Issues in the study of friendship across cultures were explored by reviewing a set of studies focusing on the friendships of Indonesian and United States youth. Four topics are considered: similarity of friendships across cultures, dimensions of friendships that vary across cultures, the utility of the individualism/collectivism dimension for…

While it is recognized that self-concept and self-esteem affect the academic achievement of students, few publications have focused on the affective and psychological needs of students who are gifted and ethnically or culturally diverse. In this article, we extend the discussion of self-concept and achievement by focusing on how racial identity…

In this article, I review five articles selected for this Special Issue of the "International Journal of Disability, Development and Education" on indigenous healing. I have considered the various traditions of indigenous healing, and I situate my analysis within the context of disability, development, and education. Such an analysis…

Training programmes for unemployed people are often designed to meet the identified vocational skill needs of businesses. We describe research across a number of projects in Leeds (United Kingdom) providing training to unemployed and marginalised adults. The focus was on those with multiple barriers to accessing and sustaining training and…

Intercultural understanding is a prerequisite for peaceful local and global citizenship, especially in South African society where prejudice and negative stereotypes were previously the order of the day because of official separatism. It is therefore crucial to teach intercultural understanding in South Africa. I report with commentary on a…

This "Call to Action" serves as a reminder that underage drinking has serious social costs and tragic consequences, demonstrating the importance of prevention. Underage alcohol use is not inevitable, and schools, parents, and other adults are not powerless to stop it. The latest research demonstrates a compelling need to address alcohol use early,…

Comprehensive and user-friendly, this ideal graduate text and professional reference provides a developmentally informed framework for assessing 3- to 6-year-olds in accordance with current best practices and IDEA guidelines. The authors are leading clinician-researchers who take the reader step by step through selecting appropriate measures,…

The influence of culture on learning and motivation has been the topic of much research in recent years. Educational and psychological researchers are now aware that the findings of their studies may not apply to other cultures, and that in this age of globalization and multiculturalism it is very important to examine the applicability of…

Students from a predominantly White state at a predominantly White institution, working and living within predominantly White communities, have limited experience engaging with people of color. This lack of experience has at least two consequences. First, students tend to define "diversity" simply as non-White racial and ethnic identity, failing…

The authors interviewed 27 teachers (16 African American and 11 European American) on instructional factors contributing to overidentification of behavior problems in African American boys. Interviews focused on teachers' perspectives of effective teachers, teacher-student relationships, and communication styles. Analysis of the interviews showed…

In this study, the researcher has examined and presented the perceptions and attitudes of K-12 school teachers regarding students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In addition, these same teachers were asked to evaluate their own professional preparations that might enable them to identify and effectively teach these…

Based on the theoretical perspectives of socio-constructivism and language socialization, this study reports two Chinese Canadian first grader's experiences of language and literacy learning in and out of school in a unique sociocultural setting where they were "the mainstream." The article examines the students' reading and writing…

Emiliana Vegas surveys strategies used by the world's developing countries to fill their classrooms with qualified teachers. With their low quality of education and wide gaps in student outcomes, schools in developing countries strongly resemble hard-to-staff urban U.S. schools. Their experience with reform may thus provide insights for U.S.…

The year 2004 marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark "Brown vs. Board of Education" case that put an official end to segregated schooling in the USA. Desegregation has received little attention as of late, yet a number of scholars argue that the work of desegregation is far from being complete in the USA. The aim of this paper is to…

This research study addresses the childhood obesity epidemic, which has seen the number of overweight children from the ages of 6 to 11 triple since the mid-1970s. The authors note that there are more than twice as many poor and obese adolescents compared with more affluent youths, and examine a number of factors linking obesity and poverty.…