This book contains the following papers from a European research seminar examining the history and theory of cross-cultural communication in adult education: "Introduction: Encounters and Identities in European Adult Education since 1890" (Barry J. Hake, Stuart Marriott); "The University Extension Movement (1892-1914) in Ghent,…

The growing diversity of our society requires transformation of ideological perspectives and changes in social, cultural, and institutional relations in order to legitimize diversity as a societal strength. Dominant ideologies and classroom practices have functioned to serve only one segment of American society. Attention must be directed toward…

As part of a larger ethnographic study, this book focuses on Mexican American family life, parental attitudes toward school, and efforts to increase student achievement by changing families. Exploration of the daily life of the 10 immigrant families sheds light on what educators have interpreted as the disinterest of newly arrived immigrants in…

The cultural and gender factors affecting the experience of Latino/Latina graduate students in the United States are examined. An introductory section offers background information on Latino participation in higher education, drawing on some recent literature, and on the Council of Graduate Schools' Latino Project, a qualitative ethnographic study…

This annual journal issue contains 24 papers on issues of faculty development, instructional improvement, knowledge and teaching, and communication in higher education. Many of the papers were developed for the annual conference of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD). The papers are: (1) "Teaching…

Intended as a an aid to classroom teachers, this 52-page handbook presents a literature unit based on the children and young people's book, "Dragon's Gate" by Laurence Yep. It begins with sample lesson plans, pre-reading activities, author information, a book summary, vocabulary lists and suggested vocabulary activities. Next, chapters…

In the world of social science and educational research, Asian Americans are frequently represented as one group and summarized with one number, like an arithmetic average. However, Asian Americans think of themselves as quite different from one another, as indeed they are. In the 1990 U.S. Census, information is available for 11 different groups…

This collection explores diversity in American schools by opening the discussion to the unprecedented diversity of children in American schools. Sections on rethinking familiar minorities, newcomers to the country, and other, often unrecognized minorities, deal with the common themes of minority status, marginality, and resistance. The following…

Results of national studies suggest that for girls, the middle grades can be a time of significant decline in self-esteem and academic achievement. Reasons for this decline are not clearly indicated by research, but it is likely that multiple factors are involved. One factor is the preferential treatment boys receive in the classroom.…

Designed to be used in courses devoted to the study of multicultural education, this book aims to outline conceptual foundations of multicultural education and to discuss differences in cultural perspectives. The book is divided into two parts. Part one provides the foundation of multicultural education; part two focuses on the perspectives on…

A program was developed to create a positive school climate in a multiethnic school to reduce conflict among students. The targeted population consisted of students in kindergarten through grade six in a school in a low socioeconomic environment in a rural community in northern Illinois. The majority of the school's 309 students were White, but…

To analyze some of the processes through which student voices and lived experiences can be either excluded or included, a study focused on elements of the classroom environment already addressed in previous analyses, examining "texts and talk" in two middle school English classrooms. The study analyzed how the classroom environments that…

This fact sheet lists problems involved in the use of standardized tests. It is argued that standardized tests are not really fair and helpful evaluation tools because they reward the ability to answer superficial questions quickly and do not measure the ability to think or create in any field. They also assume that all test takers have been…

This practicum was designed to develop an inservice training program for classroom teachers to help them better meet the needs of non-English speaking students, and to help the non-English speaking students acclimate and socialize with other students and to better deal with the problems of a culturally diverse, if not economically diverse…

National standards and assessments are being proposed as a strategy for improving schools in the United States. However, proposed federal policies for implementation raise serious concerns about the extent to which national standards and assessments alone will help improve the quality of public education for all, or whether they will serve to…