Schools in America are facing rapidly changing demographics, and because of those changing demographics, this article makes the following propositions. First, the increasing demographic changes in urban schools demand new leadership approaches. Second, because many of the urban educational demands are shaped by ongoing social and cultural issues…

This article looks at an inner city playwriting project that brought professional writers and artists into inner city classrooms to help students explore the cultural history of their community and begin to find their own voices as writers. This project was set up by Larry Hunter, an African American playwright who worked as a writer-in-residence…

The material in the Course III, Unit I, secondary teacher's manual builds upon earlier sequential courses and provides a foundation for the study of two other cultural areas. Objectives are for students to broaden their cultural understanding and awareness emphasizing main ideas about Africa. Students will analyze why a tremendous regional…

American culture stems from a multitude of the diverse perspectives, customs, and habits of the vast groups that have made the United States their home. This nation's complexity of diverse cultures and its ability to strive for common values seem almost over-whelming. Nonetheless, from the cultures of many, one culture can emerge. Through sharing…

Reading is an essential skill for young children. It can chart a course for school success. Without this ability, children are likely to be unsuccessful and drop out of school. In this article, the authors focus on the use of Authentic African American children's literature to support literacy development, help unite the home and school…

21st century Black children and adolescents have lost a connection with the social and cultural currents of the mid-20th century. The author, while she acknowledges the troubles that plagued the Black community in the past, laments what Black culture has become in the age of integration. She ties this concern to the similar decline of Black…

Since the period of black enslavement in the Americas, Diaspora people have used their bodies as a canvas on which to articulate their presence as subjects. This propensity to use the body as a key medium of creative and political expression emerged from an amalgam of African retentions and new, grounded syncretisms in the West. It was further…

Research indicates that faculty/student relationships affect student satisfaction with college, academic achievement, and retention. However, evidence indicates that African American students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) may not glean the benefits associated with relationships with faculty. The purpose of this study is to understand,…

This article examines the role of culture in the socialization patterns found in the households of low-income African Americans. Using the Triple Quandary theoretical framework, the authors hypothesized that cultural themes consistent with an Afro-cultural ethos would be reported significantly more than those associated with a mainstream cultural…

A free mind is the first step in the pursuit of liberty, but African Americans have been hampered in that pursuit by both the Eurocentric dominant culture and by the lack of consensus among blacks on the nature and goals of black education. Conflicting trends in the history of black education include the following: (1) opposing Eurocentric and…

Practical ways in which visual arts may contribute to multicultural education are explored in eight conference papers. A welcoming address describes the objectives of the meeting and the role of multicultural education in the schools. The first paper describes the role of the art gallery in the community. Examples of programs offered by a local…

This document contains 14 papers from an annual symposium on research in adult education for African Americans and Latin Americans. Representative papers include the following: "Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Keeping the Faith and Representing the Race--From the Pulpit to Politics" (Roudell Kirkwood); "Religious Education and…

The primary purpose of this study was to test a path model exploring the relationships among Africentric cultural values, self-esteem, perceived social support satisfaction, and life satisfaction in a sample of 147 African American adolescent girls. This investigation also examined the possible mediating effects of self-esteem and perceived social…

This article examines a decade or more of scholarly and popular writings that blame the persistence of racial inequality in educational performance primarily, if not exclusively, on the cultural inheritance of African Americans. This article focuses in part on the ways in which contemporary rationales for educational inequality are linked to a…

John Ogbu's work on "minority education" has spawned a number of interesting and useful debates in the US. Having been both an early admirer and critic of Ogbu's work, I reviewed his work in an "Anthropology and Education Quarterly" article. The present article reflects upon Ogbu's work and upon my scholarly engagement with that corpus over the…