The future viability of the geosciences is challenged, since as a community we continue to lack demographic diversity representative of the wider population. Fundamentally, dominant cultural, historical, and socioeconomic factors contribute to the lack of diversity and those factors typically change slowly over generations. Proposals for more…

In this article we attempt to envision what utopian higher education could be given the realities that currently shape students' experiences. Postsecondary education is fraught with admissions that favor those with social, cultural, and economic capital; with course enrollment, class size, and instructor accessibility governed by bureaucratic…

This commentary focuses on philosophical underpinnings that could guide a sea change in approaches to sustainability within English-medium curricula in Aotearoa. Framed optimistically, it engages with the possibilities that exist for Pakeha to transform relationships with tangata whenua and this land through regenerative curriculum design. Three…

Originally from Cork, Ireland, Richard Kearney is Charles B. Seelig Professor in Philosophy at Boston College. Among his many books, three titles in particular are representative of the themes discussed in this interview: "Hosting the Stranger" (Continuum, 2011, co-edited with James Taylor); "On Stories" (Routledge, 2002); and…

Ongoing globalization and immigration bring diversity and rich cultural elements to American organizations at all levels. An educational environment with faculty and leaders from people of colors will set a good example for all students, especially for students of color who are eager to explore ideas and arguments at a thoughtful level to rethink…

This article is about teachers working at the bilingual integrated schools in Israel. The study allows us to problematise and critically approach cross-cultural encounters on the basis of contact theory, which posits understandings regarding social interaction across cultural-political boundaries. It exposes potential differences between the…

In an article in the May-June 2009 "American Psychologist," we discussed a new approach to reducing prejudice and encouraging more positive intergroup relations (Crisp & Turner, 2009). We named the approach imagined intergroup contact and defined it as "the mental simulation of a social interaction with a member or members of an outgroup category"…

It is 30 years since NAEYC published "Anti-Bias Curriculum Tools for Empowering Young Children" (Derman-Sparks & ABC Task Force, 1989). Since then, anti-bias education concepts have become part of the early childhood education (ECE) narrative in the United States and many other countries. It has brought a fresh way of thinking about…

In the Fall of 2009, the author participated in the sixth conference of Interfaith Youth Core, an organization and social movement devoted to building "mutal respect and pluralism among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others". On that occasion, Dr. Eboo Patel, founder and…

Diversity is a defining characteristic of modern society, yet there remains considerable debate over the benefits that it brings. The authors argue that positive psychological and behavioral outcomes will be observed only when social and cultural diversity is experienced in a way that challenges stereotypical expectations and that when this…

Colleges have talked for decades about the educational benefits of diversity on their campuses without offering much research to show how students are affected by exposure to members of other racial and ethnic groups. In an effort to fill that gap, James Sidanius, a professor of psychology and of African and African-American studies at Harvard…

This article focuses on the sense of what an "African" (American) identity could mean when viewed through the processes of migrations and fluid identities of contemporary African immigrant children as they interact with their African (Americans) peers in schools. The purpose of this article is to use data from a study of West African…

In January of 2010, "Harvard Educational Review" editor Chantal Francois sat down at a Manhattan diner with three young black women, two of whom were her former students at a New York City high school. Chantal invited the women to come together and share their experiences as freshmen at predominantly white institutions along the East…

This essay concerns applications of computer-mediated communication (CMC) research in groups toward the enhancement of relations between members of potentially hostile ethnopolitical groups. The characteristics of CMC offer several possible means of facilitating the reduction of animosity through online contact among intergroup constituents. The…

Proposes a quantitative conceptual scheme to describe the features of intergroup and intragroup relations. The article examines, both qualitatively and in formal equations, the tautologies that govern contract rates and network densities for any population that can be divided into two categories. (Author/RM)