Gross stereotypes, subtle distortions, and omissions in references to ethnic groups in children's literature play a direct part in forming children's attitudes at an early age. One of the requirements for elementary education teacher certification at Penn State University is a course in children's literature with an emphasis on guiding students…

The school, often inadvertently and unconsciously, subordinates ethnic and racial minorities. School mechanisms have developed which tend to support ethnic isolation, perpetuate stereotyping and other myths, and in manifold ways differentially treat minorities. School segregation, ability grouping, student fees, and curricular or extracurricular…

Sociocultural implications of ethnicity are explored in this paper. Three main questions are discussed: (1) What is ethnic?, (2) Who wants to be ethnic?, and (3) Why be ethnic? The author notes that in 1960 the ethnic diversity of the U.S. population was such that some 185 foreign language newspapers, 1,660 radio programs broadcast in the foreign…

A survey was made of all children's books about Chinese, Chinese Americans, or China for pre-kindergarten through third-grade reading level to determine how the books represent the Chinese or Chinese American to the young child. Books included in the study were identified by one or more of the following factors: (1) book title and bibliographic…

Concludes that the American Indian is misrepresented, distorted, romanticized and victimized in children's literature. (JH)

Compares occupational values of 232 rural Eskimo secondary students with those of 117 urban white adolescents from Fairbanks. Shows Eskimo adolescents resemble white counterparts in their work values but significant cultural differences appear in extent to which each group seeks intrinsic satisfactions from wage work. (NEC)

Challenges the view of Chinese and Japanese Americans as middlemen with its assumptions that Asian Americans are sojourners and unassimilable. Questions the equation of a middle class minority with a middleman minority, examining the roots of this myth in the relationship of Asian Americans to the White-Black racial dyad. (RDN)

Art can make a contribution toward erasing ethnic stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings. Two multicultural art programs operating in British Columbia elementary schools are described. (RM)

Eleven Asian American book reviewers were asked by the Council on Interracial Books for Children to find, read, and analyze all childrens books on Asian American themes currently in print or in use in schools and libraries. The major conclusion was that, with one or perhaps two exceptions, the 66 books reviewed are racist, sexist, and elitist.…

This paper hypothesized that higher levels of acculturation lead Asian American individuals to have more self-efficacy and interests in non-stereotypical occupations. One hundred eighty-seven Asian American students from various college campuses completed the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identify Acculturation Scale, the Confidence Inventory, and the…

Identification with academics, or the extent to which academic is central to self-concept, has been linked to academic outcomes conceptually and empirically, at least in samples of white college students. However, Claude Steele's Stereotype Threat Hypothesis (1997) proposes something of a racial paradox, by which the most identified students of…

A teacher's bibliography and list of film sources are appended; illustrated. (RD)

In a review of 71 geography, history, and social studies books, a panel of individuals knowledgeable about Central America found omissions and stereotypic views that prevent students from understanding current events in that region. (Author/GC)

Education has been used as the primary weapon in the White man's arsenal toward changing Indian tribal cultures. Indians are often treated in the classroom as an almost mythical group of people. Textbooks which contain incorrect or stereotypical information often cause Indian children to develop negative self-perceptions. (JN)

The current belief is that Japanese Americans are passive, industrious, respectful, patient, and intelligent. They have been transformed from the "yellow peril" into the "model minority". Education featuring respect for and awareness of various ethnicities will eliminate much prejudice. (JN)