(1991). Integrating Intercultural Education: The Anchorage Alaska Experience. The desire for students to understand and respect each other is a primary motivation for the effort to integrate multicultural education into all aspects of the Anchorage School District (Alaska) curriculum. The Anchorage curriculum emphasizes the cultural heritage of Alaska Natives, other resident ethnic groups and Pacific Rim cultures. In recent years, this emphasis broadened to include a more international focus. At the elementary grades, the intercultural curriculum is for the most part integrated into the social studies and language arts programs. In the secondary grades, the program emphasizes particular courses and programs. The Bilingual and Multicultural Education Programs also involve students through a variety of programs and activities. The University of Alaska and Alaska Pacific University offer district-sponsored credit courses in bilingual education, intercultural education, and Native education for interested teachers. Result of a needs assessment of minority…
(1985). Profile for a Racially Integrated School District. This paper, which consists of two parts, suggests criteria for the consideration of Washington State school superintendents engaged in creating racially integrated schools. Part I identifies components of an integrated school district, focusing on: access to schools, classes, and programs; staffing; facilities; curriculum; parental involvement; activities; services; staff development; instructional equipment and supplies; selection and evaluation of learning materials; discipline, suspensions and expulsions; honors and awards; committees; and school displays. Part I also lists technical assistance services available from the Washington State Office for Multicultural and Equity Education. Part II is a compilation of master plan indicators of an effective school district equal educational opportunity program. It is organized around six themes: (1) implementation of State board policy on equal education opportunity; (2) implementation and development of local school district policy on…
(1984). Pluralism, Equal Liberty, and Public Education. It is suggested that the right to educational choice and the absence of majority control of the content of schooling are both essential to preserving pluralism in American education; however, public schools rarely encourage meaningful diversity. Further, there is an absence of educational choice for most American families due to the fact that American school finance systems must tax and spend in a way that discriminates against the non-rich in matters of school choice. A blueprint for redesigning the structure of public education is needed to end the majority control of school policy, especially content, and to reclaim educational liberty as an instrument of diversity and individual liberty rather than as a tool of economic discrimination and racism. A foundational redesign would require a separation of school and state, with the following delineations: (1) establishment of free choice in education, making it possible for every family to secure education of their child in any school…
(1995). Antiracism, Culture and Social Justice in Education. Fresh ideas, new voices, and new research data are presented in this collection exploring antiracism, culture, and social justice in Britain. This emerging material is intended to cause readers to reassess their own theoretical understanding, their politics, and their practices. The following chapters are included: (1) "A Question of Silence? Antiracist Discourses and Initiatives in Higher Education: Two Case Studies" (Sarah Neal); (2) "A Phallic Response to Schooling: Black Masculinity and Race in an Inner-City Comprehensive" (Tony Sewell); (3) "Why Muslim Girls Are More Feminist in Muslim Schools" (Kaye Haw); (4) "A Journey into the Unknown: An Ethnographic Study of Asian Children" (Ghazala Bhatti); (5) "Reconceptualising Equal Opportunities in the 1990s: A Study of Radical Teacher Culture in Transition" (Lynn Raphael Reed); (6) "Racism and Children's Cultures" (Richard Hatcher); (7) "Using Habitus To Look at 'Race'…
(1976). Evaluating Innovative Programs: The Berkeley Perspective. The Berkeley Experimental Schools Project (BESP) consolidated the existing elementary and secondary educational alternatives with promising new programs in the Berkeley Unified School District of California. The program goals involve the elimination of racism, acquisition of basic skills, affirmation of cultural pluralism, and shared decision making. The internal evaluation team provided information to the program director for decision making and dissemination to parents, faculty, staff, and students. The external evaluation team was responsible to the National Institute of Education (NIE), and assessed the impact of BESP on the district as a whole. This paper highlights what has been learned about internal evaluation functioning as a result of BESP. Two general aspects are discussed: (1) the administrative or organizational concerns of an evaluation unit–staffing requirements and location of the evaluation component in relation to the district structure, and (2) evaluation…
