This article briefly reviews the contributions to this volume and revisits the original focus of the Civil Rights Act (CRA). It considers how much progress has been made in addressing the original concerns regarding ethnic and racial discrimination that the act was intended to address and the intersection of language issues with them. The article…

Local, national, and global events that dominate today's media (e.g., war in Iraq, genocide in Darfur, historical lack of confidence in national political leadership, Katrina/Rita aftermath, etc.) represent open and ever-present personal invitations to "wake up" to the complex challenges that increasingly define communities across…

In this article, the author explores local culture and local cultural practices in an attempt to understand the forces and influences that have affected the development of a local identity as well as the persistence of Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole) as its language. The author begins with an introductory discussion of themes that emerge in two short…

This article presents a collection of work that grew out of an international symposium sponsored by the History of Education Society UK and held in Hamburg in 2007. The symposium aimed to contribute to understandings of different approaches to researching the extent to which education has contributed historically to social change in respect of…

Economic and political changes and the resurgence of ethnicity are profoundly transforming the world. Radical adult education has historically worked at the interface of economics, politics, and culture; in the current state of flux, many of the enduring issues of adult education are being raised in new ways. (SK)

Explores the implications of recent developments in social theory for the understanding of childhood. Draws upon children's experience in drama education to examine how schools can provide opportunities for children to become active agents in constructing their own identities. Places particular attention on the production of new ethnic identities.…

Examines what the American dream means to ethnic Americans. Specifically discussed are: (1) how official documents of the dream have dealt with ethnicity; (2) how ethnic groups have interpreted the dream; (3) how the 1960s redefined the dream; and (4) the future of the dream in terms of changing American ethnicity. (RM)

Examines the characteristics of the Hispanic movement and the changes in its orientation as a result of economic, social, and political influences since 1960. Emphasizes self-renewal rather than survival and retrenchment as a strategy for solving current social problems. (JCD)

Defines multiculturalism and elaborates on the definition through a description of the author's struggle to find his identity as a Chinese American and his development as a writer. The author, a novelist and university-level director of Asian-American studies, talks about growing up without reading material that reflected his identity. (KRN)

Two papers examine the relationship between ethnicity and nationalism in the Soviet Union and in Yugoslavia. The first paper assesses the ethnicity in Soviet Central Asia. Because in recent years an increasing number of scholars has been placed in Soviet Central Asia, observation is now combined with commonly held hypotheses to determine regional…

Deconstructs certain naturalizing features of the concept "Asian American" in contemporary discourse, and argues the term is now obsolete and detrimental for political purposes. The author suggests an active practice of coming to terms with ever-changing social conditions, an exercise that may change what Asian American means, while…

The Garifuna's (Black Carib) dependence upon wage labor has most recently involved women as well as men. This article describes the process of their international migration and explores its implications for the maintenance of traditional sociocultural forms, both in Central America and in New York City. (Author/MC)

In this essay, Chaya Herman explores the interaction between two powerful global dynamics that have affected educational institutions and society at large: one is neoliberalism, with its attendant notions of marketization and managerialism; the other is the resurgence of ethnic and religious, often fundamentalist, communities in the search for…

Epstein describes the unique ideology of the military regime in Peru from 1968 to 1980. Particular attention is paid to the use of education to win the allegiance of the highland Indians. He concludes by analyzing the problems leading to the regime's ultimate failure to win the people's support. (Author/SK)

Compared and described in this paper are past and present social and political factors which affect the composition, status, and cohesion of urban communities. (EB)