The focus group approach with black students and students of Chinese origin at York University in Ontario (Canada) was used to examine attitudes of these groups toward the concept of "visible minority." The results of eight focus group sessions conducted with 48 black students indicated that while 90 percent of the students did consider…

Recent instances of cultural conflict represent a single, broad, novel cultural tendency with real capacities to effect change. This tendency is labeled "black cultural projection." By altering American culture, black cultural projection questions entrenched patterns of political and economic domination in the United States, even though…

Demystifying some of the implications of multiculturalism might allow the opportunity to ground the field in the basic exercise of cultural affirmation, self-determination. Contributors to this book affirm that self-determination and moving beyond the comfort zones to which multiculturalism has advanced are essential to seeing multiculturalism as…

This collection of papers from the 1993 Teachers College Winter Roundtable focus on training for competence in cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy. Each paper approaches an issue in effective practice from a theoretical or applied perspective. The following are included: (1) "African-American Identity: A Causal and a Noncausal…

This book examines student activism in the 1990s and finds its sources in the struggle over multiculturalism and issues of social justice and equality. It is argued that identity politics is a reaction to the cultural hegemony reinforced through longstanding monocultural norms of the academy. A case study methodology used such data as formal and…

Female identity is centered on interconnectedness, and it is often based on a secure attachment with the family. This study addressed the relationship between attachment and self-esteem in African American and White female college students. The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987) was used to assess the cognitive or…

The questions addressed in this study concern the effects of diverse secondary school environments on Black males' perceptions of achievement and identity. Data were collected over a 2-year period utilizing discussion, observation, surveys (questions included), and interviews with Black males in five high schools in Jackson, Mississippi: (1)…

Identity formation is a process in which successive identifications with parents, siblings, peers, teachers, folk heroes, and cultural groups are synthesized into a coherent, consistent, and unique whole. This study reports the case of a 13 year old female, Jane, of mixed Latino and European American heritage who was admitted for long-term…

Available research in the area of transracial adoptions is surveyed, emphasizing the programs and services which could be developed based on this accumulated knowledge. It is argued that, because of the implications for the growing number of lives involved, the area of cross cultural adoptive placements needs further research, thoughtful program…

Racism remains a distinct factor in problems faced by black teachers and teacher educators. The number of black teachers in the public schools is diminishing, especially in the southern states, where the black student population is the highest. The higher education environment has been undergoing drastic changes in faculty and student body…

This study of levels of self-esteem in a sample of black disadvantaged children was conducted to investigate factors known from other studies to facilitate the development and maintenance of a favorable self-concept despite adverse environmental conditions and skin color. The child subjects were selected from six classes of fifth grade black…

Although many authors have mentioned examples of how black usually connotes a negative evaluation and white a positive evaluation, the literature on the topic has not yet included an attempt to list examples comprehensively. Those which are cited here come from a wide variety of sources: primarily from dictionaries, books of slang, and personal…

This study attempts to evaluate the psychologic effects of school desegregation on seventh-, eighth, and ninth-grade students in three Southern cities by using a standardized self-concept scale. Previous research leaves us with the basic assumptions that prior to 1954 black children in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades in public schools in the…

Contents of this book include: Part I: "The Nursery School and Its Racial Integration"--introduction, establishing physical and psychological integration; staff meetings; observing and working through; Part II: "Theory and Practice"--skin color anxiety: the skin and its importance in personality development; skin color anxiety, the visual impact,…

In this speech, a black, former principal describes the unique problems facing black school administrators. The author states that his most important task was to establish and maintain credibility in the profession and in the community. He discusses (1) his relations with the staff, (2) his relations with students, (3) his role in school community…