Explores the role of rice in Japanese culture by presenting historical background and teaching activities in a variety of categories, such as language, sociology, history, and contemporary politics. Suggests teachers create cross-cultural comparisons; for example, the role of corn in the United States. Provides a list of teacher resources. (CMK)

Lists a collection of Internet sites on diversity and Japan for social studies educators. Includes a variety of topics with hyperlinks to lesson plans and activities, teaching resources, and sites exploring aspects of different cultures. Recommends that teachers and students follow these links to hundreds of other sites. (CMK)

Believes that by incorporating fiction and folklore into a social studies unit on Japan, students will benefit from their new perspectives on the world. Notes different literary works that can be implemented. Provides a list of questions to assist social studies teachers with selecting children's literature for use in the classroom. (CMK)

Describes the Tea House Project that was an authentic hands-on activity introducing students to an important facet of Japanese culture; students built the tea house as a temporary structure in the tradition of the huts of Japan's wandering monks. Provides addresses to get materials for building a Japanese tea house. (CMK)

Examines global perspective of university students studying Russian regarding the country of Russia and its people, while also investigating the development of cultural consciousness of high school students who had been exposed to information about Russia and the former Soviet Union through social studies courses. (CMK)

Focuses on the vision of global education implemented by educators from the Ryazan State Pedagogical University and their Russian Center for Global Education. Addresses a definition of global education, the importance of school-university partnerships, the process of integrating the curriculum to teach global education, and training strategies in…

Discusses school reform in Japan, examining issues of school organization and regulation, curriculum development, and parent-teacher-student relationships and participation from two perspectives: human rights and global education. The relevant issues are explored under five dimensions: student self-government, interpersonal relationships, student…

Describes changes in public education over the last 150 years, discussing how changing politics have affected education; the influence of the electronic revolution (television and the Internet); the relationship between global economics, electronic communication, and education; and the movement from schools as a place to acquire basic language and…

Explores different approaches to teaching global education, most notably the compartmentalist and holistic paradigms. The compartmentalist approach, which revolves around the study of specific cultures or countries, retains a view of the world as divided and emphasizes similarities. The holistic approach represents the philosophy that the planet…

Citizenship education should be reconceptualized because of the increased salience of diversity worldwide. Students must develop a delicate balance of cultural, national, and global identifications. To help students become effective citizens, teachers must acquire the same identifications. The author describes how he tries to help students in one…

Describes Project Linking, a program developed at Iowa State University that involved collaboration between middle school teachers in Moscow and in the United States to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum that focused on social sciences and global education. Explains the theoretical framework and advantages of Internet-mediated learning.…

Presents an annotated bibliography of research, journal, book, and Web resources supporting multiculturalism and global education. Discusses need to encourage students to seek out information from a diversity of viewpoints, scholarly traditions, and cultural perspectives to arrive at a reasoned and informed understanding of issues. (PEN)

Outlines the history of the international education movement, from the inception of the International School of Geneva in 1924, to UNESCO's contributions to international education in the 1940s, to the founding of the Conference of Internationally Minded Schools in 1951. (Contains 13 references.) (NB)

United World College of the American West (UWC-USA) which was founded in 1982 by the Occidental Petroleum magnate and philanthropist, Armand Hammer, is an upper-secondary school with 200 students and two dozen faculty from 80 countries or more. Situated amid traditional Hispanic settlements in New Mexico's scenic Sangre de Cristo Mountains,…

The Global News VILLAGE (Virtual Information Literacy Learning and Growing Environment) is an online tutorial developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to help undergraduates learn how to use the library to find current information about global events and issues. Supporting the interdisciplinary Global Studies curriculum, the…