The swift and profound transformations in technology and industry that the United States began to experience in the late 1800s manifested themselves in school textbooks, which presented different patterns of race, ethnicity, and otherness. They also displayed concepts like national identity, exceptionalism, and the superiority of Euro-American…

Based on theory and research, social aspects like friendship and sense of relatedness are fundamental in the development of children's cultural identity and achievement of outcomes. It is argued that this is a motivational aspect often neglected in research studies focusing on students' motivation and learning. Theory and research on motivation…

Global self-worth and five domains of self-esteem (scholastic competence, athletic competence, physical appearance, behavioral conduct, social acceptance) were tested for measurement equivalence in a sample of Anglo American, Mexican American, African American, and Native American youth aged 9 through 14 years. The results revealed that global…

Currently in her third year as principal of the Leighton Elementary School, Georgia Henson faces conflicting pressures in a district where the priorities of Anglo and Hispanic communities may diverge. This case raises questions regarding administration and supervision of schools in multicultural contexts where political tensions are rising. In…

This longitudinal research used a sociocultural perspective to examine planning competence in the everyday experiences of European American and Latino children from 7 to 9 years of age. Data on children's participation in planning their activities outside of school, parental expectations about children's planning competence, and children's…

We conducted 2 studies to (a) establish the usefulness of the construct of home chaos, (b) investigate its correlates, and (c) determine the validity of the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS) used to measure the construct in each study. Study 1 relied on a sample of European American preschoolers and their mothers and Study 2 on a sample…

After the author's first semester teaching at the university, she began to ponder the lack of emphasis placed on the relationships among school, community and home within her students' practicum experience. Through lectures, readings, and audio visuals, the author shared the importance of including parents in the educational decision making…