Previous research found racial identity predictive of psychological distress among African American students at predominantly White colleges. This study examined these relationships among 154 African American undergraduates attending a historically Black university. Racial identity was independent of psychological distress, suggesting that African…

Children's voluntary reading positively correlates with school grades, vocabulary growth, reading comprehension, verbal fluency, general information, and attitudes towards reading. Drawing on qualitative interviews collected alongside six waves of longitudinal survey data in an urban setting in eastern USA, We argue that voluntary reading by…

Four steps are critical in developing cultural competence in students: (1) a supportive training program; (2) a significant number or "critical mass" of culturally diverse students and allies; (3) opportunities to learn about diversity; and (4) development of racial identity. An appreciation of cultural diversity lies at the heart of any…

This guide is designed to help teachers incorporate African American history into the classroom curriculum. Designed to increase self-awareness and cultural sensitivity, the guide contains a variety of flexible lesson plans and activities for grades 3 through 12. The first section, "Teacher Background Information," presents introductory…

Identity formation among Haitian immigrants to the United States is explored in an effort to pinpoint the macro (external) and micro (internal) factors that shape the cultural identity of this particular immigrant community. The immigration experience that is revealed is one of a cultural and linguistic identity in transition. Part I presents a…

This study evaluated accuracy of the assumption of the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) that higher education students of unknown race or ethnicity should be distributed over the remaining resident categories in the proportion of those whose race/ethnicity is known. This study endeavored to estimate the error associated with any…

The United States has been called a "melting pot," a container in which separate materials are heated and blended. When people call the United States a melting pot, they are using a metaphor for the blending of cultures that some feel has occurred in this country. Others doubt that America has been a melting pot, and many doubt that it…

Throughout the United States, many Filipino Americans, especially students, are beginning to want to know more about their cultural heritage and future. Overall, there has been very little written to transmit knowledge about Filipino history, ideas, and values, even though Filipinos make up the largest Asian ethnic group in the United States.…

Psychologists and educators have struggled to understand the devastating influence of racial intolerance on children, on their personality development, and on their academic growth. The emotional and cognitive elements that underlie racial intolerance, along with its theoretical underpinnings, are examined in this paper. It is believed that five…

The levels of acculturation of biracial and monoracial Hispanics were examined in college students to determine the level of family or community influence in defining racial identification for the biracial individual. The sample was composed of Hispanic undergraduate students currently enrolled at the University of Kansas. Survey packets were…

In Canada there exists a need to prepare the teaching force, which is primarily monocultural and monolingual, to work with an increasingly ethnoculturally diverse student population. This paper defines the term "ethnocultural," and presents three dimensions of ethnocultural knowledge that are essential to the ongoing professional and…

An empirical summary of 33 studies considers the relationship between racial group orientation and self-concept of an individual. This issue represents a fundamental assumption of afrocentric education practices, that the racial group orientation of the individual is related to the self-esteem of the individual. The results demonstrate a positive…

Originating in the National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA), this book examines this major research project, the first study to sample a truly representative cross section of Blacks in America. The contributors discuss the methodological procedures and approaches used in conducting the NSBA and explain how the study was designed with a…

Black intellectuals and writers were invited to write essays on assimilation, race, and identity, using a famous quotation from W. E. B. Du Bois about the double soul of the American Negro as a point of departure. Considering the double consciousness of which Du Bois wrote resulted in the following essays: (1) "Free at Last? A Personal…

This paper converges Shelby Steele's discussion on issues facing African-American students in his 1990 book, "The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America" (which argues in part that a self-defeating preoccupation with race reduces their academic performance), with education majors' concerns about teaching culturally…