For over a decade, a number of social work scholars have advocated for an Africentric paradigm shift in social work practice with African Americans; yet the paradigm shift has been slow in coming with respect to infusing Africentric theory and interventions into social work practice, education, and research. Interventions that infuse Africentric…

A model of curriculum development that enables students of architecture in the developing nation of Taiwan to draw on their own life experiences in formulating their own architectural education is proposed. Such an ideology recognizes that while education certainly includes the acquisition of the technical skills needed to ply one's trade, its…

This article introduces a waka tino whakarawea model for evaluating programmes and services for Maori learners. It is based on a set of underlying principles identified in the author's PhD study (Bevan-Brown, 2002). Explanations are provided for eight principles: kaupapa Maori; importance, relevance and beneficence; participation; empowerment,…

Cultivating cultural responsiveness is an ongoing process of development as an individual and as a professional. Recognizing the need for such a perspective is the first step. Committing to personal growth and confronting difficult issues is the second. The purpose of this article is to introduce practitioners to the notion of cultural…

Empirically supported treatments (EST) hold much promise in relieving psychological distress and dysfunction. However, various obstacles to effective training and clinical practice have truncated dissemination efforts. One such obstacle is the perceived applicability of EST procedures to raw world clinical practice. This article proposes a rubric…

The lack of culturally appropriate health and mental health care has contributed to the large number of African American youth and families involved in the child welfare system. This article reviews the consequences of the insufficient access to culturally sensitive, evidence-supported interventions for African American foster youth. The authors…

Schools are receiving students of immigrant origin in unprecedented numbers. Using an ecological framework, the authors reviewed the community, school, familial, and individual challenges that immigrant adolescent students encounter. They examined cognitive, relational, and behavioral dimensions of student engagement as well as culturally…

Despite evidence that First Nations people experience a disproportionate degree of mental health concerns relative to other Canadians, many within this population do not access Western-based mental health services. In this article we extend a socio-political and historical rationale for attending to key cultural differences when working with First…

To ensure that the implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) strategies effectively addresses the needs of all students, the National Center on Response to Intervention (NCRTI) recommends that schools and districts establish "leadership teams" that focus on issues affecting culturally and linguistically diverse students. New leadership…

A culturally grounded group intervention for a typically underserved population of urban American Indian women is described. The intervention is designed to increase interpersonal connection, improve inter-tribal acceptance and trust, and enhance psychological well being of marginalized urban American Indian women. Topics used to structure the…

On a small island belonging to the Alutiiq people of Old Harbor, 11 people sat around a campfire. Two community leaders, a nonprofit organizer, an academic scholar, a native filmmaker, and six young people from the Indian reservation of Taos Pueblo in New Mexico gathered after a day of interacting with Old Harbor residents--fishing, hunting and…

Education qualification requirements for early childhood teachers are increasing in many types of federal, state, and community-based early childhood programs. The 2007 reauthorization of Head Start requires all teachers to have associate degrees and 50 percent to have earned a baccalaureate degree in early childhood education by the year 2013. At…

Over the last 30 years, the hip-hop movement has risen from the margins to become the preeminent force in US popular culture. In more recent times academics have begun to harness the power of hip-hop culture and use it as a means of infusing transformative knowledge into the mainstream academic discourse. On many college campuses, hip-hop's…

The paper describes a graduate course deploying innovative instructional materials (e.g., the use of novels to provide context for theoretical constructs) and learning activities (e.g., community asset mapping) to engage issues of leadership in rural settings. Prior to describing the course itself, the paper develops a rationale for the importance…

Interrupted formal education is a barrier that makes learning English as an adult an extremely challenging commitment. Besides the many work and family responsibilities that most adult English as a second language (ESL) learners face, students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) often lack familiarity with school-based skills and typical…