A study investigated teacher and parent attitudes in the United Arab Emirates toward children with Down syndrome and educational services provided for them. Despite positive attitudes toward the inclusion of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, the study found barriers toward the inclusion of children with Down syndrome.…

Maintains that the United States tolerates an ineffective system of early education and professional preparation. Notes challenges to the field, including insufficient teacher preparation, outdated teacher professional development approaches, ineffective use of research findings to improve early childhood programs, and failure to understand,…

Explains how cultural connections, particularly within the context of reading comprehension, require cognitive processes nearly identical to those Vygotsky associated with higher-order conceptual development, examining the discourse of cultural deficit and how sociocultural research has countered its historical patterns, comparing Vygotsky's…

Describes part of a project of correspondence between a group of eighth graders and pre-service teachers in an attempt to prepare all students to work with diverse people and ideas. Hopes to enlarge the worlds of the students by putting them in contact with literature from diverse groups and joining them with diverse people from whom they could…

Assesses an attempt to bring the analysis of multimodal texts of cultural interest to students into a critical literacy foundation course in the humanities at a South African University. Shows how the course privileged cultural capital and reproduced patterns of privilege. Argues that acknowledging multimodal texts raises new and interesting…

Gifted educators are being asked to do more and more with fewer and fewer resources. Among other responsibilities, there is a continued focus on equity and access to gifted programs for poor, minority, and culturally and/or linguistically diverse students. These are groups of students, among others, who have been historically excluded from gifted…

Purpose: To develop more sensitivity for different patterns of human resource management in multinational companies. Design/methodology/approach: Systemic approach; the concepts and models are based on the evaluation of consulting projects in the field of human resource management. Findings: A concept of four typical varieties of human resource…

This is an essay about research methodology, particularly the use of narrative method, in a project which depicts portraits of 10 influential educators of China. The essay begins with reflections on the dialogue of civilizations and the potential future influence of Chinese civilization in the global community. It then goes on to consider the…

This ethnographic study explores the contradictory literacy practices of 10 high school students of Mexican background from the rural Midwest. The author uses the term "Mexican background" to encompass both settled Mexican Americans and recent-immigrant Mexicanos. Literacy is investigated through English and Spanish in a sociocultural…

Understanding one's cultural system leads to greater skills in appreciating other cultures. When students and teachers from diverse cultural backgrounds come together, they bring diversity that can either improve or break down the process of learning and teaching. If handled properly, cultural diversity can enrich the classroom; if ignored,…

Research into teachers' conceptions of teaching can be justified in that deep seated beliefs impact upon the way teachers teach and influence the learning approaches of their students. This study examined conceptions of teaching art, through interviews with 18 secondary school art teachers in Hong Kong. The analysis resulted in a two-level…

In many ways, teacher preparation programs have made great strides in preparing future teachers to work with an increasingly diverse population. However, there is still controversy about whether or not these courses are adequate and result in real change. This article represents a study that was designed to investigate preservice teachers' beliefs…

Venezuela is a country slightly larger than twice the size of California, the third largest U.S.A. state in land area. Caracas, the capitol city, is home to a population of 6 million people nested into a space that is actually smaller in size than the area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A., a city/suburb of only 2.8 million people. In…

American alcohol education and prevention efforts for youth emphasize abstinence. In support of this approach, epidemiologists conclude that early drinking by adolescents increases the lifetime likelihood of alcohol dependence and that overall drinking levels in a society are directly linked to drinking problems. At the same time, cultural,…

The author of this article presents a case study of four undergraduate students who participated in a semester-long study at an East Coast Catholic university. The students were involved in critical reflection about their identities within a critical multicultural education class. They were asked to connect their personal experiences to the class…