(1985). Innovative Rural Preservice & Inservice Training Programs. [Proceedings of the] Annual National Rural Teacher Education Conference (1st, Bellingham, Washington, October 9-11, 1985). Conference papers and various related materials are collected in this volume compiled in conjunction with the National Rural Teacher Education Conference. The bulk of the document consists of papers presented on the 12 major topics of the conference: (1) accreditation and endorsement standards versus the needs of rural education; (2) innovative models for rural preservice training; (3) innovative models for rural inservice training; (4) collaborative partnerships between educational institutions and state and local agencies; (5) interdisciplinary training; (6) cross-cultural educational services; (7) non-traditional adult learner programs and activities; (8) technological innovations in teacher preparation and delivery methods; (9) recruitment of quality teacher education applicants; (10) rural education research; (11) innovative rural school curriculum; and (12) innovative practicum and internship strategies for quality rural preparation. In addition to papers presented, materials…
(1983). Guidebook to Hispanic Organizations and Information. This Guidebook details the work of Hispanic organizations involved with educational issues, cultural issues, and social service concerns. The directory was created as a resource guide for individuals and groups interested in the work of Hispanic groups or in exploring issues relevant to the Hispanic community. This first edition of the Guidebook does not list organizations primarily identified as Mexican American. Each listing explains the purpose of the organization and describes its area of specialization, service provision, constituency, and publications. The last section of the Guidebook gives (1) a brief explanation of the ERIC database and how to use it when searching for documents about Hispanics or Hispanic concerns; (2) a selected bibliography on materials about Hispanic Americans; (3) an index of organizations included in the Guidebook by scope of interest; and (4) an index of organizations by geographic location. (Author/CMG)… [PDF]
(1997). Bergen Community College, Exploring America's Communities: In Quest of Common Ground. Progress Report. In 1996, New Jersey's Bergen Community College (BCC) 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. BCC's primary goals were: infusing material into existing American history and literature courses, creating new ethnic literature and history courses, conducting a speaker's series, establishing a discussion group, and developing in students an appreciation for ethnic diversity. The greatest obstacle confronted by BCC was having too little time. Because the project only ran from Spring 1996 to Fall 1996 (with a summer in the middle), it was difficult to establish continuity. Other obstacles included: an insufficient amount of faculty cooperation due to the numerous groups involved and competition between non-core courses for students. The groundwork has been laid for institutionalizing the project, and… [PDF]
(1988). Ethnic Differences in Responses to Schooling: Perceptions of Organizational Climate in Multiethnic Middle Schools. A study was done to explore student perceptions of school environments in multiethnic, New York State middle schools and the impact of those perceptions on teacher efforts to develop social interaction within the schools. Using a survey questionnaire, 804 students from 5 middle schools selected for their multiethnic characteristics participated. Students were from all ability and middle school grade levels. Findings indicate that multiethnic middle schools appear to have low structures, high social relationships, and rather ambivalent feelings about relationships with teachers as well as low academic initiative. In addition, along racial lines, both Black and White students see their teachers as interested in them, but with emphasis on different factors. Hispanic American students emphasize social issues with higher concern for peer friendliness and school loyalty. Black students emphasize group solidarity and feel that they are conscientious about school but that school is…
(1990). Effective Teaching in the Multi-Cultural Classroom. Community college instructors and administrators need to understand teacher immediacy research and the role of immediacy in the multi-cultural classroom. Immediacy can be viewed as a combination of nonverbal behaviors used to accentuate a verbal message and reduce physical and psychological distance between interactants. Janis Andersen's research demonstrated that half of the variance in student attitudes toward an instructor relates to student perceptions of teacher immediacy. Increasing eye contact and addressing the student in a face-to-face interaction can also help increase positive attitudes. Immediacy can be misinterpreted, especially if teachers use too much immediacy too quickly, thereby creating an avoidance response, or if teachers single out only some students for immediacy. Students' perceptions of a teacher's immediacy behavior will vary according to their cultural background. A series of studies by Collier and Powell focused on the influence of culture on perceptions… [PDF]
(1990). Hindu Mythology: Gods, Goddesses and Values. This unit on Hindu mythology is designed to help secondary students see beyond the exotic elements of another culture to the things its people have in common with people in the West: a continuous effort to find a purpose in existence, to explain the unknown, and to define good and bad, right and wrong. Students are asked to analyze Hindu religious stories in order to understand the Hindu worldview and moral ideals, and then to compare them with their own and those of the West. Five lessons are presented: (1) The Hindu Triad; (2) The Ramayana; (3) The Image of Women; (4) Hindu Worship; and (5) Religion: A Comparative Essay. For each lesson a number of objectives are identified, several activities are suggested, and the materials needed to complete the lesson are listed. A 15-item bibliography also is included in the document. (DB)… [PDF]
