Examines contexts pertinent to teaching religious literature as literature at secondary and college levels. Explores effects of teaching religious literature in public schools, stressing maintaining secular goals. Considers influences of literary criticism. Advocates teaching practices that respect the full range of student religious traditions…

Census and student questionnaire data for 382 African-American and 3,467 white high school students from suburban San Francisco (California) indicate consistent positive relationships among grades and family status, level of parental education, and a two-parent home only for the white majority. The community context is important in understanding…

The Medical College of Pennsylvania has introduced a four-hour interdisciplinary class for sophomore students in the role of folk and popular healing systems in patient care. Student and faculty responded enthusiastically, and the program will be expanded. (MSE)

Maintains that all cultures celebrate holidays, but, in U.S. elementary schools, holidays generally are given superficial treatment. Suggests using holidays from other nations to begin studying the geography, history, and culture of those countries. Provides descriptions of seven teaching ideas based on this approach. (CFR)

Discusses the cultural mediation of thinking and the idea of schools as special cultural settings that are never neutral. Describes an approach that mediates the school's contradiction between access to and control of literacy through a pedagogy that transcends the classroom and challenges the reductionist tendencies that characterize…

Summarizes the results of an International Bioethics Education Survey conducted in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Compares knowledge and teaching of 15 selected topics with particular emphasis on the teaching of social, ethical, and environmental issues of in vitro fertilization, prenatal diagnosis, biotechnology, nuclear power, pesticides,…

Examines formal classroom encounters among Laotian refugee and at-risk American students and their teacher in a lower-track literature course and the influences of community context and school culture. Highlights linkages between student perceptions of self-competence and peer worth, the teacher's role in the social organization of work-related…

Recommends using Chinua Achebe's novel of the 19th-century conflict between African tribal culture and English colonists in a world history class. Achebe's rich narrative, written in a graceful prose, is easily accessible to high school students. The novel replaces simplistic and abstract concepts with those more complex and concrete. (MJP)

Reiterates the criticism that the Maitland Graves Design Judgment Test is inadequate in measuring aesthetic judgment as defined by Graves, especially in a cross-cultural setting. United States students consistently scored highest. Nonetheless, all students responded favorably to three factors: symmetry, three-dimensionality, and complex design.…

Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Middle Eastern history textbooks appropriate for college instruction. Reviews the textbooks in terms of coverage, how current is the information, and style and content. Provides a wealth of background information. (MJP)

Briefly presents the results of a study comparing the responses of Asian Canadian students and European Canadian students for evidence of social responsibility bias. Using the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, the study found little evidence of bias. Discusses implications and weaknesses of the experiment. (MJP)

Among the Chaggas on Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), "too much schooling" is believed to drive students, particularly girls, to the brink of madness. Fieldwork investigated culturally embedded attitudes toward education and the social development of young men and women, focusing on maintenance of family relations, single-sex isolation in…

Surveys of approximately 1,800 students aged 12-13 in England, France, and Denmark and in-depth study of 18 students in each country found "constants" in pupil concerns about education's link to work, teacher respect for students, and interesting teaching; and national differences in students' school attitudes, importance of…

Differences in racial socialization practices and their effects were examined in a sample of 241 African American 1st graders (average age 6.59 years) living in an urban area. Child outcomes included cognitive development, receptive language skills, and child problem behavior. The cultural environment of the home was associated with higher…

In this article, the author explores computer gaming preferences of girls through observations of a games club at an all-girl state school in the United Kingdom. The author argues that gaming tastes are alterable and site specific. Gaming preferences certainly relate to the attributes of particular games, but they will also depend on the player's…