Examines the nature of disadvantage for minority students, solutions offered by radical theorists, and roles that stories play in furthering progress with antiracism. The paper examines the centeredness of the white middle class; teachers' perspectives; monocultural curriculum; shortcomings of multicultural education; possibilities from critical…

Presents ten steps toward a more multicultural youth library to help bridge cultural and linguistic gaps in public and school libraries. Topics include mission statements; physical environment; collection diversity; collaboration; bilingual materials; multicultural materials; community involvement; and appreciating diversity. (LRW)

Uses stories of families in one early childhood program to illustrate educators' challenges to communicate with families whose backgrounds are different from theirs, including low income families. Identifies strategies for supporting and involving families, including using empathy and patience to forge relationships, linking families with needed…

Financial assistance that parents give to their young adult children is part of the bundle of flows that constitutes intergenerational support. Are there racial and ethnic differences in this financial assistance, and if so, why? Wave 2 data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 17,996) suggest group differences in both the incidence and…

This research examines the extent to which a mother's ethnicity, social class, and immigration status, singly or in interaction, are associated with her beliefs about how best to prepare her child for kindergarten. One hundred and fifty-six lower- and middle-class Euro-American, African-American, non-immigrant Latina, and immigrant Latina mothers…

This article is about conflict in an educational workplace setting. It reports on a case study investigating the emergence, development, and management of conflict among diverse native English speakers working as language instructors within a Japanese university. The example of conflict presented, which deals with divergent assumptions about the…

This study examined the influence of nationality, age and gender on Chinese (N=130) and Finnish (N=203) pre-schoolers' number sense. Two highly correlated aspects of number sense were extracted: one reflecting the children's ability to organise and compare quantities (i.e. relational skills), and another pertaining to their ability to operate with…

In this study we analyzed the socioeconomic differences in mortality from suicide in the economically active male population aged 25-64 years in Spain and France in 1980-1982 and 1988-1990; in the case of Spain the data came from the Eight Provinces Study (Regidor, Gutierrez-Fisac, & Rodriguez, 1995). Individuals were grouped into four…

This study examines teachers' perceptions of classroom motivation and achievement among students displaying culture-based classroom behaviors. Sixty-two elementary school teachers read scenarios of hypothetical students who behaviorally manifested themes purported to be consistent with a European/mainstream cultural ethos (competition,…

Open and distance learning is experiencing rapid growth throughout the world. China in particular is undergoing a massive expansion of its distance EFL programmes. This global phenomenon challenges all those involved in delivering distance learning materials to examine current practice and the assumptions and expectations that underlie it, with…

In this study we described development of boys' and girls' games on the school playground at recess as they progressed across the first year of primary school in London (UK) and Minneapolis (USA) in order to document age-related trends in games during this period and to examine the predictive role of games in children's adjustment to school and…

To explore whether the facilitation effects of an explicit instruction to "be creative" vary across cultures and types of tasks, 248 U.S. and 278 Chinese college students were administered a battery of tests of verbal, artistic, and mathematical creativity. Half of the participants were tested under the standard condition, and the other…

This cross-cultural study examined the generic structure of English and Arabic job application letters written by native Arabic speakers and English native speakers to find out the discourse genre text similarities and differences between them. A corpus of 60 job application letters written by 60 job applicants was subjected to the form of move…

In recent decades, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers have sought a new way of life in large numbers, often leaving their countries of origin behind in search of places that offer a better way of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary and middle school students in state schools in Reading, England (primarily…

This paper discusses a neglected aspect of English in China, its impact on ethnic minorities and their languages. It begins with an overview of the current situation of the minorities and their languages then, based on fieldwork conducted in Jilin and Guizhou Provinces, it shows two trends: English currently has a limited presence in minority…