(1992). Transculturation of Faculty at a Minority Institution. This report describes a three-year faculty development program that successfully transculturated approximately one-third of the faculty and professional staff at Texas A&I University, a state institution in which over 50 percent of the student body is Mexican American. Transculturation entails a change process that focuses on changing the institution to fit the culture and language of the student majority. The program at Texas A&I consisted of (1) three-hour weekly seminars on the history and culture of Mexican Americans, presented by Mexican American scholars; (2) annual symposia featuring lectures, workshops, and participant panels, that were intended to make all students, the campus, and regional area educators aware of the transculturation program; and (3) a three-week language and culture immersion experience held in Cuernavaca, Mexico, which included lectures on Mexican culture and society and Spanish language instruction, and where 20 participants lived with Mexican… [PDF]
(1993). U.S.-Japan Relations: The View from Both Sides of the Pacific. Part I, Episodes in the History of U.S.-Japan Relations: Case Studies of Conflict, Conflict Management & Resolution. This curriculum unit is the first part of a three-part series; it focuses on the theme of conflict. It introduces students to conflict on personal, group, international, and global levels and to basic conflict resolution/management alternatives. Students learn about six categories of conflict through the analysis of episodes in the history of U.S.-Japan relations. The overall purpose of part 1 is to develop students' analytical and critical skills regarding conflict, which is a pervasive part of both students' personal lives and U.S.-Japan relations. Provided is a rationale and introduction to the lessons, along with unit goals, materials, time required, suggested sequence of activities, small group roles, grade levels, subjects, and equipment needed. Lessons included in the unit are: (1) "Early Interactions"; (2) "Japanese Immigration to the United States"; (3) "Pearl Harbor"; (4) "Hiroshima"; (5) "The Occupation"; and (6) "The…
(1982). Concerns Related to the Education of Romany Students in Hungary, Austria and Finland. Comparative Education, v18 n2 p205-19. Describes, in detail, the educational status of Romany students in socialist Hungary and, briefly, in nonsocialist Austria and Finland. Regardless of the country's politics, attempts at successful schooling, through better teaching methods and parental and adult involvement, must be interwoven with changing the prejudices and employment practices of the host country. (LC)…
(1997). International Programs at Xavier University. Montessori Life, v9 n1 p33-35 Win. Describes efforts to implement an international program between the Montessori program at Xavier University and Korea and Taiwan. Describes eight challenges confronting the project: (1) communication; (2) class participation; (3) sharing culture with the American students; (4) transportation; (5) connection with others; (6) visas and immigration laws; (7) curriculum; and (8) assignments. (SD)…
(1996). Religious-Centered Multiethnic Societies: Multiple Identities and Ethnopolitics in Latvia. American Behavioral Scientist, v40 n1 p33-45 Sep. Maintains that people have multiple identities and discusses how these differential identities were realigned in Latvia during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Survey data suggests current ethnopolitical identity incorporates multiple dimensions and a strong contextual component. Includes graphs and tables of statistical data. (MJP)…
(1994). Messages That High School World History Textbooks Convey. Challenges for Multicultural Literacy. Social Studies, v85 n6 p268-74 Nov-Dec. Asserts that there is an important difference between history as socially constructed knowledge and as an objective, fixed account. Reports on a content analysis of three high school world history texts to determine how the meaning from them may be influenced in the content and power relations implicit in the textbook language. (CFR)…
(1992). Whose Voices Will Be Heard? Creating a Vision for the Future. Social Education, v56 n2 p129-32 Feb. Discusses society in the future. Expresses concern over social problems and misuse by the media of terms relating to diversity and multiculturalism. Lists themes for effective instruction in social studies as integration of topics and meaningful, challenging, active, and value-based learning. Urges that self-esteem, mutual respect, and cooperative activity be reaffirmed. (DK)…
(1990). Putting Social Studies Back into Early Primary Classrooms. Social Studies and the Young Learner, v2 n4 p13-15 Mar-Apr. Advocates reintegrating social studies into early primary education. Provides social studies objectives for young children that include building positive self-concept; promoting understanding of cultural differences; gaining early appreciation of law concepts; and developing spatial and temporal skills. Argues that young children become more competent as they connect these skills and concepts to their life situations. (NL)…
(1980). Educational Quandaries and Opportunities. Urban Education Studies, 1977-1980. This collection of papers examines the current issues in urban education as suggested by on-site studies of programs in sixteen different cities between 1977 and 1980. An overview of the problems in urban education and their causes is presented in the first paper. The second paper discusses program improvement strategies and several examples of efforts to adapt curriculum and instruction to the differences in the cultural backgrounds and personal characteristics of students. Basic skills, bilingual and special education programs are examined. Also discussed are the characteristics of successful school environments. The third paper reviews the conditions necessary for systemwide renewal with emphasis on career centers, alternative schools, school community collaboration, staff development and school management. Strategies for optimizing educational resources through school community interactions and new approaches to inservice education are discussed in the fourth paper. The fifth… [PDF]
