Through a Multiple Marginality Framework, this exploratory case study highlights how African American male youth in an urban high school setting perceive the opportunity structure during the historic election of the first African American President. Youth optimism generated by Obama's election gives students a sense of hope despite the persistent…

This Information Capsule is the third in a series of papers addressing factors contributing to low academic achievement. The two previous papers addressed issues relevant to class size reduction and teacher quality/preparation. The premise of this Information Capsule is that there is no single smoking gun relative to improving school performance.…

This article reviews recent sociocultural studies of families of children with intellectual disabilities to introduce the range of research conducted from this perspective and to highlight the methodological, conceptual, and theoretical contributions of this approach to the study of mental retardation. Sociocultural studies examine families within…

An adaptational perspective is supported over either a cultural or a situational perspective with respect to the study of social classes. The proposed perspective is said to consider the features and processes of class culture. (AM)

Illiteracy, racism, and poverty are clearly interrelated, with perhaps even some elements of cause and effect. But education is not the only factor, according to the author. He notes that it is necessary to approach each cultural group through its own sociocultural and educative mechanisms. (MF)

Explores the problem of health care utilization from both the structural and personal perspectives. Analyzes traditional health care beliefs and practices, and the interplay between these beliefs and practices and the modern health care system. (Author/RLV)

Compares and critiques Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 labor report, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," and the televised version of it, Bill Moyer's special report "The Vanishing Family: Crisis in Black America." Discusses how gender, class, and race shape a group's status in society. (JS)

The American Indian population is in a period of transition. It is young, growing, and becoming more urban. There were some improvements in income, housing, education, and health in the 1960-70 decade, but Indians remain the most disadvantaged of the minority ethnic groups in the United States. By most of the above measures, Indians, especially…

The research needs in the epidemiology of child sexual abuse are discussed in terms of: a definition of epidemiology, the clash between the medical and legal cultures, statistical concerns, the relationship of social class or poverty with child sexual abuse, the need for cross-cultural research, intervention studies, studies of service…

This article includes excerpts from case studies of at-risk students. It discusses the basic conditions associated with being "at-risk," the high prevalence of at-risk students in rural areas, and the relationship of this phenomena to social structural changes, particularly in the rural United States. Necessary policy and social responses are…

This policy bulletin summarizes research findings about governmental and agency policies on community integration for people with developmental disabilities. It focuses on multicultural aspects of disability and family policy. The first section discusses implications of a multicultural perspective and identifies trends which take account of…

The study of families who escaped poverty examined the relationship between possession of selected demographic, resource, social, and value characteristics and economic situation and attempted to determine which traits most significantly affected the ability to escape poverty. From personal interviews with a stratified cross-sectional unrestricted…

The topics of anthropologist-missionary relationships, theology and missiology, research methods and missionary contributions to ethnology, and missionary training and methods, along with specific case studies are presented. The 13 essays are: (1) "Prospects for a Better Understanding and Closer Cooperation between Anthropologists and…

The topics of anthropologist-missionary relationships, theology and missiology, research methods and missionary contributions to ethnology, missionary training and methods, and specific case studies are presented. The ten essays are: (1) "An Ethnoethnography of Missionaries in Kalingaland" (Robert Lawless); (2) "Missionization and…

This book contains 15 chapters, each by different authors, commenting and expanding on the educational philosophy and work of Paulo Freire. The following are included: "Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of Possibility" (Peter McLaren); "Studying the Media: What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream" (Noam Chomsky); "Scientism as a Form…