This article reports research into associations between students' cultural background and their perceptions of their teacher's interpersonal behaviour and classroom learning environment. A sample of 1021 students from 31 classes in seven co-educational private schools completed a survey including the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), the…

This essay focuses on how people respond to cultural difference, and, specifically, two tendencies. One tendency is to romanticize the cultural differences encountered. Another tendency is to rush to a negative judgment about the specific people involved, and about their culture more generally. In this essay, the author illustrates these…

For three weeks, this author served as a stateside evaluator conducting school site visits at four Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DODDs) located in The Netherlands. Those three weeks in The Netherlands were filled with forming new relationships with team members at each school site, learning about the unique needs of children who are…

This article reviews the literature on using behavior-rating scales to assess the mental health of children from different ethnic groups in the United States. Particular emphasis is placed on children referred to child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Differences between categorical and dimensional classification, as well as broadband versus…

This article features the standards and practice for K-12 physical education in Japan. Physical education in Japan has many similarities to, and differences with, programs in the United States. Many of the main objectives for the school curriculum are the same; both systems promote major outcomes related to fitness and lifelong sport and physical…

The three voices presented here are those of women teachers affiliated with Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking branches of the Israeli educational system at different levels. Brought together when a curriculum on multiculturalism oriented to narrative as a teaching tool was implemented and tested in an in-service programme, each of the three had…

Contrastive rhetoric provides tools that community college teachers need in order to understand the rhetorical forms that students from other cultures employ. Greater understanding of contrastive rhetoric can change the way that teachers interpret the difficulty linguistically different students may have in using conventional American academic…

This article reports the findings of a mixed-method evaluation of a pilot educational programme undertaken with six to seven year olds in a sample of primary schools in England with the aim of increasing their awareness of and respect for diversity through theater, workshops and related teacher-led classroom activities. The qualitative feedback…

The professional literature provides ample evidence that individuals with autism exhibit a myriad of unusual social, communication, and behavioral patterns of interactions that present challenges to their families and service providers. However, there is a dearth of quality works on multicultural issues regarding autistic spectrum disorders. In…

Background: Educational differentiation, or the allocation of students to different types of school or different locations within schools, is a common feature of modern education systems. In most countries, student outcomes vary considerably, both by school and academic location within schools. Purpose: The purpose is to ascertain the extent that…

This paper analyses how textbooks deal with the issues of education for democratic citizenship encompassed within the European framework and Spanish educational reforms. The sample comprised the 24 individual texts in social science, natural science, and technology for 6-12-year-olds. This paper delimits and defines the six themes for analysis:…

Successful, Culturally Enriched, and Linguistically Sensitive family literacy programs incorporate families' life experiences, ways of knowing, educational needs and resources, and goals. Alma Flor Ada (2003) reminds us that "students live in two worlds: home and school. If these two worlds do not recognize, understand, and respect each other,…

The study examined the effects of gender and ethnicity on mathematics achievement on a national test and on dispositions (attitudes, perceived parental expectations, effort, and help) towards the study of mathematics of a representative sample of Jewish and Arab eighth graders in Israel. The results indicated a large ethnic gap in achievement in…

South African higher education institutions are increasingly under scrutiny to produce knowledge that is more relevant to South Africa's social and economic needs, more representative of the diversity of its knowledge producers, and more inclusive of the variety of the sites where knowledge is produced. Only a small percentage of South Africans…

A number of studies have found that primary control declines in old age and is lower in Asian countries, while secondary control increases in old age and is higher in Asian countries. We examined whether these patterns may be due to the mediating influence of interdependence. In a sample of 557 young and old adults in Japan and the United States,…