The larger environment in which individuals live has become the arena for exploring the influence and uses of cultural values in school learning and educational decision making. The aim of this book is to explore this arena. Anthropologist Henry G. Burger, in Part I, discusses the assimilation of all groups into a single average Yankee, and cultural separatism and differences in value orientations with respect to how students learn and teachers teach in classrooms. In Part II, four quite different geographic regions are searched for experiences in providing school in a variety of cultural settings, in order to gain both historical and sociological perspectives. First examined is Hawaii. Then John Watson reviews a quarter-century of experience in providing schooling for Maori children in New Zealand. Next examined are three Asian countries. Finally Thomas Pettigrew and Patricia Pajonas discuss the comparative values of homogeneous and heterogeneous schooling in the United States. Part III focuses on the question: Are the schools capable of responding in a manner equal to the critical nature of the problems they confront? This question is examined: (1) from the viewpoint of an anthropologist who offers suggestions for adapting education to cross-cultural differences; (2) from the perspective of a sociologist who looks at a particular type of school, those for American children who are being educated in a foreign culture; and, (3) from the viewpoint of an educational planner. (Author/JM)