Examines common preconceptions about Asian students and their learning attitudes, in particular the belief that they see the teacher as an authority figure and source of learning. Students in three Asian countries responded to three statements that reflect these attitudes. Results underscore the need to explore in greater depth the nature and…

Discusses the impact of increased numbers of Asian and Pacific Islander students in the context of special education. Stresses the importance of special education services that address the diverse cultural and linguistic characteristics of these students, and of parental involvement. (Author/DB)

Investigates a pedagogical approach to identifying and bridging the gap between cultural prototypes in second language lexical meaning acquisition. Within the framework of prototype theory and a sociocultural perspective,argues that lexical meaning is culturally situated and the teaching and learning of a culturally loaded word may be achieved by…

The Nordic tradition of folkeoplysning (Denmark, Norway) or folkbildning (Sweden) is a form of adult education--"people's enlightenment"--linked to the emergence of democracy. Differing social, political, and cultural emphases attached to "folk"/"people" in various European languages have implications for the role of…

Every component of traditional indigenous life is influenced by the natural world, but indigenous studies programs exclude the natural sciences. To wrest indigenous studies programs from the Eurocentric worldview of the typical American university, the natural sciences should be incorporated into what must necessarily be an integrated,…

Notes that Obiakor et al's edited volume places special education within a cultural framework and identifies general and special education institutional practices that result in cultural diversity being recast as an individual deficit. Argues that the book fails to deal sufficiently with intersections of race, culture, and class that are critical…

Develops a proposal for learning from the differences that are present in the milieu of postgraduate programs based on a participative design. Using examples of students' and teachers' experiences with difference, it describes the "classroom as real world" as a basis for understanding differences. Explores tensions teachers may encounter…

This article presents results of a qualitative study of values development in U.S. and Scottish social work students who participated in a study-abroad program. Six themes emerged: opening the mind to new ways of thinking; awareness and insight into one's own values and beliefs; social awareness and challenges to societal values and beliefs;…

Educators, policy makers, and civic leaders are baffled and frustrated over the stubborn achievement gaps that exist between white students and students of color. On a consistent basis, African American students do not fair as well as white students on school-related measures such as proficiency examinations and standardized tests (e.g.,…

This article presents commentaries on being gay in Japan and China by distinguished educators with various backgrounds and from different countries. Given space limitations, these are more evocative than particulate, but collectively they provide multiple platforms for reflection. As noted by some commentators in this article and others (e.g.,…

The critical incident that drove this article involved a single mother who was on probation for drug offenses. Her two daughters were sent home from their Title I urban elementary school on a frequent basis because of head lice. This situation prompted several questions: Can we and should we be able to legislate and enforce cleanliness? Is…

This article identifies the different problems immigrants and refugees face in the United States, especially socioeconomic and psychosocial concerns that often relate to the experience of migration. Traditional familial roles and responsibilities are frequently challenged, exacerbated by sociocultural differences and inadequate understandings…

In order to improve teaching, it is important to understand why teaching looks the way that it now does and how its general form can be explained. One way to address this question is at the classroom level. This approach has been found in the ethnographic work of anthropologists and has been skillfully applied in the recent work of such…

Within a framework of shrinking public funding for universities, competition for students and pressures for the internationalization of education, Australian universities have formed partnerships with Asian organizations to offer Australian degrees to fee-paying students in their home countries. Teaching Asian students in Asia is complex,…

I use examples from my ethnographic work on early childhood education and care settings in Japan and France to demonstrate that quality standards are cultural constructs and to question the universality of such core U.S. standards of quality in ECEC as low student-teacher ratios and multicultural curricula. My argument is that quality standards…