(1995). Teaching English So It Matters: Creating Curriculum for and with High School Students. Developed and field-tested by an English teacher using a group of at-risk, urban high-school students, this book shows how to create a constructivist, or student-centered, approach to teaching English–one that encourages critical thinking. The book shows educators how to develop new and effective teaching units and includes reproducible worksheets, selected reading, and examples of student work. The sample units in the book are designed to be flexible, enabling educators to adapt them to their special classroom needs. The first part of the book, \The Cocreative Classroom,\ discusses teaching \with\–instead of \to\–students; teachers' concerns; developing student-centered curriculum; and instructional procedures and student guidelines. The second part of the book presents five thematic instructional units on sex roles, power, and identity; racism; education; \the streets\; and \the hero.\ Contains 43 references to works cited for instructors' use and 141 references to works cited…
(1983). Discussing Racial Topics in Class. Innovation Abstracts, v5 n3 Feb 4. It is difficult to think of any subject more conspicuous by its absence from the college classroom than the discussion of racial issues. Factors contributing to this absence include uncertainty about how to raise and discuss such issues and fear of appearing to be racist. In order to break higher education's silence on racial issues, faculty should: (1) communicate their uncertainty to students and invite them to convey theirs; (2) acknowledge their ambivalence about raising provocative issues; (3) listen without judging; (4) allow time for students to compose their thoughts; (5) invite students to evaluate the underlying assumptions in their statements; (6) maintain the examination of differing viewpoints as a top priority; (7) reduce the fear whites have of being seen as racists; (8) acknowledge the legitimacy of anger; (9) examine the belief that only blacks are hurt by racism; and (10) help students recognize the unique strengths that blacks have developed. (DC)…
(2001). Academic Achievement, Race, and Reform: Six Essays on Understanding Assessment Policy, Standardized Achievement Tests, and Anti-Racist Alternatives. This set of six essays was written as a resource for those working in their schools and communities to promote social justice, combat racism, and encourage quality education for all youth. The six essays address the following set of questions: (1) What is the Academic Performance Index (API)? Where did it come from? What are the connections between Goals 2000, Bush's educational policies, the API, and the Stanford 9 Achievement Test? (2) What explains the achievement gap between white students and students of color? (3) What is the impact of standardized testing on diversity in the curriculum? (4) What are normed tests and are they valid measures of academic performance? Are normed tests racist? Do criterion-referenced tests remedy the limitations of normed tests? (5) What are the consequences of centralizing control over the assessment process?; and (6) What are the obstructions to change and the practical alternatives to the current policies? (SM)… [PDF]
(1986). Black Families: Confronting the Challenge of Education. Ethnocentric racism is especially evident in American schools. In educational institutions, Black children learn that schools do not like them, do not respond to them, do not appreciate their culture, and do not think they can learn. Research indicates that such attitudes are realistic. For several reasons, schools are ideal places to support and perpetuate social \superiority\ and \inferiority.\ Nevertheless, research increasingly indicates improvement in Black students' standardized test performance and ability to achieve. Obvious factors explain why students, including Blacks and Hispanics, are higher achievers in Catholic schools than in public schools. Social issues, such as adolescent pregnancy, contribute to Black children's failure to achieve in school, and in some cases, their ability to remain in school. To address these educational and social conditions, Black families must get excited about education and demand that schools develop and implement programs that will enable…
(2001). Taking It Personally: Racism in the Classroom from Kindergarten to College. Teaching and Learning Social Justice Series. This book chronicles two teachers and their own educational progress in antiracist education. When one, a female African American elementary school teacher, accepted an invitation from the other, a White college professor, to speak to her graduate preservice teacher education class (a required multicultural education course), an explosive classroom incident occurred. This book highlights the incident and its aftermath. The incident, a role-playing activity, brought to the foreground deeply held beliefs and prejudices not previously voiced by students in this classroom. The authors explore these currents through their own autobiographical writings, reflective discussions about the incident, and student reactions, journals, and essays. The book offers tools to help teachers think through their own practices as educators. The collection of accounts show the nature of racism in the classroom and what can be done to weaken its hold on individuals and society. In part 1, "Our Racial…
