NIUSI

part of the Education Reform Networks

Motivation

• Notes from California: An Anthropological Approach to Urban Science Education for Language Minority Families
  The author described a unique and ongoing collaboration involving a team of bilingual/multicultural teacher-educators, preservice teachers, teachers, students, and community members in an urban California elementary school. The author used critical ethnography as a framework and focuses on building an American garden house to show how, by drawing on participants' funds of knowledge, a new kind of multiscience can emerge.
• Shared Control: Community Voices in Multicultural Service Learning
  A field experience involving community service learning was linked to multicultural education for preservice teachers. The authors found that community service learning motivated, engaged, and gratified community leaders, tapping into local community associations.
• Overrepresentation of Minority Students in Special Education
  The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the professional literature related to the overrepresentation of minority students in special education programs, and of the remedies used in court ordered remediation programs. Specifically, it reviews reasons for overrepresentation of minority students in classes for students with various learning disabilities and the under representation of these same students in classes for students who are gifted.
• Examining the Relationship among Opportunity, Inclusion, and Choice
  The authors describe the multicultural language practices used at Western Hills Elementary School in Denver, Colorado. They discuss social and cultural dimensions of learning and their relationships to second language acquisition.
• Seeing through Race, Gender and Socioeconomic Status
  The author of this paper discussed the history of discrimination in the United States and the length of time it took to abolish the legal support of racism. The author then discussed the problems of diversity in the United States.
• Reflections on the "White Movement" in Multicultural Education
  Gary Howard responds to an essay that examined the role of whites in multicultural education and reviewed three books, critiquing five of the essay's assumptions (e.g., there is a white movement in multicultural education, attention to whites' role in multicultural education is very recent, and the focus on white identity development in multicultural education signals a shift away from equity pedagogy).
• Mrs. Boyd's fifth-grade inclusive classroom: A study of multicultural teaching strategies.
  The author presents a case study of one exemplary multicultural fifth-grade classroom teacher provides educators with accommodation activities that support and encourage all students without limiting or impeding their academic or social development.Results are provided in the areas of classroom management, instructional strategies, and teacher-student-parent interaction.
• Three Ways To Achieve a More Equitable Representation of Culturally and Linguistically Different Students in GT Programs
  The author of this article indicated that increasing minority teachers in gifted and talented (GT) programs will lead to an increase of minority students in GT programs. The author discussed the ways to recruit and prepare minority teachers, as are multicultural and bilingual options for GT programs.
• The impact of professional development schools on the education of urban students
  This brief is about professional development schools (PDSs). PDSs were originated a decade ago to provide a new model for teacher education that enables graduate students to have meaningful classroom experiences while they earn their degree.
• Expectations Great and Small: The Mental Maps of Teachers and Systems
  The author of this article discussed how high and low expectations were communicated to British students both directly by what teachers say and indirectly through the systems and processes through which teachers work. The author examined racial and social biases and notes that expectations can be self-fulfilling prophesies.
• Multicultural Education: Powerful Tool for Preparing Future General and Special Educators
  The author of this article argued that multicultural education is a powerful and necessary tool for preparing future general and special educators to provide services to students with disabilities from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. the author presented ideas for educators willing to assist multicultural learners in maximizing their fullest potential in inclusive settings.
• A Comprehensive Approach to Identifying and Addressing Issues of Disproportionate Representation.
  The authors focus on the effect of disproportionate representation of minority students. Evaluation on the educational performance of the students, identification of special education disability category, terms of educational classification are discussed.
• Prejudice and Pride: Japanese Americans in the Young Adult Novels of Yoshiko Uchida
  The author discusses five books for young adults by author Yoshiko Uchida. He notes that these books, accessible to children in grades 5 and above, describe the prejudice against Japanese Americans, internment camps, and upheaval, sorrow, and anger spawned by the American government's racist actions.
• Action Research and Practical Inquiry: Multicultural Content Integration in Gifted Education: Lessons from the Field
  This article includes of an informal survey of 71 teachers of the gifted participating in an in-service course on gifted education. The authors suggested that many teachers had goals and experiences related to multicultural curricula for gifted children.
• School organizational structures: Effects on teacher and student learning
  In this study, the authors attempted to explore the relationship between teacher learning and student learning under different school structural conditions. Some 1,330 teachers from twenty nine secondary schools of different community backgrounds and student academic abilities in Hong Kong were surveyed, using instruments from diverse conceptual sources.
• Motivating People from Privileged Groups to Support Social Justice
  The author presents a theoretical perspective for understanding what may motivate people from privileged groups to support diversity and social justice, discussing and examining the complexities and limitations of three main sources of motivation: empathy, moral and spiritual values, and self-interest. Educational strategies are suggested to address these sources of motivation.
• Ethics, Power, and Privilege: Salient Issues in the Development of Multicultural Competencies for Teachers Serving African American Children with Disabilities
  This article addresses educators' ethical responsibility for recognizing the inherent dignity and worth of African American students with disabilities. It opens with a brief overview of multicultural education and continues with a three-pronged model for addressing multicultural competencies: awareness, knowledge, and skills.
• Teachers of Gifted Students: Suggested Multicultural Characteristics and Competencies
  The authors of this article discussed desired characteristics and competencies in teachers of gifted students who are culturally, ethnically, or linguistically diverse. These include: culturally relevant pedagogy, equity pedagogy, a holistic teaching philosophy, a communal philosophy, respect for students' primary language, culturally congruent instructional practices, culturally sensitive assessment, student-family-teacher relationships, and teacher diversity.
• Learning and Living Difference That Makes a Difference: Postmodern Theory and Multicultural Education
  Multiculturalism that both transforms and informs is important. The author recommends applying postmodern theory to transformative understanding of multiculturalism.
• Inclusion, diversity and leadership
  Drawing on research from a longitudinal case study of a large urban secondary school, this article examines senior leadership of and in a school struggling to be inclusive. The analysis focuses on the effect of senior leadership on: the ways in which inclusion is conceptualized and practised in this school, in particular by teachers; student intake profiles and diversity; teacher motivation and educational outcomes.
• The Effectiveness of Minority Teachers on Minority Student Success
  The author of this paper examined the shortage of minority teachers and explores the high priority that exists among parents, teachers, and the business community to work toward a diversified teaching force, focusing on the U.S. Hispanic population and investigating whether minority teachers in the classroom can result in minority student success in school.
• Deconstructing Whiteness as Part of a Multicultural Educational Framework: From Theory to Practice
  Based on emerging theoretical work on White racial identity, the authors argue that a central problem of multicultural education involves challenging the universalization of Whiteness. They propose a theoretical framework to advance a multicultural perspective in which the exploration and deconstruction of Whiteness is key.
• Preparing Teachers of Color at a Predominantly White University: A Case Study of Project TEAM
  The authors examined the experiences of preservice teacher participants in Project TEAM, an initiative at a predominantly white university to increase the number of minority students who completed teacher education and became teachers. Case study data highlight three themes: developing a sense of community with minority student peers, developing a stronger ethnic identity, and working for social justice through multicultural education.
• Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide
  This jointly developed Action Guide to help schools and communities prevent school violence was produced by the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Justice released.