The number of African Americans and Latino/as receiving undergraduate and advanced degrees in computer science is disproportionately low. And relatively few African American and Latino/a high school students receive the kind of institutional encouragement, educational opportunities, and preparation needed for them to choose computer science as a…

In this interview, African Language expert Pam Maseko speaks of her own background and her first encounter with culture outside of her mother tongue, isiXhosa. A statistical breakdown of South African languages is provided as background. She discusses Western (originally missionary) codification of African languages and suggests that this approach…

Almost two decades after the demise of apartheid, rural communities in South Africa are still plagued by seemingly insurmountable challenges, with no change in sight for those who need it most. In spite of the many interventions that have been implemented, real transformation remains elusive. This position paper is premised on the notion that this…

This article outlines a moral education guided by African traditional values such as "ubuntu" and "ukama." It argues that "ubuntu" is not by definition speciesist, as some have claimed, but that it has strong ecocentric leanings, that is, if "ubuntu" is understood as a concrete expression of…

Everyone loves fairy tales--the easily identifiable villain, the flawless hero and, of course, the happily ever after. So it is not surprising that teachers of the civil rights movement often skip the more confusing or distasteful aspects of that era, such as the dissension among black leaders and the racism that was widespread then, even among…

Thirteen years have passed since the Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, implemented the National Policy on Religion and Education in 2003 (South African Government 2003). The policy provided a new framework to promote diversity by educating young people about the religions of others as well as respect towards freedom of religious expression, a…

Evaluation of staff has always been a contentious issue in education and even more in South Africa where education and specifically schools were politicised during the years of struggle for a truly democratic dispensation. During this period teachers refused to participate in any form of evaluation or inspection as it was referred to then.…

The history of Mexican American school segregation is complex, often misunderstood, and currently unresolved. The literature suggests that Mexican Americans experienced de facto segregation because it was local custom and never sanctioned at the state level in the American Southwest. However, the same literature suggests that Mexican Americans…

In November 1959, John Howard Griffin, a white novelist from Texas, struck up a conversation with a black shoeshine man near the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. The two men were acutely aware of the chasm that separated races in the Jim Crow South, but their relationship would soon change. Griffin, who wanted to obtain a deeper…

Gifted education has faced numerous criticisms regarding the extensive and persistent underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic students. In the April 2013 issue of "Gifted Child Today," this author wrote about prejudice and discrimination in gifted education, and argued that in the past and now, discrimination exists in gifted education…

This book explores a profoundly negative narrative about legally segregated schools in the United States being "inherently inferior" compared to their white counterparts. However, there are overwhelmingly positive counter-memories of these schools as "good and valued" among former students, teachers, and community members.…

The theme of this column is African American Women's Memories of Racial Oppression and Segregation in the U.S. South and Its Relevance to Multicultural Education. The focus of the review is on Anne Valk and Leslie Brown's "Living with Jim Crow: African American Women and Memories of the Segregated South" (2010). In "Living with Jim…

Criterion-referenced assessments have become more common around the world, with performance standards being set to differentiate different levels of student performance. However, use of standard setting methods developed in the United States may be complicated by factors related to the political and educational contexts within another country. In…

Before Heman Sweatt, an African-American from Houston, won his lawsuit to attend the University of Texas (UT) School of Law, Carlos Cadena, a Mexican-American from San Antonio, was among its brightest students. Cadena graduated summa cum laude from the law school in 1940, a decade before Sweatt's lawsuit forced UT to open its graduate and…

Enrolments in doctoral degrees in South Africa mirror international trends and there is a strong national policy emphasis on these higher qualifications to fulfil needs, not only of the academy, but also of the economy and broader society. There are significant constraints, however, including the historical legacy of apartheid that has left the…