This case study of Wakayama Prefecture focuses on the postwar Japanese government's efforts to facilitate administration of rural areas via "town-making." School consolidation is among the means used to fabricate a new sense of social cohesion from a patchwork of depopulated and aging villages. The goal is to promote a national modern…

Maintains that E. D. Hirsch's book, "Cultural Literacy," is based on an anthropological rather than a normative view of societies and, therefore, does not claim that one society is more cultured than another. Concludes that historical understanding or other forms of cultural literacy requires wider criteria of significance than Hirsch…

Discusses the impact of social/structural mobility on first-generation college students, focusing on the common need to renegotiate relations with family and friends and to acquire a new social identity with the attendant symbols (language, dress, etc.) of status-group membership. (DMM)

A study examined the influence of situated knowledge embedded in 17 rural preservice teachers' autobiographies on their perspectives on diversity and future classroom practices. Four themes emerged in interviews: situative cognition in rural contexts; cultural groups being together but existing apart; understanding group similarities and…

An ethnohistorical study of a small rural elementary school in Trinidad and Tobago during the colonial period (1931-53) examines four ideologies--mental discipline, social efficiency, humanism, and child study--that underlay curriculum planning and pedagogical practices and converged to maintain the colonial state. The postcolonial persistence of…

Anchored on the Vietnamese American Project (VAP), this essay presents the documentation of the Vietnamese American Experience through the voices of ethnic Vietnamese in Orange County, California, home to the largest concentration of this ethnic group outside Vietnam. Groundbreaking in its approach and method, VAP is an open forum that enables…

Bullying is a widespread social phenomenon involving both individual and group variables. The present study was aimed at analyzing how students' perception of a bullying episode might be influenced by group and context variables. A convenience sample of 455 adolescents read a short story, in which the in-group role (bully vs. victim) and level of…

Nearly 1,600 youths from across Indiana took part in this poll about prejudicial attitudes and behaviors toward others. More than 8 in 10 students reported that racist attitudes were found among students in their schools. Many described tensions and some open conflict as outcomes of racist attitudes held by both white students and students of…

This paper describes strategies developed in the urban studies internship program at San Francisco State University (California). Interns are encouraged to relate practice to theory in their own concrete experience, using their own academic coursework. The strategies involve both structured writing assignments and regular seminar discussion to…

This reader provides background information for a public policy discussion program about the nation's future at this critical point in history. Through a non-partisan discussion format, citizens are encouraged to deliberate about the direction in which the nation should head in the years to come. This reader employs a multi-disciplinary approach…

This book reports on a study of the perceptions of Oklahoma American Indians about their childhood experiences in government and church-sponsored boarding schools. Drawing on symbolic anthropology, the boarding school experience is interpreted to be a complex cultural symbol and symbolic process that contributes to group collectivity and belonging…

This book provides a sequential program to explore and develop communication skills about their own feelings and behaviors. Designed for use in grades 3-8, activities can be adapted to fit specific needs and audiences. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, "Introduction," includes: (1) "Important Feelings Concepts"; (2) "Where do Feelings…

In the wake of a shift in the racial composition of the student body at Prince George's Community College (PGCC), which was 62% "minority" by spring 1992, a thorough investigation of the college's racial climate was undertaken. One aspect of this investigation involved the distribution of a questionnaire to 7,000 students enrolled in…

A preliminary study investigating the perceptions of intergroup relations in the bargaining process supports Kenneth Burke's concepts of order and mystery. Questionnaires, interviews, and direct observations of teachers' and school boards' teams involved in contract negotiations show that people closest to the bargaining saw more order in the…

Part of the Australian "Reading Around Series," this document offers a set of guidelines for fostering cooperative learning in a language arts classroom. The problems with competitive and/or individual learning, and the reasoning behind cooperative learning, are presented in the first section of the document. The second section outlines…