This newsletter, published five times a year, features articles on issues of concern to adult, family, and youth literacy practitioners, as well as recommended resources, announcements, and teaching strategies. This issue includes: (1) LAC [Literacy Assistance Center] Hits the International Stage (Elyse Barbell); (2) RAENing [Regional Adult…

The Roma, also known as gypsies or "tsinganoi," are amongst the oldest ethnic minorities in Europe. Nonetheless, they have been one of the most universally marginalized groups across all of the European nations. Their marginalization is evident in how Roma children have been treated in schools. Until recently, most nations have only…

Traditional art education, like other academic disciplines, emphasizes competitiveness and individualism. Through a mural painting curriculum, learners participate in mural art and history appreciation, are active in mural theme or content construction, and engage in hands-on mural design and painting processes. When mural paintings are produced…

This study reports the impact of a professional development course on experienced, highly qualified secondary school teachers of English as a foreign language in preparation for their becoming paid assessors of student teachers on practicum. The course concerned a literacy-oriented pedagogy informed by literacy pedagogical content knowledge…

This article explores the design and implementation of critical action research undertaken to encourage equal classroom participation. Building on a body of literature on critical action research and oral participation, the author reports her research project undertaken in a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic class in Japan to examine practices of how…

African American males are failing to graduate high school and attend college at an alarming rate. There are a number of explanations for this disturbing pattern of inequity including excessive placement into Special Education programs, underrepresentation in gifted and advanced placement programs, subjective use of discipline policies, and…

In this article, we draw from cultural historical theory to examine the assimilationist forces embodied by English as a Second Language (ESOL) identification and programming practices in and outside of Georgia. We argue that the categorization of Spanish-speaking schoolchildren as Limited English Proficient is an extension of historical…

This article relies on Critical Race Theory (CRT) to examine the development of a critical consciousness necessary to understand the contradictions between the post-civil rights notion of abstract equality and the reality of structurally entrenched inequality. The authors' ground their analysis in narratives on the development of their own…

Bandura (1997) contends that when compared to other sources of efficacy, mastery experiences, when presented appropriately, have the most powerful influence on self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of community-based service learning (CBSL) experiences on preservice elementary teachers' personal self-efficacy…

Because of instructional requirements imposed by No Child Left Behind legislation, many of today's teachers are asked to focus more on the students who perform below proficiency than on those who excel. By requiring all students to be mathematically proficient by 2014, the law is, in effect, negatively impacting the education of those students who…

Achieving equity in elementary school mathematics instruction involves meeting a diverse range of student learning needs that are inevitably present in mixed-ability classrooms. An instructional strategy that the author has found useful in working toward equity in mathematics class is to introduce opportunities for students to learn to make good…

This article demonstrates an approach for teachers to use outcomes from activities using the universal design for learning expression principle to evaluate student knowledge in content areas. Based on the student's level of explanation using a variety of expression methods, teachers can determine whether students need additional support for…

This qualitative study provides illustrations embedded in case studies of four focal preservice English teachers and illuminates how they negotiated dilemmas related to linguistically informed principles (LIP) and folk beliefs about language (FBL). The study addresses gaps in what researchers know about how to support new teachers as they…

The achievement gap that exists between white and minority students is, and has been, a persistent problem in education. Through research, many factors have been uncovered as contributors to this issue, although none has been shown to be the sole cause. A small number of schools have been able to narrow the achievement gap through the…

The paper by White in this issue of Interchange contains an interesting model for a global educational perspective based on the writings of Aurobindo and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. White proposes a foundation for this new perspective based on the synthesis of Aurobindo's and de Chardin's theories of global, social, and conscious evolution. In our…