The purpose of this study was to examine suburban high school teachers' beliefs about non-European ancestry immigrant students; more specifically, suburban teachers' beliefs regarding the impact of students' cultural backgrounds on academic performance were examined. Non-European ancestry immigrant students are those students whose ancestral…

Although many programs ascribe to promoting and celebrating diversity, traditional teacher preparation rarely centralizes multicultural education courses. Instead, these courses are often "added on" to or disconnected from the rest of the program. Multicultural education courses and other courses that address diversity often ask the preservice…

English-only policies and the expiration of the "Bilingual Education Act," which is now replaced by "No Child Left Behind," make it clear that English is the official language of schools in the United States with the emphasis moved from the goal of maintaining students' home languages while learning English to a focus of ignoring minority…

Through case-based pedagogy, this study provides preservice teachers the opportunities to develop a sense of the multicultural context and to acknowledge their knowledge about diversity. This study creates the chances for preservice teachers to share personal backgrounds and experiences with peers to help them develop open-minded attitudes and…

In today's increasingly polyglot classrooms, interpersonal and inter-group conflicts often arise out of mutual misunderstandings between different collections of students, some based on language or status differences but many more generated by emotionally charged misconceptions. As such, peer mediation and peaceful solutions to student arguments…

Diversity and multicultural education is fast becoming the norm. Race, gender, ethnicity, ability, language, culture, socioeconomic class, family configurations, interests, or combinations of these produce enormous diversity issues. The refection of this huge sociocultural diversity--children coming from different ethnic backgrounds--has…

The population of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners has increased significantly in higher education settings in the United States today. It has been reported that Japanese ESL students are generally unsuccessful when studying in English speaking countries. The typical way of reading in English for Japanese students is the…

In the research about the educational experiences of refugee students, few articles describe how recently-arrived refugee students and their families make their transition to public schools in the U.S. and how they negotiate success in a formal schooling environment. In order to illuminate these processes, the author conducted an in-depth study of…

The children's novel "Out of the Dust" (Hesse, 1997) is an evocative portrayal of the drought and dust storms that devastated Midwestern farms in the 1930s. Through the voice of her 13-year-old narrator, Karen Hesse intertwines history and free verse poetry to create what many readers find to be a moving depiction of the Oklahoma…

Numerous researchers have stressed the critical need for preservice teachers, especially White middle-class teachers, to be educated in strategies and philosophies that are culturally responsive to an increasingly diverse K-12 student population. To this end, Geneva Gay's framework of culturally responsive pedagogy, which includes caring,…

The number of immigrants of color residing in the United States reached 13.5 million in March 2005, the highest in U.S. history. By 2010 the number of Black immigrants and their children is estimated to reach five million, and will represent twelve percent of the Black population in the United States. To date, the majority of Black immigrants in…

With the increased focus on issues of diversity and multiculturalism in the United States and abroad, educators and clinicians have become more and more concerned about the feasibility and validity of their assessment instruments and practices for children and adults from nonWhite backgrounds. Many researchers emphasize that when working with…

Originally described by Leo Kanner (1943) and recognized as a special education eligibility category by the U.S. Department of Education in 1990 (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA], 1990), autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by deficits in reciprocal social interactions, communication, and interests and behaviors.…

Research on Hmong-Americans started emerging in the late 1980s and continues to flourish to the present. Topics studied range from family dynamics and cultural transitions to student achievement and challenges. Little research has been conducted specifically on Hmong college students. More extensive and comprehensive research on the Hmong student…

The primary focus of research that the authors have undertaken at New Mexico State University for the past several years can be summed up with the question--are Presidential Libraries educational institutions or are they simply political monuments and messages? The authors have conducted extensive investigations involving visitations to ten…