(1994). CLE Working Papers 3. This third volume by the Centre for Language in Education (CLE) is intended to bring together a number of concerns currently under review at the Centre. Articles in this issue include: "Managing Open Learning" (Vicky Wright); "Self-Assessment of Foreign Language Skills: Does It Work?" (George Blue); "Language Awareness and Language Development: Can We Trace Links?" (Janet Hooper, Rosamond Mitchell and Christopher Brumfit); "Learners' Accounts of Their Errors in a Foreign Language: An Exploratory Study" (Francine Chambers); "Crocodile Dundee Meets His Match in Urdu: Brixton Primary School Children Shape a Multilingual Culture" (Charmian Kenner); "Literacy, Values, and Non-Literary Texts" (Andrew Hart); "English Language Teaching, Education, and Power" (Christopher Brumfit); "The Politics of Language: Spain's Minority Languages" (Clare Mar-Molinero); "Syntactic Variation and Change in Contemporary… [PDF]
(1993). Reaching All Students with Mathematics. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics'"Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" and "Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics" reflect the belief that all students can learn a significant core of high-quality mathematics. Recognizing the magnitude of the task of reaching all students, this book was put together to give mathematics teachers the opportunity to recount their stories of success in achieving that goal. The 17 chapters in this book describe programs that range from minimal to revolutionary efforts to widen the participation and success of students from underrepresented groups. This book is divided into four parts. Part 1 contains 4 articles taking a global view at reaching students: (1) "Introduction. Reaching all students: A vision of learning mathematics" (L. Stiff); (2) "If everybody counts, why do so few survive?" (Z. Usiskin); (3) "Educators and parents working together to help all…
(1992). Site Descriptive Protocols of Programs for Ethnolinguistically Diverse Classrooms. The Southwest Regional Laboratory's Metropolitan Educational Trends and Research Outcomes (METRO) Center processed 17 descriptions of exemplary sites that addressed the needs of language minority, limited English proficient students. Data were collected regarding program features; schools' and districts' size, geographic location, grades served, number of classes involved, and languages spoken; school organization; instructional leadership; school climate; student characteristics and performance; instructional features; and support components. This report provides descriptive data, in the form of survey item responses, for the following six sites and programs that were found to have the most comprehensive documentation and support data: (1) the Irvine (California) Unified School District's Pre-School Program; (2) the Nogales (Arizona) High School Comprehensive Bilingual Program; (3) the San Diego (California) City Schools' Central Elementary School (a school restructuring process… [PDF]
(1974). ESAA Bilingual/Bicultural Project. 1973-74 Evaluation Report. Designed to establish a comprehensive program of bilingual education in Spanish and English in schools with high concentrations of Spanish dominant Mexican American students, the project aimed to: increase the achievement levels of minority students in the communication skills areas; provide for their special learning needs through a staff with special skills; increase their experience backgrounds; increase the home support for the students' learning goals; improve their self-concept through awareness of their cultural heritage. For evaluation purposes, project objectives were categorized into input, process, and outcome objectives. These were then evaluated via classroom observations, parent and teacher interviews, questionnaires, and standardized tests–the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, Prescriptive Reading Inventory, California Achievement Test, Prueba de Lectura, Secondary Vocabulary Test, Primary Self-Concept Test, and Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Test. Findings… [PDF]
(1977). Teacher Classroom Behaviors. Designed and implemented to improve the academic achievement of a predominantly Mexican American student body, this project of the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas, part of the Experimental Schools Program, attempted to improve the affective and cognitive environment of the students through encouraging the use of Spanish, adding culturally relevant materials to the curriculum, and enhancing pupil/teacher relationships. A study of classroom teacher behaviors initially employed very small samples of experimental and comparison students and was later expanded to larger groups to more fully document possible changes produced by the four-year program. The implementation of the program significantly changed neither the emotional climate scores nor teacher interpersonal style scores (mostly at low, positive levels), nor did it significantly raise scores for the measures above those found in the group of comparison classrooms. Measures of individualization of…
(1969). The Use of Inter-Ethnic Materials in Suburban School Districts in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. This report summarizes an informal survey to determine how extensively inter-ethnic materials are being used in suburban school districts in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. Data was obtained from responses to a questionnaire distributed to some 100 teachers and administrators from 20 districts enrolled in two courses, fall 1968. In no school or district did a percentage of black or other minority students constitute an appreciable proportion of the student body. Information was sought on the following topics: 1) representation, inclusion, and characteristics of minority groups in textual materials; 2) written policies of school districts on the use of inter-ethnic materials; 3) procedures for the selection of inter-ethnic materials; 4) availability of films, filmstrips, tapes, records, magazines, and other kinds of aids with inter-ethnic content; and 5) procedures utilized by school districts to distribute inter-ethnic materials. Some conclusions are: 1) the situation is very… [PDF]