells of her recognition in recent years. (SLD)…
(1993). Multicultural Reading and Thinking Program (McRAT). Two studies examined the effectiveness of the Multicultural Reading and Thinking Program (McRAT), in which teachers infuse higher-order thinking strategies and performance-based assessment into classroom instruction. Four broad categories of thinking skills are included: analysis, comparison, inference/interpretation, and evaluation. In the first study, 234 McRAT students (grades 4-6) in 16 classrooms and 106 comparison students in 12 classrooms in 6 Arkansas schools were administered pre- and post-writing assessments. The second study, a follow-up of the first study, involved 53 second-year McRAT students who were in the first study and 53 first-year McRAT students enrolled in 20 McRAT classrooms. Assessments similar to those of the first study were used. Results of the first study indicated that: (1) McRAT students significantly exceeded comparison classes on all four thinking skills on the posttests; (2) far more comparison students were "off-task" than McRAT students… [PDF]
(1991). Gleanings: The Minority Student Success Project. The Minority Student Success Project (MSSP) initiated in 1989 was designed to improve the recruitment and retention of minority students on campuses in the state of Washington. The results of a questionnaire on minority students administered to all of Washington's community colleges, and data from follow-up interviews, were used to design working retreats to develop minority success programs. Teams from 23 of the colleges attended the retreats in the winter and fall of 1990. Follow-up visits to the participating colleges by project staff in spring, 1991 revealed the following: (1) there was a strong commitment to minority student success; (2) schools with developed planning and coordinating structures had the greatest success; (3) strong leadership and sustained focus were critical; (4) communication and coordination with other initiatives enhanced program effectiveness; (5) there was a need for focused planning and the setting of short-term, realistic goals; (6) existing data… [PDF]
(1985). A Brief History of the Study of Intercultural Communication in the United States. The history of intercultural communication as a field of study in the United States is outlined. The origins of intercultural communication in cultural anthropology are explored. A relationship is pointed out among the fields of intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication, interracial communication, interethnic communication, and international communication. The development of the field in the U.S. until 1980 is described in terms of the definitions of culture, communication, and intercultural communication used in the literature and in terms of publications, professional organizations, conferences, educational offerings, and research in this field. The boundaries of intercultural communication were identified in the late 1970s and the discipline became established soon after. A 60-item reference list is appended. (MSE)… [PDF]
(1984). Stories of Our Blackfeet Grandmothers. Blackfeet Culture Series. The text of this document was taken from a videotape of anecdotal stories told by Blackfeet elders to students at the Heart Butte School during the spring of 1983. An explanation of the transliterated Blackfeet language is presented. The stories are given in both English and Blackfeet. "No More Buffalo" describes Indian life in Montana during their early control by the Indian Agency. Included are trading, preparation and eating of rationed food, farming and gardening, tribal relocation under Agency direction, and attitudes toward land. "The Story of Blackfoot Ridge" describes raids between the Crows and the Blackfeet and tells how one Blackfeet survived when all others in his war party were killed. "Olden Days" contains reminiscences about how the "Pikunis" lived before the coming of the white man, who brought the liquor which destroyed the Indian way of life. A glossary of place names in English and Blackfeet and a list of Blackfeet…
(1978). Ethnic Minorities in the Inner City; The Ethnic Dimension in Urban Deprivation in England. The aim of the investigation reported in this volume was to examine the social needs of ethnic minority residents of urban areas, determine the extent to which they are similar to or are different from those of their indigenous counterparts in these areas, and explore the implications of these similarities and differences for the regeneration of the quality of life in the inner city. In the course of carrying out this aim, this volume describes the social disadvantages which ethnic minority communities experience in Housing, Education, the Social Services, Youth and Community facilities and their concentration among the deprived/disadvantaged population. It also describes the existence of special patterns of multiple disadvantages which affects them as well as the existence of special needs which derive partly from their newness to this society and partly from their cultural backgrounds. (Author)…