This article describes a diverse style of teaching that can be adopted by school administrators and teachers who are interested in creating a school culture where success is nurtured using a community approach. This community approach of teaching is built on a pedagogy Lourie Davis developed and named Village Style Learning (VSL). This style of…

The French film "Entre Les Murs" ("The Class") is a somewhat unusual film in its portrayal of a Parisian working class school and its protagonist, Mr. Marin, who attempts to teach an unruly class of young and very diverse teenagers. This article explores the ways the author used the film "The Class" as a culminating…

In an earlier article appearing in "Multicultural Education" (Volume 16, Number 1, Fall 2008) a number of pedagogical techniques were presented for teaching White students about White privilege and racism (Heinze, 2008). That article emphasized that racism exists along a continuum and that the instructor needs to examine and disclose his or her…

In an attempt to enact equitable practices in U.S. public schools, many critical multicultural and anti-racist theorists, researchers, and practitioners strongly suggest that teacher educators move beyond diversity approaches to multicultural education in their teacher preparation programs to address the more uncomfortable issues of power and…

In this article, the author considers three of today's pre-service teachers who have each watched the World Trade Center towers collapse on broadcast television, viewed the film "Hidalgo," and participated in subsequent interviews regarding the movie. Specifically, the author wants to examine the extent to which the pre-service teachers in this…

Popular films say a lot about the culture where they are seen and enjoyed even though they may not reflect "reality" in the way that academics may want to portray a country. Popular films get at the deepest longings and fears of their viewership and their biggest hopes for the future. Teaching India through popular films is particularly…

Addressing sensitive issues of race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender can be daunting for any instructor, and add to this teaching at an institution in the Deep South with a long history of racial tension beginning with the integration of the University and the not so popular emblems it has been known for. The author was apprehensive…

South Africa, a country with the highest incidence of rape and child rape in the world, has the fifth highest prevalence of HIV in the world, with 1.1 million AIDS orphans. The UNAIDS Global Report reveals 370,000 AIDS-related deaths in South Africa in 2003. Given the numbers of people infected and dying, South Africa is regarded as having the…

Reviews three contemporary movies, "Sleepers,""Girls Town," and "Slingblade" in which the common thread is abuse of helpless children by patriarchal authorities, adult white men who assert power over young people. In all three movies, the anger of the young people and their friends suggests respect for the…

Reviews six films about issues related to multicultural and social justice education in the United States: "It's Elementary: Talking about Gay Issues in School"; "Starting Small: Teaching Children Tolerance"; "In Whole Honor?"; "Children Talk about AIDS"; "Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary";…

Multiculturalism that both transforms and informs is important. Recommends applying postmodern theory to transformative understanding of multiculturalism. Juxtaposes transformative multiculturalism with aspects of postmodern theorization of American society, illustrating this theoretical construct with research on college classrooms as…

Reviews documentary and ethnographic films that examine gender-related issues, summarizing each film and analyzing its relevance to multicultural and social justice education. The films are: "The Fairer Sex?"; "Macho, 2000"; "The Pill"; "Step by Step: Building a Feminist Movement"; "I am a Man";…

Two contemporary films, "Braveheart" and "Rob Roy," depict Scottish ethnicity from a rather narrow perspective. The positions that are sentimentally admired when attributed to white natives of Scotland are horrifying when expressed by contemporary peoples of color. These films raise interesting questions about the true nature…

Criticizes the movie "Schindler's List" as portraying the Holocaust in a profane manner. The author suggests Schindler is a bad choice as a protagonist because his story distracts the audience from the real victims. He views the choice of a non-Jew in a heroic portrayal of this type as one culture's way of popularizing another culture's…

Discusses the failure of filmmaker Spike Lee to grapple with the real politics of Malcolm X before and after he left the Nation of Islam. Acknowledging the complexity of the man and his context would avoid creating a mythical figure similar to Oliver Stone's movie "JFK." (SLD)