An ethnographic study of two urban junior high schools in the beginning stages of school restructuring describes three culturally relevant teachers who create empowering educational experiences for low-achieving African American students. The restructuring process was not taking the wisdom of practice of these teachers sufficiently into account.…

Describes features of a Training Innovations computer-based training system in which guided paths can be dynamically adapted to learning style or capacity, skill or knowledge level, and cultural background. It also allows program authors to work with scripted graphics and desktop publishing tagging without extensive expertise, and even exhibits…

American Indian "cultural models" of substance dependency and recovery were developed based on discourse analysis during ethnographic studies at an Indian rehabilitation clinic and with New Mexico Pueblo youth. Incorporating such social constructions of everyday life into the design and implementation of prevention and intervention…

On 21 September 1999, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan destroyed more than 100,000 houses, causing 2,294 deaths and 8,737 injuries. In the aftermath of the earthquake, a great number of social workers and cultural workers were thrust into Nantou County and Taichung County of central Taiwan, the epicentre of the earthquake, to assist the…

Providing appropriate health care to a client can be accomplished only in an environment that is sensitive to the cultural values and beliefs of the client. As the population of first-and second-generation Chinese immigrants increases in the United States, the need to develop culturally sensitive health care becomes significant. Chinese immigrants…

This article describes cross-cultural research on the relation between how people conceptualize nature and how they act in it. Mental models of nature differ dramatically among populations living in the same area and engaged in similar activities. This has novel implications for environmental decision making and management, including commons…

The development of appropriately normed Spanish-language assessments is a necessity as a result of (1) a growing Latino population in need of behavioral health services and (2) a limited number of linguistically and culturally sensitive instruments that are currently available. As part of a broader assessment on the needs and satisfaction with…

For the past six years, the American College Health Association (ACHA) has had two cooperative agreements from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Adolescent and School Health. Both cooperative agreements focus on the prevention of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) among college students, particularly for…

The Kaffa ceremony is a unique, culturally appropriate, group counseling intervention for female East African refugees. A counseling group is described in which the Kaffa ceremony was instrumental in helping to bridge the gap between Western counseling and East African culture, providing a context for the group members to resolve long-held trauma.…

This book presents a review and synthesis of the early care and education system in the United States -- a system that now faces increasing enrollment, an underpaid workforce, and limited budgets. A substantial number of trained early care and education professionals are projected to leave the field over the next 10 years due to noncompetitive…

This concise volume offers educational leaders key concepts and strategies for framing discussions about closing the equity gap and ensuring high achievement for all learners. As the first volume in "The Soul of Educational Leadership" series, this unique collection presents: (1) Pedro Noguera and Alan Blankstein on essential questions and themes;…

This paper, originally given as an address to an African audience of students and academics, examines the functions of education in Africa and argues that the western-oriented approach at tertiary level is injurious to the intellectual development of students. It sets out an analysis of the processes at work in the University of Ghana which…

Presenting a case study of the African nation of Burundi to illustrate the great variation in the environment in which children are raised in developing and developed nations, this paper focuses on the importance of considering the context of a particular culture and society when educators talk about the quality of early childhood services.…

Over 500 Navajo high school students completed the Inventory of School Motivation, based on the personal investment model of motivation. Results suggest that the model's most salient elements for this group were sense-of-self components and one task component, striving for excellence. Combinations of variables were useful in predicting student…

Managed by the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakotah Nation, O'Inazin provides culturally relevant inpatient counseling for troubled adolescents with antisocial and self-defeating behaviors. Of 290 adolescent inpatients in 1991-92, those who completed the program were more likely to remain in school and improve their grades than were noncompleters. Both…