In the school's conception of learning, the cultural aspect of children's play has often been lacking. In different countries, it is emphasized that play is important for learning (Dockett and Fleer, Play and pedagogy in early childhood: Bending the rules. Harcourt Brace & Comp, Sydney, "1999"; Lillemyr, Nordisk Pedagogik/Nordic…

The Cultural Immersion Projects at Indiana University offer teacher education majors the opportunity to be placed in culturally-diverse settings, where full-time student teaching, required community participation, ongoing reflection, and academic reporting combine to provide experiences that go well beyond the common foci of conventional student…

In the spring of 1977, members of the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC), along with the Coalition for Navajo Liberation, barraged the Secretary of the Interior and the chairman of the Navajo Nation with petitions calling for a halt to the proposed construction of several coal gasification plants on the Navajo Reservation in northwestern New…

An example of the way finding process when using verbal and other traditional maps among the Navajo Indians of the southwestern United States is presented. The scholarly literature on the Southwest offers examples of verbal maps that construct both linear space, such as trails, and broad geographical space, including hunting territories and large…

The first tribally controlled college in the nation was established by the Navajo Nation in 1968 and served 300 students. Today there are 35 tribal colleges serving more than 30,000 students from more than 250 federally recognized tribes across the United States and Canada. Although tribal colleges make up less than one percent of the…

Whether goals held by students from diverse cultural backgrounds differ and the relationship of these goals to school motivation and achievement were studied with 2,156 Australian (Anglo, immigrant, and Aboriginal), 529 Navajo, and 198 Canadian Montagnais Betsiamite Indian secondary school students. Cross cultural and educational implications are…

Noting that patterns of childrearing are highly variable across the human species, this book explores the developmental processes of infancy over a wide range of cultural and social environments. By presenting multiple alternative examples of the context of infant development, the book attempts to stimulate continued discussion on the ways in…