This essay explores classroom dynamics when students identify and connect their own painful experiences to structural racism or ethnocentrism exhibited in the Holocaust or parts of Jewish history. The intrusion of this proximal knowledge can be an obstacle to student learning. If engaged by professors, however, I argue that proximal knowledge can…

Concerns about new teachers' capacity to address diversity in their classrooms are growing in many parts of the West, and there is some consensus that one aspect of the problem is the narrow range of cultural and social backgrounds from which teacher candidates are drawn. Yet a minority of socially aware teachers, from all backgrounds, continue to…

This article draws on a two-year study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of South Asian parents and their children's views on the school experience (Parents, Children and the School Experience: Asian Families' Perspectives--Grant Reference: R000239671). The article focuses on an aspect of the young people's school…

Focuses on the role of splitting and projective identification as active dynamics in the development and maintenance of cultural and racial prejudice. Illustrates ways in which attention to splitting and projective identification in the group setting can decrease prejudice and promote community building. (Author)

Suggests use of Gordon Allport's "The Nature of Prejudice" as basis for diagnosing the degree of prejudice expressed on a high school campus. Describes five degrees of negative actions that individuals may manifest in the expression of prejudice. Recommends assessment and encouragement of curriculum development that attempts to deal…

Identifies the unwritten Spanish language policy in the United States by historically analyzing the different roles that Spanish has had throughout U.S. history. The paper shows how Spanish has been used for the benefit of the Spanish- and English-speaking elite but restricted (or forbidden) as a socioeconomic tool and symbol of identity for less…

The purpose of this study was to identify the reasons and processes by which skin tone affects assumptions regarding competence among African Americans. As such, the study addressed two important hypotheses: (1) that African Americans demonstrate light skin tone bias as measured by perceptions of competence, and (2) that African Americans'…