Offers questions to guide educators in responding appropriately to culturally sensitive situations concerning Native American mascots and mechanisms for sports teams. Although there are no simple answers, communication and consensus seeking are ways to ensure the appropriate use of American Indian mascots. (SLD)

Describes programs and services available to students of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in secondary schools in California, where almost a quarter of a million LEP students of diverse backgrounds are enrolled. The grim reality is that these students are tracked and provided with inadequate materials and poorly prepared teachers. (SLD)

St. Paul's Episcopal School in Oakland (California) addresses the needs of its multicultural community by promoting decision making by students. A commitment to diversity is really a commitment to respecting each individual, and real respect means respecting each student as a decision maker. (SLD)

Discusses the tendency of whites to deflect attention from racism, which is the main problem underlying the need for multicultural education, and suggests a role for whites in examining their own generally unrecognized white racial bonding. To mitigate effects of white racial bonding, advocates of multicultural education must recognize them. (SLD)

Educators are challenged to move beyond tolerance as a goal in the conceptualization and practice of multicultural education. Tolerance is actually only a low level of support. It should be surpassed by acceptance, respect, and finally, affirmation, solidarity, and critique. Some examples illustrate these steps. (SLD)

Presents a brief rationale for multicultural environmental education, provides an outlined multicultural critique of environmental education, and offers some draft principles of a multicultural environmental education. The author argues that the best environmental-education approach reveals, sustains, and celebrates the varied cultural traditions…

Explores pluralism and the expanding community through a brief examination of the community-mural movement in the United States. It looks at the recent history of mural painting and discusses examples of community murals that deal cogently with multicultural themes. The implications to educational practice are also discussed. (GLR)

Presents a case study of the development of a multicultural-education class in Minnesota that was designed to help preservice teachers make their future classrooms multicultural. It briefly highlights the development of a college and school collaborative, presents student reactions to the program, and reveals follow-up activities to expand the…

The cultural-pluralism model would permit the development of a positive cultural identity without interfering in universal criteria for access to economic and power structures. This will require fundamental social change in the United States and will also require greater international agreements and equity throughout the world. (SLD)

The relevance to the United States of the multicultural experience in Lebanon is discussed. The Lebanese experience highlights the difficulties segregationist multiculturalism can present to developing a common national culture. It is important to recognize the fluid nature of culture and the possibility of its transformation when implementing…

Discusses the difficulty inherent in teaching multiculturalism within a nation as culturally diverse and changing as the United States. Teaching cultural awareness from an anthropological perspective is explored. The article argues that the educational community must develop curricula and pedagogies that incorporate an understanding of cultural…

Examines three ways that constructivism is aligned with multicultural education in formal educational environments: (1) learners organize ideas in unique ways; (2) learners' self-awareness and self-concept influence learning; and (3) a learner's personal history filters new information. (GR)

Describes a methodology that educators can use to appropriately classify students who are linguistically and culturally diverse. The article lists the student behaviors to observe when distinguishing a language difference from a language disorder and illustrates how educators can conceptualize student background and current status in selecting…

Examines selected programs and methodologies in multicultural education designed to foster greater understanding of diverse cultures and lessen racial, class, and gender biases. Highlighted programs include a doctoral program in multicultural education and a staff development program for dealing with workplace diversity. Guidelines for eliminating…

Provides a definition of multicultural education (ME) and challenges the six myths most frequently voiced about it. The myths addressed include the argument that ME does little to eliminate structural inequalities, that it impedes learning the basic skills, that ME is the same as political correctness, and that ME rejects the notion of common…