The relation between education and democracy is a difficult one. Even the wealthiest countries with highly educated populations have failed to develop educational systems that provide adequate educational experiences and opportunities for individuals within all social groups. Since the mid 1960s, higher education institutions in the US have made…

Sustaining and strengthening tribal cultures, languages and traditions is at the core of every tribal college's mission statement. To help attain these goals, many colleges use one of Indian Country's greatest assets--its elders. Traditionally, elders hold a place of honor in American Indian society. Without cultural input from elders,…

In this article, we investigate whether adolescent girls are more determined to enter professional careers compared to boys across countries. To this end, we analyse the data from the 2006 survey of OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). First, we establish whether girls are more ambitious than boys net of their academic…

The authors examine the interaction of teaching and culture as it relates to students' perceptions of course difficulty. Course content was found to be the most important factor in students' views of courses. For a difficult course, "study hard" was rated as most important to the students' perception of course success by all ethnic groups. In…

The sociological literature on teaching and learning includes a number of discussions devoted to the importance of multicultural education. Much of this literature encourages educators to revise the curriculum and shows how the experience of multicultural education can stimulate student's sociological imaginations. To this end, some scholars have…

This paper explores the issues of what would constitute a positive organizational climate for women and minorities within the community college setting and ways in which such a climate might be achieved. It first describes some traditional or standard measures of a positive organizational climate for women and minorities and then evaluates how…

This pilot study describes elementary teachers' use of collaborative inquiry as a strategy for assessing Response to Instruction and Intervention (RtI [superscript 2]) in reading for an English Learner student. The design of the study was based on the sociocultural theory that assessment practices shape teachers' understanding of students and of…

The majority of the teacher candidates in my methods classes come from a background that is different from the primarily African American students at my professional development school. Because these teacher candidates continue to be predominantly White middle-class females, the gap between their cultural comfort zone and their students' cultural…

This article examines the relationship between knowledge and policy in French-speaking Belgium. It starts by describing Belgium as a consociational democracy, i.e. a society that is largely organised around integrated pillars of society (Catholic, secular), each of which provides a wide range of services (educational, training, health, health…

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived educational experiences of American Indians who grew up during the 1950s and 1960s, known as the termination period in American history. The research for this phenomenological study consisted of interviews with eight participants who were willing to share their personal experiences from this…

A professor of elementary education discusses his memories, the task of a professor, himself as an individual, himself as a faculty member, and the payoff in his work. (RC)

The article describes the theoretical foundations of R. Feuerstein's "Mediated Learning Theory" and its applicability to deaf populations. The theory provides insight into the comparable characteristics of culturally deprived and deaf populations. The theory emphasizes the importance of mediated learning as a prerequisite to independent…

Teaching the culture of the native speakers of the foreign language being studied is an important facet of FL instruction that is of considerable interest to the students. (LG)

Discussed are issues in the identification of culturally different gifted children in urban areas with particular emphasis on state policy in Georgia. Considered are the need for earlier identification to prevent a decline in academic achievement, the definition and criteria for gifted children according to Georgia state policy, varieties of…