Misconceptions about Asian and Pacific American students are common. The educational status of all minorities will be more comprehensibly assessed by investigating characteristic academic and social needs and problems and giving greater attention to social and personal development, adjustment processes, educational trade-offs, and long-term career…

This article confronts concerns in providing family intervention services to the growing population of non-White, non-Anglo families. Strategies are offered for gathering information about these families while respecting their nonmainstream culture, values, and beliefs. Alternative perspectives on child rearing, disability, medicine, intervention,…

Reviews the political controversy regarding the National Endowment for the Arts and the relationship of art to human existence. Argues that art is an essential aspect of the human spirit. Proposes a definition of art as human activity that illuminates the universal qualities of a particular action or experience. (CFR)

Summarizes recent debates concerning the use of popular culture and media within the English curriculum. Presents an approach to using media in fostering understanding the way meaning and taste are socially constructed. Describes research aimed at developing an account of reading as social process. (HB)

Argues that reading for students today is drastically changed from that learned by students of generations past, primarily as a result of mass media and their effects. Shows how reading in a multimedia world is a complex and subtle enterprise. Illustrates the point with a case study of a five-year-old reader. (HB)

A cultural approach to research on higher education views the academic community as being both a disciplinary and an institutional cultural entity. The pros and cons of these two perspectives are examined with a view to finding new avenues for research; it is argued that academic identity provides a seminal perspective for cultural studies in…

Examines arguments for and against extensive English language teaching in non-Western cultures, particularly in Japan, including the ideologies of English in two Japanese discourses, "nihonjinron" and "kokusaika." It is concluded that instruction in English that is intended to promote social transformation should include both…

Proposes a general framework of interpretation for addressing second/foreign language didactics. Argues that Francophonie (the French-speaking countries and communities of the world collectively) constitutes geopolitical spaces sharing linguistic, cultural, economic, and institutional constructions, but that it is culturally and linguistically…

Proposes a cultural framework for examining socioemotional development of infants and young children across cultures. The framework recommends three distinct yet interrelated units of analysis for research on socioemotional development across cultures: cultural contexts, cultural complexity, and cultural pathways. (JPB)

Describes child and human development as an eco-cultural project. Focuses particular attention to early development of trust and attachment relationships and the age 5-to-7 transition, wherein cultural goals and psychological well-being are achieved despite limited resources and socioeconomic constraints. (JPB)

Describes how students in a course on adolescent literature read one book each week from an adolescent series related to a particular theme or time period. Shows how, by reading through a historical and cultural perspective, students learn about changing cultural attitudes and expectations toward adolescents. (SR)

The introductory article to this special issue on sociocultural perspectives in special education focuses on sociocultural theory in the 21st century, especially cultural shifts as a function of history, demographic shifts, power shifts to such groups as nongovernment organizations, and the importance of assuring equal access to education for…

Examines a group of ethnically diverse students' critical exploration of the complex interconnections among working-class school careers, identity formation, and cultural practices within English educational institutions. Presents the case for "bringing back" social class as a significant explanatory variable of educational inequality…

Examines reading-style preferences of 53 Jamaican students with learning disabilities in New York public schools. Indicates that variables most strongly preferred by all students were persistent, kinesthetic, tactual, environmental, motivational, and mobile. Students also preferred reading in the morning. Finds least preferred variables were…

Examines challenges faced by female students at Nairobi universities and postsecondary training institutions, using questionnaires administered to students of both sexes and interviews of male and female education officers. All groups named financial constraints, strict teenage pregnancy policies, inadequate girls' school resources, low…