The authors of this study discuss past research, litigation, and legislation pertaining to the topic of parental involvement in special education. In particular, the study examined parental perceptions of their roles as communicators and decision makers in the special education process in terms of ethnicity and child's educational level. Very few…

The current educational arrangements of advanced liberal democracies continue to isolate various ethnic and racial groups. Disadvantaged minority students attend inferior schools. The overreliance on the curriculum as a design for teaching and learning renders school learning less relevant for "knowledge work" jobs in network societies.…

The purpose of the investigation was to determine the level of training and confidence of speech-language pathologists in serving Spanish-English bilingual children. Surveys were completed by 213 speech-language pathologists working in the public schools. Comparisons were made among responses from non-diverse rural, non-diverse urban, and diverse…

The authors tested a model of the relations among adolescents' perceptions of parents', teachers', and classmates' support for, valuing of, and beliefs about their competence in math/science; adolescents' own academic self-perceptions concerning math/science; and their academic performance. The sample included 378 middle school students; 65% were…

This study investigated the cross-cultural construct validity of perfectionism using the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R; R. B. Slaney, M. Mobley, J. Trippi, J. S. Ashby, & D. G. Johnson, 1996) with 251 African American college students. A LISREL confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) offered support for the 3 subscales of the APS-R: High…

The following essay explores aspects of my professional identity as a teacher of English, presenting a focus on "the reflexive project of the self" (Goodson, 1998). I argue for the way rich professional learning can occur by keying into a discourse that values penetrating reflection on classroom practice, teacher identity, self and…

The author is a researcher and graduate student of American Indian descent (Stockbridge-Munsee/Mohican). She has always been very aware of the absence of other American Indian students in postsecondary education programs; has noticed the shortage of American Indians employed as educators, professors, or administrators; and is acutely aware of the…

College students (n = 226) and teachers (n = 328) in the United States and China completed a 55-item questionnaire examining perceptions of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the two countries. Although a factor analysis yielded somewhat similar structures for the construct of ADHD, many differences emerged as well, with Chinese…

This article reports on a study done among students who participated in student exchange programs, both in the United States and other parts of the world, between January 2001 and May 2003. Issues such as why students decide to study abroad, why they select a certain institution, how their home institution compares to a partner institution abroad,…

Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies across 3 samples, the authors investigated the cross-cultural adjustment of Taiwanese students attending graduate school in the United States. First, interviews with 25 Taiwanese students regarding their experiences in the United States revealed themes of language barriers, confidence about speaking…

This study investigates Chinese immigrant high school students' perceptions of cooperative learning and their interactions during cooperative learning activities in English as a second language (ESL) classes. The findings present a complex picture of cooperative learning in the ESL classroom. The interview results demonstrate that the Chinese…

Given that children have a strong bias towards their in-group, this study examined how children respond to a group member who is revealed to have negative qualities. One hundred and twenty Anglo-Australian children who were 6, 9, or 12 years of age heard a story about an (in-group) Anglo-Australian boy and a (out-group) Chinese boy who were good…

We suggest that in societies with highly complex and conflictual cultural diversity, different perceptions of pluralism and multiculturalism are likely to be related to divergent expectations for multicultural education. Our study examines--through semi-structured interviews--the perceptions of cultural pluralism and multicultural education among…

Whatever their intensity, all cultural differences must be dealt with in a professional communication classroom to create a cross-culturally competent system of individuals working toward a common goal. In this article, the author examined the way in which professional communication is being learned along the U.S.-Mexico border. The population…

When composition instructors discuss teaching diversity, the concept of tolerance often takes over the conversation. Tolerance constructs an ideal "comfort zone" where every student's voice can be heard and respected. While tolerance is perceived as an admirable goal, Marinara has concluded that the ideal of the comfortable classroom space from…