(1995). The Other Side of the Asian American Success Story. The Jossey-Bass Education Series. A primary purpose of this book is to show the danger of racism and inaccuracy in the often-told Asian American success story by telling about the other side of Asian American academic success. Outlining an approach to family-based multicultural education, the book provides a model for paraprofessional, bicultural counselors to meet the needs of students, their parents, and school administrators. The book opens with the story of a Hmong girl that illustrates the difficulties often encountered by Hmong and other Southeast Asian children in their efforts to pursue an American education. Chapters 1 and 2 provide background information about the Hmong and other Asian Americans. Chapter 3 describes the experiences of Hmong children in two school districts in California and on the east coast. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on cultural influences and the challenges that exist in the present school system. Chapter 6 offers a theory of family-based multicultural education to counter the deficit…
(2007). (Mis-)Education into American Racism. Teachers College Record, v109 n7 p1725-1746. Background: Traditional approaches to race in the United States have located race in individuals and groups and reduced the ambiguities of interaction to differences in attitudes, levels of awareness, and stages of identity development. Alternatively, locating race in social stratification has made it an over-determined product of inequalities in job opportunities, the educational system, housing, and so on. Purpose: In this paper I shift the analytical focus to the production of race in face-to-face interaction, examining interaction as a process of (mis-) education into American racism. Based on fieldwork in a school reform organization that institutionalized race conversations, I show how people try to engage one another on matters of race, resist one another's efforts, and teach one another over time–however unintentionally–to avoid talking about race with one another. Research Design: This case study draws on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork from December 2003 to July… [Direct]
(1975). Population Education in Baltimore. First in a series of six documents, this report describes the Urban Life-Population Education Institute (ULPEI) program which was designed to demonstrate population realities to Baltimore public schools so that teachers can introduce population studies into the school curriculum. The first part of the paper presents background information on the ULPEI program. Through a series of workshops with Baltimore public school teachers, the format of population education units was developed. A global approach to the population problem was decided upon along with an understanding of how population problems exist on the personal level. Using this philosophy, a series of units were developed by teachers that can be infused into existing curricula. (See SO 008 941 through 945). Several major conclusions reached by the ULPEI Program are that population education should be introduced into the school system, racism is an essential component of population education and must be discussed and… [PDF]
(1968). Conference Proceedings: Annual Conference on Women in the War on Poverty. (Second, Washington, D. C., May 15-17, 1968). The 300 delegates from women's organizations and State Commissions on the Status of Women met to discuss problems defined in the Report by the President's Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Federal Government poverty programs were discussed and speeches were given on the need for effective programs, the profile of the disadvantaged American, and plans and successes in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Ways of approaching problems of poverty and racism in home communities were outlined in workshops on education, employment, welfare, health, housing, and human relations. Workshops were aided by resource teams of program specialists from the Offices of Educational Opportunity and Education, Departments of Health and Welfare, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, and Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. The point of view of the poor was provided in all sessions by program recipeints in Head Start, Job Corps, Vista, and Upward Bound. It was not the purpose of the conference to…
(1981). Bilingual Education: A Challenge for the Future. Colorado's bilingual program, which allows Anglo children to participate on a voluntary basis, has been successful in increasing skills in English and in achievement areas measured by English standardized achievement tests, and in improving self concept, attendance, and parent participation. Opponents of bilingual education have claimed that it endangers the melting pot principle, that earlier immigrants pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and that bilingual education enhances separatism, preserves ghettos and barrios, and delays the integration of non-English speaking children into the mainstream of American society. These myths "seem to be a 'rational' attempt to justify our ethnocentrism and latent racism." A creative bilingual program freed of various restrictions imposed by federal and state funding requirements could: (1) encourage majority group participation; (2) allow children to learn in two languages so that they are bilingual; (3) offer equal educational…