Part of a project of the small college interest group of the Central States Speech Association investigating problems of speech departments in small colleges, this paper reviews the findings of two workshops conducted by the Association of American Colleges and the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education on problems of black students…

For Kung hunter-gatherers and Fijian fishing people, healing is a central community ritual with significance beyond the cure itself. An enhanced state of consciousness, experienced most intensely by the healer, but also shared by the community, is at the core of Kung and Fijian healing. Although in contemporary Euro-American culture the spiritual…

This report provides the Pacific American perspective on the current problems and future prospects of Asian and Pacific American relations in the context of Federal assistance. The report is divided into three parts. The first emphasizes the long history of contact between Asians and Pacific Islanders in the Pacific. This history, it is argued,…

Developed by the Texas Department of Human Resources' Child Development Division, this guide supports and encourages the integration of cultural diversity into children's programs; furnishes basic information related to race, ethnicity, and culture; and briefly considers some issues associated with the concepts. While not dealing in depth with all…

Data on the status of Samoan students reveal that they suffer severe educational deprivation in many areas. This deprivation is obscured and often exacerbated by grouping data on Pacific Islanders with that on the comparatively more successful, more numerous, culturally very different and generally more urbanized Asian American groups. While early…

A long standing history of poverty and isolation continues in American Indian communities throughout South Dakota. Dakota Wesleyan University's native American students thus enter college with difficult family situations, substantial personal alienation, negative self-images and self-expectations, and a lack of career direction. Dakota Wesleyan is…

This second volume of Proceedings from the Annual Conference on Minority Studies departs from the precedent set in the first volume. Its structure is not limited to a given topic. Instead, in keeping with the objectives of the National Association of Interdisciplinary Studies for Native-Americans, blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Asian…

This paper describes an interdisciplinary high school course, "Cultural Diversity in American Life," taught by an English teacher, a social studies teacher, and an art teacher. Designed to help students understand and accept differences in culture, the course consists of units on the black American, the American Indian, the Jewish American, and…

This is a collection of papers which discusses characteristics of ESL (English as a Second Language) students in Kuwait. The first chapter, "Oral Communication," notes the extreme facility with which these students communicate in English. Chapter Two, "Names," explains how people in Kuwait are named and addressed. Chapter…

A study examined the ways that basal readers portrayed the family. It was expected that the readers would give only token representation of both parents working or of one-parent or mixed marriage families, and that very few portrayals of reading or of reading materials would be found. Eight basal readers from 6 publishing companies for grades 1…

Achievement motivation recently has been examined as a four-factor construct. Fiji, part of the British Commonwealth, provides an interesting testing ground for the question of different achievement patterns for different ethnic groups. The achievement motivation levels of high school students from four ethnic groups and university students from…

Despite its reputation for being a scientific and precise tool for measurement, psychological testing is a culturally biased procedure that results in discrimination against minority groups, particularly against minority students. Academic achievement and intelligence tests, the two types of tests most frequently used in public schools, assume…

Based on selected reading of the literature on medical anthropology and the sociology of modern and traditional system integration in other societies (developing and developed), this paper argues that state heteronomy is patently contraindicated, yet inevitable, should the funding and power structure behind Western health care systems be formally…

The findings of nine studies comparing the symbolic play of middle-class and lower-class children are summarized and examined in detail. Related research problems are discussed and directions for future research are indicated. Examination of the studies indicated that few general conclusions can be drawn from them about the relative quality of…

The author examines research in the field and answers questions about educating gifted and talented students. (Sections focus on the following topics: characteristics of gifted individuals; identification procedures (including standardized group tests, creativity tests, and parent nomination); recommended identification procedures; misconceptions…