This study assesses the degree to which culturally specific interventions enhance substance abuse prevention effectiveness for targeted cultural groups. A large and diverse (African American, Hispanic, American Indian, and Asian) sample of 10,500 youth across 48 programs was obtained. Youth participating in culturally specific programming showed…

The extent to which African American faculty provide support and mentoring to African American students determines the ease of students' transition to predominantly white colleges. This paper examines the role of both white and African American faculty in responding to the needs of African American students. Two ways that white institutions…

Constructs an Afrocentric paradigm. Provides mental health counselors with a different cultural perspective that will enable them to structure and introduce intervention strategies in a manner that will allow African Americans to redefine themselves in ways that are culturally congruent. Provides a basis for healthier self-images and meaningful…

This paper reports on the development of a school-based Afrocentric intervention for middle school male adolescents who are at risk for academic failure or underachievement. The intervention combined the principles of the rites of passage movement within African American communities and current thinking on the process of second culture acquisition…

Calls for education that acknowledges the multiple perspectives of our multicultural society to build a community that is attentive to differences and open to the idea of cultural plurality. African Americans and other minority groups must be allowed to tell their own stories. (SLD)

Discusses the growing disagreement between Afrocentrists and supporters of Western tradition. Addresses separatism, ethnocentrism, and the push for a pluralistic national curriculum with national testing. Suggests that the more important question may be how and whether schools can function in the profound religiosity of both sides. (DK)

Traces the historical origins of the controversy surrounding Afrocentric education versus education based on the traditional canon of the Western world to W. H. Ferris' work and his 1913 study "The African abroad or His Evolution in Western Civilization, Tracing His Development under Caucasian Milieu," which has relevance today. (SLD)

Examined the interaction of social class and racial identity in urban school reform. Presents a case study of reform at one urban California high school which used an Afrocentric curriculum to help improve academic performance, arguing that the effort was ineffective because it failed to consider ways in which poverty influenced the identities of…

This article examines the development of Temple University's Institute for Africana Social Work, which is designed to foster an explicit African-centered perspective and practice for social work intervention in African American communities. Various programs and policies initiated by the institute are reviewed. (MDM)

An overview is provided of issues confronting the African American male, along with a strategy to nurture a new generation of African American males. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the social status and new demographics of the African American male and the external threats that are devastating to the African American male and the African American…

This collection of 29 unusual and interesting articles in 19 chapters addresses the issues of urban education from several provocative angles. The book outlines how cultural traditions of minority groups can be the fulcrum for positive educational change, and the special challenges of growing up as a male from a minority background. Some articles…

To address the needs of African American students at Beaver College in Glenside (Pennsylvania), a one-credit freshman orientation course on Afrocentricity was developed. The course was intended to increase the comfort level between the institution and its culturally diverse students and add additional support for increased retention of African…

Discusses background issues and defines relevant terminology related to Africentrism. Curriculum issues surrounding innovative approaches to infusing African and African-American content into the public school system are discussed. The diverse multicultural society in the United States must represent the histories and contributions of minority…

This book is about the growing need for a more inclusive curriculum and university. The debate about multicultural education is moved from an ideological debate to the realm of the practical in these selections. The first part of the book outlines the demographic and historic realities that make multiculturalism imperative. The second part gives…

One new approach to the needs of at-risk African American male students that is being implemented in several urban school districts throughout the nation is the immersion school approach. This is the establishment of schools that provide a curriculum and related experiences for African American male students that are distinct from the curriculum…