The advent of mass media in the twentieth century creates certain "ruptures," as Michel Foucault would say, in the perceptual world of human beings as they go about the everyday business of coping with a technological culture grounded in human perception as the rule for expression. Foucault proposes that people watch two…

"Voice" has become a dangerous term. It has tended to imply romanticism, expressionism, and individualism--dangerous things. There are, however, two safe or prudent thoughts that can be expressed about voice and writing and four dangerous or adventuresome thoughts. The first point is that the choice between the use of terms such as text…

Cuban Americans as a demographic group have violated many of the normally observed patterns concerning immigrant groups to the United States. Although included under the term "Hispanic," Cuban Americans have had a unique demographic, political, economic, and social history in the United States which has differentiated them from other Hispanic…

Educators today may find a historical review of the Howard Players at Howard University (Washington, D.C.) in the 1920s important because of its implicit commentary on what constitutes community. While the Howard Players are generally written about in terms of the development of an African-American theater, historians ought also to think of their…

To date, science educators have not studied what students believe about the world, beliefs rooted and nurtured in students' socio-cultural environments. American society is increasingly pluralistic and there are several cultural subgroups traditionally underrepresented in science. A new approach is for American science educators to consider the…

Athol Fugard, a white South African playwright/actor/director of international renown, has worked toward the establishment of an integrated, multiracial theater not associated with the white South African establishment. In his plays, Fugard has made racism and the ravaging effects of racial tension come alive as he presents aspects of these…

An ethnographic study examined and compared schooled and non-schooled uses of literacy and literature in a small, rural, all white, Adirondack Mountain community in upstate New York to explicate the way in which low social class and economic status constrain school achievement. More than 75 interviews were conducted over a 3-year period with…

All talk of sex was taboo in Korean society until the middle of this century. Only during the last decade has sexuality been a topic of discussion, but still the discourse was dominated by traditional male views regarding sex. Today, the number of homosexuals living openly is growing, and active debate about homosexuality in Korea is now emerging.…

This collection of essays deals with world literature. The essays are focused on four primary goals: to map the conceptual and cultural problems inherent in common educational approaches to the subject which sometimes see world literature as a metanarrative of Western culture; to suggest new genres and perspectives; to consider specific curricular…

This study deals with the cultural environments of students and how cultural and contextual factors might interact with student perceptions of their learning environment and their preferred instructional modes. Data was collected from approximately 2,500 lower secondary students in Australia using the Students' Learning and Cultural Environments…

Images of people can serve several purposes in works of art. Individuals have had their likenesses embellished or altered for political, social, or religious purposes. Or, images of individuals have been employed by other people to fit their needs. This Learning Packet, designed for use with grade levels 1-8, addresses three themes: (1)"People as…

In "The Uses of Diversity," the interpretive anthropologist, Clifford Geertz, says that it is impossible to completely get inside the point of view of another culture. Geertz contends, however, that despite multiple voices in the growing body of reflexive ethnographies there is still an author composing the work. Besides Geertz,…

A hypertext entitled "Reading the Map" comes from the exploration of an individual's own life. Observations, experiences, whatever comes to mind, become part of the text. This constant addition of information adds physically to the text, making a perceived move outward into the social. However, this additional information actually moves…

This paper reports on a study of a group of university women working in science at an academic institution. The group included professors, graduate students, researchers, post-doctoral students, and science educators. Data were collected in the form of interviews, field notes taken during participant observation, and analysis of group materials…

A study of literature cannot be divorced from cultural contexts, nor can it ignore the humanist vision in interpreting literary texts. To discover dialogic bonds and boundaries between the reader and the text, or the writer and the audience, English classes should have two objectives: (1) to explore the diversity of perspectives, and (2) to relate…