Describes the author's work in his fifth-grade class as he helps his students understand the importance that culture plays in their representations of meaning. Shows how opportunities to transcend language by using other sign systems allow multiculturalism to flourish. Describes a schoolwide celebration of cultures through various arts and sign…

Pupils need to experience a quality literature program which stresses diverse cultures. A major goal of a quality multi-cultural literature program is to develop within pupils feelings of empathy, acceptance, understanding, and the wish to interact with persons whose value systems, beliefs, and thought might well differ from others in society. In…

Tells the story of three African American children's responses to literature by and about African Americans, showing the importance of connecting literature to the lives and interests of children. (SR)

This document describes a program that was developed and implemented to expand the cultural awareness of fourth grade students. The report describes a multicultural education curriculum that focused on African American and Hispanic history, literature, inventions, ethnographies, and biographies. Research based cooperative learning strategies were…

Indian, Japanese, and Hispanic songs were taught to sixth grade students. Results indicated significant preference differences between the taught and untaught selection of the treatment genres. Although instruction increased preference for unfamiliar non-Western songs, there was no transfer of preference to untaught pieces of the same genre.…

This thesis project describes an experiment with elementary students to see if cultural education changes students' attitudes about the culture studied. Two classes of fourth grade students were selected from a city and a county school in the central Virginia area. One class from the city school system was fairly homogeneous with 15 of the 18…

A study was done to explore student perceptions of school environments in multiethnic, New York State middle schools and the impact of those perceptions on teacher efforts to develop social interaction within the schools. Using a survey questionnaire, 804 students from 5 middle schools selected for their multiethnic characteristics participated.…

This book describes the results of a study of the political development of 35 Protestant and Catholic children between 11 and 16 years old, attending integrated and non-integrated secondary schools in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The research maps Belfast schoolchildren's images of political violence, political authority figures, and their views…

Presents the results of a case study of 9- to 11-year-olds' understanding of nationalism and collective identity in Scotland. Compares the responses of mostly-white Edinburgh students with those drawn from a multiethnic cohort from English schools. Examines the policy implications of these results. (MJP)

Describes Virginia Commonwealth University's development of a multicultural education program for preservice teachers. Field testing of the unit with preservice teachers indicated that the predominantly white student body had little contact with blacks. The program did not change their deep-seated basic feelings about personal relationships with…

Designed to introduce global perspectives in a sixth-grade class for learning disabled students, this program was designed to help students develop an understanding of Haitian culture and a sense of empathy for persons of Haitian background. The program contained seven strategies: film watching, game playing, food sampling, class discussions,…

This report on the experimental Northeast Global Studies Middle Magnet School in Kansas City, Missouri, discusses the planning and implementation of a global studies curriculum to be implemented by the school. The 1990-1991 school year was the school's first as a magnet school under a consent decree issued by a federal judge. The decree was…

This final report documents achievements of a project to assess social impact and achievement gains resulting from the use of interactive videodisc technology to teach fractions in mainstreamed classrooms across multicultural settings. Subjects (N=294) were regular upper elementary students and students with mild handicaps (MH) in Utah, Wyoming,…

A study was done to investigate the coupling of perceptions of organizational climate together with the values of students in a multiethnic middle school. The study used data on cultural variables and information on perceptions of organizational climate and values priorities of 617 students from different ethnic groups (Black, White, Hispanic,…

This paper examines the relationship between culture and curriculum, combining academic discourse relating to the construction of identity, policy, and curriculum and conversations with 42 members of a New Zealand intermediate school community about the nature of culture. Interviewers' comments and stories illuminate their views of Maori and White…