A name is one of the first things one learns about people. Many times the first word a young child learns is his or her name. Furthermore, names often serve as an indicator of a person's cultural identity. Unfortunately, for many English Language Learners (ELLs) and other students who immigrate to America, a name can be an embarrassment rather…

One way to approach the improvement of instruction is for educators to learn from student interactions in cultural events that fully engage students' motivation and curiosity. In such a context, educators get to know students in new ways and to connect student strengths to classroom instruction. This can be especially powerful when the learning…

National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) is a nationally celebrated event that promotes sport and physical activity opportunities for girls and women. Over 1,500 events and activities are held annually in all 50 states to celebrate and promote female participation in sport. This article introduces the sport/activity-clinic model of the NGWSD…

This study presents an example of a music workshop which brought together pupils and students of different music schools, students of musicology, composition and classroom teaching, teachers, professors and composer on the common topics in contemporary music. The purpose of the workshop was to encourage an active and creative participation of…

This dissertation is a sociolinguistic study of the ideologies about language, culture and ethnicity among Japanese immigrants and descendants in Brazil (hereafter, Nikkeis) who gather at a local Japanese cultural association, searching for what it means to be "Japanese" in Brazil. This study focuses on how linguistic behaviors are…

"Culture Currents" presents the books, essays, poetry, performances, music, websites, and other cultural media influencing educational leaders. "Culture Currents" is a snapshot, a peek behind the scenes. It reveals what people are reading or seeing that may not be normally mentioned or cited in their academic work. Two leaders…

A vastly influential form of film-making seen by millions of people, educational films provide a catalog of twentieth century preoccupations and values. As a medium of instruction and guidance, they held a powerful cultural position, producing knowledge both inside and outside the classroom. This is the first collection of essays to address this…

This paper describes an ethnographically-oriented participant-observation study conducted during the annual Crow Fair, held in south central Montana. Data collected included audio-recorded interviews with participants, participant observations, photographic and video recordings. Narrative interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the constant…

This paper examines how the historical punishment of the dancing body in (post)colonial contexts has been a measure for controlling the mind and undertaking effective cultural imperialism. I bring to focus the striking global dance movement to revitalise oppressed dance forms, in an effort to do what Tuhiwai Smith calls "the recovery of…

The use of tests is a well-established tradition in the study of children's learning. Most of these tests claim to establish a child's general understanding, independent of situations and well-known contexts. I have studied narratives told by a four-year-old boy who failed to pass a false belief test (a test designed to examine whether a child is…

Children's participation in cultural activities within the community, and the particular cognitive and socioemotional skills that they gain as a result of their participation, have been thoroughly studied (Cole, 1990; Gallimore & Tharp, 1990; Moll et al., 2005; Scribner & Cole, 1981). However, the connection of these skills to school learning or…

Through an analysis of activities called for in social studies texts at three grade levels, the author critically examines the links between children's improvisational performance and social studies curricula. He asks: What is unique about the process of embodying a historical or contemporary character as part of the learning process (such as a…

This article describes the environmental education (EE) program developed in the neighboring community of Serra da Canastra National Park based on a research project focused on the maned wolf conservation. The article assesses three tools used to foster the community's participation in discussing local issues: (1) communal production of a book…

In this article we study the bias caused by the conventional retrospective measurement of parental high cultural activities in the effects of parental high cultural activities and educational attainment on son's or daughter's high cultural activities. Multi-informant data show that there is both random measurement error and correlated error in the…

An impetus of the Religious Education Association (REA) toward becoming an actively intercultural and interreligious agency emerged in the third decade of its existence. This article explores this period through an examination of the involvement of the REA members, Father John Elliot Ross and others (1884-1946) in a series of seminars conducted by…