(1989). Ethnographic Depiction of a Multiethnic School: A Comparison to Desegregated Settings. This report compares the findings of a recent ethnographic study of a multiethnic urban high school to some of the highlights of a series of ten-year-old ethnographic studies on court-ordered desegregated school settings. The study of the multiethnic urban school employed an ethnographic design whereby a participant-observer interviewed students over the course of an academic year in a high school where no one ethnic group predominated over the course of an academic year. Findings were compared to desegregated schools described in \Desegregated Schools: An Intimate Portrait Based on Five Ethnographic Studies,\ edited by Murray L. Wax. The following areas are discussed: (1) a school's acquisition of a spoiled identity, the result of a shift from white majority in a school to non-white majority; (2) the colorblind perspective, where the issue of racial differences was never raised by either teachers or students; (3) the natural progression assumption, which caused schools to expect…
(1970). Teaching the Black Experience: Methods and Materials. This book, designed to help the classroom teacher develop strategies and methods needed to teach the black experience, has the following organization. The first chapter, \The Need for Intergroup Education,\ establishes a rationale for teaching the black experience, and reviews research documenting the negative racial attitudes that children typically bring to school and suggesting the urgent need for the school to assume a major responsibility for helping students develop more positive racial attitudes. Chapter two, \Organizing and Planning Instruction,\ explores ways to help the teacher organize lessons on the black experience and to determine their relationship to the regular school curriculum. Chapters three through six–including \Early West Africa: An Anthropological Approach\; \Slavery: Historical Inquiry\; Civil War and Reconstruction: Inquiry and Simulation\; and, \Since Reconstruction: Questions, Problems, and Activities\–present approaches to teaching the various…
(1997). Learning Style Preferences of Asian American (Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese) Students in Secondary Schools. Equity & Excellence in Education, v30 n2 p68-77 Sep. Investigates for perceptual learning style preferences (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile) and preferences for group and individual leaning of Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese secondary education students. Comparison analysis reveals diverse learning style preferences between Anglo and Asian American students and also between diverse Asian American groups. (GR)…
(1996). Who Counts; Who Cares? Scottish Children's Notions of National Identity. Educational Studies, v22 n2 p203-24 Jun. Presents the results of a case study of 9- to 11-year-olds' understanding of nationalism and collective identity in Scotland. Compares the responses of mostly-white Edinburgh students with those drawn from a multiethnic cohort from English schools. Examines the policy implications of these results. (MJP)…
(2002). On the Power of Separate Spaces: Teachers and Students Writing (Righting) Selves and Future. American Educational Research Journal, v39 n1 p7-36 Spr. Studied the effect of programs within desegregated schools that serve an identified population of students for cultural affirmation and advancement. Ethnographic data from a girls' group at an urban magnet school and a Vietnamese students' homeroom, focusing on 20 high school students, in an urban comprehensive school demonstrate both the power of such \spaces\ and the contradictory impulses within such arrangements. (SLD)…
(1991). Ethnicity in the Urban High School: A Naturalistic Study of Student Experiences. Urban Review, v23 n3 p137-58 Sep. How students' ethnicity perceptions affect the educational process is ethnographically studied through interviews of about 50 students attending a multiethnic high school in a California city. Ethnicity's relevance varies depending on social situations and students' interpretations of events. Denial of one's ethnic identity centers around prejudice and internalized oppression. (SLD)…
(1993). Media, Place, and Multiculturalism. Society, v30 n5 p41-48 Jul-Aug. Explores the role of television in American culture. America may be more diverse than ever in race, ethnicity, and religion, but, because of mass media, there is less diversity in experience, perspectives, and expectation. Subcultures that once manifested existence locally now look to television for verification of their existence. (SLD)…
(2005). Exploring the Potential of Web-Based Social Process Experiential Simulations. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, v14 n4 p375-390 Oct. In the fall of 1996, the Arkansas Archeological Survey and the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville received a $180,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Teaching With Technology program. The goal of this grant initiative was to encourage creation of content-rich, computer-based materials for teaching history, literature, and languages. The grant team produced a CD-ROM called First Encounters: Native Americans and Europeans in the Mississippi Valley. The CD-ROM was designed to teach students how to critically evaluate differing multicultural perspectives using historical sources. A post-development evaluation of these materials yielded favorable student ratings and successful learning outcomes, however we decided to add a second generation of instructional improvements. The primary goal of this article is to describe the implementation and preliminary evaluation of one of these improvements, a web-based social process…
(2005). The Making of a Multicultural English Teacher. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, v4 n1 p106-117 May. This teacher narrative tells the story of the making of a multicultural English teacher, beginning with the author's roots in a remote village in central Java and tracing his journey through a range of educational institutions. In a series of critical reflections, the author discusses a range of social and cultural influences as these impacts on his emerging identity as both English teacher and speaker of a range of languages. These critical reflections constitute a kind of self-study, where the author discusses in a self-reflexive way the sorts of discourses at work that work to construct his identity in a range of different settings. (Contains 2 footnotes.)… [PDF]