Cultural diversity is often attributed to groups in a society from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Assimilation then blends subcultures into a mainstream culture. However, history and circumstance give rise to new groups whose experiences and activities produce new diversity. Big events and big changes give rise to important differences between…

In this article the author examines changes in students' self-awareness of multicultural topics during a multicultural education course. The course is a three-credit elective course offered in the university's school of education but taken by students across disciplines at a large, public research university in a mid-Atlantic state. Course…

In the wake of institutionalized homophobia afflicting public schools, the nation faces a unique opportunity to acknowledge and transform the assumption that all people are or should be heterosexual and gender-conforming. In this article, the author examines how people, as a nation, can reform schools to be more inclusive of diverse student…

Two different perspectives on the immigrant struggles are found in a documentary about the radio and television program "The Goldbergs" and a science fiction thriller about the treatment of an immigrant alien community. "Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg" is optimistic and celebrates the achievements of an established ethnic community in America and the woman…

This article talks about a collaborative "Great White North" project which began through a chance meeting of the authors at the annual meeting of the "National Association for Multicultural Education" (NAME) in Atlanta in November of 2005. The authors are two White males from Canada of about the same age (late 40s) who have…

For a faculty member of East Asian ancestry, raised in Latin America, race became a salient part of the author's identity during adulthood while living and working in the southern United States. While the race-related experiences the author continues to have on and off campus are deeply personal, race became an academic undertaking, and centering…

This article reveals Native youth perspectives on socio-culturally responsive education. The authors draw on two studies conducted in the Southwest among Navajo and Pueblo students. Youth convey the importance of meaningful, reciprocal, and transformative learning experiences and relationships at school. The article ends with suggestions for…

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Multicultural Dispositions Index (MDI), which measures diversity awareness levels of educators. Evidence of the instrument's face validity was gained through a three-year pilot study of 477 teacher and counselor candidates at a Midwestern metropolitan university, followed up by a five-year…

Through television, many different images of ethnic, cultural, and ability groups are presented. Different people perceive these images in different ways. These perceptions affect how people value themselves and judge and interact with others. This article first summaries research on TV images and people's meaning and reaction to them. Second, it…

Two of the subcultures involved in an intranational struggle are those who take politics and the civic arrangements seriously on the one hand and those who scorn and revile the political process on the other. Although people do not usually think of politics as a minority subculture, it is clear that it belongs to a category of organized activities…

This paper reports the findings of a simple normative content analysis of 11 multicultural education textbooks to determine the extent to which disability and deaf culture are represented. In addition, this study examines multicultural education textbooks to assess the extent to which perspectives of members of the disability and deaf communities…

How do students who do not identify as gay interrupt the institutionalized silence pervading the issue of heterosexism in public schools? Drawing on data from practitioner research conducted with high school students, I illustrate one such journey where students with situated privilege chose to challenge heterosexism. Analysis of field notes,…

The author came to the United States when she was seven years old from Amman, Jordan. She entered public school and within two years had mastered the language and excelled in school, as did all her siblings. When she was in the third grade her teacher told her she was spelling and pronouncing her name wrong. Her name is "Laila" and that is how it…

English Language Arts class in a predominantly white suburban high school may seem like an unlikely site for transformational pedagogy. Teachers and students speak the same national language and most of the teachers grew up and were educated in working class communities. Despite these roots, it is far too easy for teachers to forget that our…

This article explores the responsibility of teacher education programs for creating effective dialogue among the educators they train and certify in the profession of education. This article details: (1) the manners in which dialogue occurs across race and the significant need to open this dialogue; (2) the need to close the gap between the…