The "Brown v. Board of Education" decision provided unrestricted access to educational opportunities for all students. Unfortunately, despite the passing of the 50th anniversary of this landmark decision, academic excellence remains a dream deferred for many Black students when compared to their peers. This disparity, more popularly known as the…

This paper asks what role "play" plays in writing and how it can help a writer, whatever dread, boredom, skill, or ethnicity he/she brings to writing. Some of the ideas in the paper come from Africa, courtesy of Robert Farris Thompson. In his "philosophy of discourse" discussed in the paper, Thompson speaks of the "big…

A total of 240 students read transcripts of a case against a student who stole his examination, in violation of a specific Nigerian government decree directed at students, and then rated the person on several items. Results showed that girls violated the decree from anxiety over failure; boys, from anxiety over failure and motivation to achieve.…

Supplementing traditional cultural material with presentation of African elements of the folklore and culture of Latin America is proposed as a means of increasing black student interest in intermediate Spanish language courses. Topics and suggested lesson titles reflecting diverse nonliterary aspects of the black experience in Latin America that…

Presents data on Yoruba undergraduates' attitudes towards their traditional culture and the Western culture institutionalized at a Nigerian university. In general, the students are ambivalent towards both cultures--they adopt customs and values of both cultures, but not in any particular pattern. The students are caught up in the upheaval of a…

Information to help educators develop a program of study about Africa south of the Sahara is presented in this guide for use with secondary school students. Appropriate objectives for a study of this region and its people are stated: the acquisition of sufficient information to make contemporary Africa intelligible, the formulation of concepts…

Describes an initiative to incorporate folktales and legends from francophone West Africa into a college-level advanced French literary and cultural studies course. Students recorded their reactions to various texts taken from France and West Africa in reading journals. Analysis of the journals shows that critical competencies in Western culture…

The purpose of this study was to assess the socialization skills, self-esteem, and academic readiness of African American males in a school environment. Discussions with students and the School Perceptions Questionnaire provided data for this investigation. The intended targets for this investigation were African American students; however, there…

Males were found more likely than females to identify themselves as coming from an African family background, and those who identified themselves as American achieved higher grades, in a group of Negro Americans enrolled in a remedial junior college program who were investigated. (RJ)

This study correlated socioeconomic status as measured by parents' education and material prosperity, with academic achievement and self-confidence scores in 2293 Ugandan students. Self confidence did not correlate to socioeconomic status, as it has been found to do in industrialized societies. Possible reasons for this difference are considered.…

Draws on narratives of African-Canadian high school students about the relevancy of the social studies curriculum. Reports that students indicated that the curriculum distorts and excludes their histories, contributions, and lived experiences. Indicates the nuanced insights into curriculum, power, and knowledge to be gained from critical analysis…

Designed by Project Africa of Carnegie-Mellon University, these two test instruments have been used to discover what selected American secondary school students know or believe about Africa and other regions of the world. The first instrument, a 30-minute objective test, "Africa South of the Sahara," is comprised of 60 multiple-choice…

This is a qualitative, descriptive study of 202 urban, African-American seventh graders that examines their views of peer intervention in dating violence. After viewing a video vignette showing friends confronting another male about abusing his girlfriend, the adolescents were asked to respond in writing to questions about whose business the…

Contained in this volume are the appendixes to the study of a 1961 Form-4 class and several groups of teachers in Kenya. Included are: (1) tables on characteristics of Form-4 male students by ethnic group, (2) tables on characteristics of Form-4 female students by ethnic group, (3) supplementary cross-tabulations of characteristics of African male…

Discusses a study of the role of social studies instruction in promoting sociopolitical mobilization among Nigerian youth. Examines the effects of gender, varied experience, and academic qualifications. Concludes than education is as effective as propaganda in influencing attitudes. (DK)