Discusses the dramatic demographic changes which have profoundly altered the reading programs in many New Zealand schools. Notes that more than a thousand schools and preschools teach bilingually or run immersion programs in a language other than English (such as Maori or Samoan). Suggests that reading is best taught in the language spoken at home…

By classifying questions asked into categories of form, content, and affect, this analysis interprets Alan Purves' 1979 reanalysis of student responses to literature in a 1973 study. Notes that students emphasized form when viewing literature in the abstract, but that they looked at individual stories in terms of content and affect. (MKM)

Reports on research from New Zealand showing that both teachers and students benefited from a concurrent interview technique in which teachers try to discover what their students understand, or fail to understand, from the material they read. (HOD)

Nigerian anthropologist John Ogbu examines the academic failure of minority groups within the context of American society and draws comparisons to minority group education in five other cultures. (MKM)