Through television, many different images of ethnic, cultural, and ability groups are presented. Different people perceive these images in different ways. These perceptions affect how people value themselves and judge and interact with others. This article first summaries research on TV images and people's meaning and reaction to them. Second, it…

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Multicultural Dispositions Index (MDI), which measures diversity awareness levels of educators. Evidence of the instrument's face validity was gained through a three-year pilot study of 477 teacher and counselor candidates at a Midwestern metropolitan university, followed up by a five-year…

Immigration is making this country and schools increasingly diverse. An unfortunate consequence of this condition is prejudice, discrimination, and lack of understanding. The challenge for educators is to create learning opportunities that will allow students to gain understanding and appreciation of the differences among the people who are in…

Multicultural awareness education is an important first step in preparing future teachers to become effective instructors of diverse classrooms. Whereas there are a variety of ways to develop multicultural awareness, we have found film to be an effective and exciting teaching tool. We applied film as a means of facilitating in-depth reflection and…

Islam has become an increasingly important topic in American society and education. This article will explore the rationale for teaching about religion in public schools, the role of Islam and Muslims in a multicultural society, and discuss numerous ways in which Islam can be incorporated into multicultural secondary school curricula.

This article presents findings from a study examining how a secondary social studies teacher used curriculum and pedagogy to help racially/ethnically diverse students from low socioeconomic backgrounds build community to become active citizens with the capacity for democratic living. In particular, the article discusses his emphasis on critical…

This article describes an innovative pedagogy for developing culturally responsive dispositions: having teacher candidates write poems exploring their developing knowledge of themselves and urban students. While promising, the poems highlighted that teacher candidates may ignore racial identity, rely on heroic narratives, and make too-easy…

Three recent examples are discussed of popular culture products that cater specifically to the cultural world of boys, social types that are the created identities of young males in our society. The self-ascribed qualities of participants in the world of boys, rather than the inherent characteristics of young males, provide the content of the…

Preservice student teachers engaged in a collaborative research initiative to examine the memory of the 1954 "Brown v. Topeka Board of Education" decision that culminated in a public performance. Ethnographic data were translated into performance texts through students' performances that confronted issues of privilege, race, and institutional…

In the Filipino language, kuwento means "story," but the concept itself encapsulates more than its literal meaning. Similar to talk story events in Hawaiian communities (Au & Jordan, 1981), kuwento serves as a tool to communicate everyday experiences within groups, especially among family and community members (Eugenio, 1981). It is an abstraction…

This article presents findings from a qualitative study exploring how Israeli teacher educators prepare candidates to address multicultural issues. Background is presented regarding multicultural education in Israel along with a discussion concerning Israel's unique diversity-related challenges. Findings explore multicultural practices that are…

This article offers a synthesis of the multiple approaches and definitions of multicultural education offered in the literature. The article suggests that the presence of so many similar typologies only serves to confuse the reader and obscure the meaning of multicultural education. This confusion is problematic, as it leaves educators in a place…

At the core of the epistemology of black identity in the 20th century United States is the assertion that freedom is a human right, not a privilege to be earned. By the late 19th century, an ideology of racial uplift had emerged that revolved around four concepts--compassion, service, education, and a commitment to social and economic justice for…

"Cheating" is a form of resistance in pedagogy for bilingual educators. Bilingual educators "cheat" in classes where English as the only language of instruction is strictly imposed by school or district officials, but these teachers "cheat" by using the native language of their English language learners because they know they must. But, for many…

This article presents first and second grade children's talk about issues of language diversity and culture. Children focus on the issue of oppression and initially examine oppressors in their talk within literature circles across a year in a Sheltered English Immersion classroom. Drawing on a critical literacy framework and anti-bias perspective,…