A five-stage model is presented which proposes that majority and minority group members go through parallel, but somewhat different, stages in developing cross-cultural awareness. The five stages described for each group, with transitions between them, are as follows: unawareness, beginning awareness, conscious awareness, consolidated awareness,…

Argues that resisting reading, a kind of reading learned from recent feminist literary criticism, is a way of ensuring that learning about a foreign culture does not lead to the destruction of one's own identity. Students can read texts they are not sympathetic with because understanding does not mean accepting. (Author/VWL)

Discusses distribution of corporal punishment in schools. Data indicate that Black students are more than twice as likely as Whites to be hit by their teachers. Reasons for this disparity and possible solutions to the problem are considered. (JS)

Explores the possibility that differences in compliance between Japanese and American children are the result of culturally distinct child-rearing practices. Child compliance with adult authority was positively associated with providing opportunities for appropriate behavior and negatively associated with reliance on physical discipline in both…

Analyzes oral narrative told to peers by a Black girl and compares it to one told to an adult female by a White middle-class girl. Proposes that the White girl's style is compatible with school-based values governing speech and writing, while the Black girl's style is compatible with cultures emphasizing verbal mastery but is not compatible with…

Examines the relationship between academic locus of control and LOGO performance among Black and White primary school students in Zimbabwe. Found that Black females' LOGO scores were negatively related to internal academic locus of control, Black and White males' scores were positively related, and White females' scores were unrelated. (LS)

Investigates the effects of teacher praise and criticism on the performance and self-perceptions of Chinese college students using replications of two German studies. Discusses similarities and differences in findings in light of the Chinese teacher-student relationship. (FMW)

The informal curriculum centering on holidays in elementary education often ignores cultural and individual differences among students. School holiday celebrations may have serious consequences for the following dimensions of schooling: (1) aesthetic; (2) curricular; and (3) socio-emotional. Teachers can provide options for all students by making…

Used case study approach to focus on adjustment decisions of 15 female Chinese college students who emigrated from Hong Kong to Vancouver, British Columbia. Common themes of conflict involved Chinese and Western value opposition, the need for personal development, and the fear of social isolation. Six different patterns of client adjustment were…

Discusses the effect of culture on creative drama. Provides an overview of the following features of creative drama in cultures previously examined: identification, mediation, transformation, empathy, metaphor and symbol, structures and dynamics, roles, communication, and audience. Summarizes emergent issues and relates them to the nature and…

Describes the role that values, and value conflicts, play in transfer of educational program effectiveness between United States and Mexico. It proposes that transfer without significant modification and interpretation to fit local world views and practices is generally dysfunctional, and offers codesigning as a strategy to obviate traditional…

Reports on the Third International Social Studies Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1994. Asserts that social studies is a transnational phenomenon and maintains that the visit provided a vivid illustration of many of the intellectual issues that lie at the heart of the discipline. (CFR)

Suggestions are made for making meetings in a college or university setting more productive, particularly with regard to avoiding cultural misunderstanding. The cultural sources of some behaviors that may inhibit participation and effectiveness are outlined, and strategies for overcoming them are offered. (MSE)

Responses from 682 members of school-based leadership councils in Los Angeles (California) demonstrate how a council's decision-making quality is affected by 5 dimensions of council diversity. Diversity of role and tenure is related to decision-making quality, but ethnic and gender diversity and diversity in experience are not. (SLD)

Mary Douglas's typology, using grid and group dimensions, provides a means to classify and compare social environments in terms of their differing cultural constraints on individual autonomy. This article uses the Douglas typology to examine the grid and group characteristics of four diverse schools to determine the framework's applicability to…