Integrating ICT and multicultural aspects within a classroom: the SAIL project

The implementation of technology in the primary school sector during the last few years has resulted in issues being raised relating to teachers’ knowledge of technology and their propensities for incorporating ICT into an already packed curriculum. Teachers in Malta were faced with challenges to their various teaching professional knowledge and to their prior and developing understanding of the conceptual and procedural aspects of technology. SAIL provided opportunities for teachers to develop their understandings of minorities in Europe within a community of teachers, while at the same time promoting technology both as a process and a product.     

Talking of racism: The project of a society of diversity

‘We have a choice, and we can decide to make a society in which diversity is accepted, encouraged and made central to human practice’ (Essed, 1996, viii)     

Transforming Korea into a multicultural society: reception of multiculturalism discourse and its discursive disposition in Korea

Since 2005, multicultural-based words such as multicultural society, multicultural family, and multicultural education have grown explosively in Korean society. Due to this social trend, adoption of the term multiculturalism has become a trend within the government and press to explain current social changes in Korea. Nevertheless, there have been few efforts to tackle multiculturalism as a crucial political project or a considerable academic theme of discussion. Thus, this study aims to examine how multiculturalism discourse in Korea has been received and draws its discursive disposition. It argues how the media, especially the press, incorporate other crucial issues such as ‘diversity’, ‘human rights’, and ‘minority politics’ in terms of multiculturalism. To analyse, a total of 275 journal articles were selected and scrutinised. This study contextualises Korean multiculturalism and suggests a meta-picture of the discursive economy of multiculturalism in Korea.     

Community as text: using the community as a resource for learning in community schools

The community can serve as a resource to help students become more engaged in learning and strengthen connections between schools and community.     

Teaching and learning in multicultural contexts: a comparative analysis of language teaching and learning in a Norwegian and Dutch primary school classroom

In this paper, multicultural primary school classes in Norway and the Netherlands are compared in terms of language teaching and learning. Drawing on observations, interviews, and school and policy documents, four dimensions of comparison are discussed. First, we deal with the different ways in which separate language classes for language minority pupils were organized in the two cases. Secondly, the different ways of teaching and the underlying views on learning language are characterized. Thirdly, we analyse how these ways of teaching affect on language minority pupils. Fourthly, we address the question as to how these approaches relate to the educational policies, traditions and discourses of the respective countries.     

On the educational edges of a learning society: the Finnish hinterland as a framework of educational choices for young people

In this article, we examine the school-going and educational choices of youth living in sparsely populated regions of Finland that are located far away from educational institutions. We ask the following question: What kind of concrete impact does the geographic narrowing of educational possibilities have on the lives of youth in remote villages? Thirty-five interviewees (15 boys and 20 girls) between the ages of 14 and 18 were selected for this analysis. According to the results, gender and families’ symbolic resources are still strong predictors of youth’s educational choices; however, in the Finnish hinterland, families’ economic resources become a significant reflection of young people’s realistic educational possibilities. The youth in our analysis can be seen as ‘others’ of the contemporary educational and regional policies – that is, members of a learning society who are living in an educational vacuum and are forced to create their educational paths by making numerous compromises and forgetting many of their personal dreams. Their situation is not unique, as Finland’s wide-ranging neoliberal centralisation policies tend to create educational vacuums in certain regions on the edges of society.     

The Opinions of Minorities About Preparing for Work: Report of the Second NCDA National Survey

A report of the 1989 NCDA survey of the perceptions of American adults of their career planning, the nature of their workplaces, and the availability of and utility of occupational information is presented. The survey, which was administered by the Gallup Organization, included an oversampling of Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian-Pacific Islanders. Although the results for all groups including Whites are presented, the emphasis is upon the perceptions of minority groups.     

Outcomes of an interdisciplinary study abroad course: learning Spanish and multicultural education concurrently

This study reports the outcomes of undergraduate students completing a pilot Interdisciplinary Intensive Course Abroad (IICA) with a service learning component. The IICA model is comprised of a three-part sequence of study that includes a seven-week course on campus, followed by three weeks of study abroad, and a summative seven-week course back on campus. The additional summative component gives students the opportunity to bring together their newly acquired knowledge and skills, and to reflect on how to integrate these experiences in their future. The sequence integrates discipline-specific content studies with foreign language classes, and grounds them with a study abroad experience. A mixed-method design was used to measure students’ development of language skills, understanding of multicultural education concepts, and intercultural skills. Primary data sources were pre/post-assessments, student field notes and reflections, and a post-course survey. Results indicated that students gained confidence in their Spanish skills and were likely to enroll in further Spanish courses, their ability to define multicultural education concepts increased, and service learning, homestays abroad, and their time in an indigenous reservation contributed to development of intercultural skills.     

Pseudo-science and Dividing Practices: a genealogy of the first educational provision for pupils with learning difficulties

Two of Michel Foucault's concepts are used to frame the analysis of the impact of the first dominant form of educational provision for pupils with learning difficulties. The historical background is that of elementary education a century ago and the conjuncture of two Royal Commissions whose deliberations effectively divided the school population into the normal and the exceptional. The definition which identified the exceptional pupil was faulty from the outset, but prevailed over several decades in legislation and secured the dominance of the medical profession in the field. At first, the recommendation for the location of educational provision was ambiguous. The London School Board employed the definition in a particular manner to establish a network of segregated special schools. That became the dominant model, but there was simultaneously available a successful example in another Board of inclusive education for the exceptional children which rejected both the definition and segregation.     

The second project of ethnicity: Transnational migrant communities and ethnic minorities in modern multicultural societies

The theory of ethnicity has been developed in recent years largely in connection with the study of nationalism. What this paper seeks to show is that while there is a common core in the theory of ethnicity, nationalism is not the only project on which it is focused. The other project is that of migration which leads to the formation of transnational communities, which have no nationalistic ambitions, nor necessarily a diasporic urge to return to the homeland. The paper seeks to outline some of the main structural features of such communities using the example of Punjabi Sikh migration. It also seeks to describe the main structural features of the relationship which emerges between such communities and modern national societies in which they settle.     

Expanding the learning day: an essential component of the community schools strategy

Community schools expand learning time and opportunities as one important dimension of a comprehensive strategy to ensure that students are ready for college, career, and citizenship.     

Infants' preference for speech is stable across the first year of life: Meta-analytic evidence

Previous work suggested that humans' sophisticated speech perception abilities stem from an early capacity to pay attention to speech in the auditory environment. What are the roots of this early preference? We assess the extent to which it is due to it being a vocal sound, a natural sound, and a familiar sound through a meta-analytic approach, classifying experiments as a function of whether they used native or foreign speech and whether the competitor, against which preference is tested, was vocal or non-vocal, natural or artificial. We also tested for the effect of age. Synthesizing data from 791 infants across 39 experiments, we found a medium effect size, confirming at the scale of the literature that infants reliably prefer speech over other sounds. This preference was not significantly moderated by the language used, vocal quality, or naturalness of the competitor, nor by infant age. The current body of evidence appears most compatible with the hypothesis that speech is preferred consistently as such and not just due to its vocal, natural, or familiar nature. We discuss limitations of the extant body of work on speech preference, including evidence consistent with a publication bias and low representation of certain stimuli types and ages.     

Bitter strawberries: the construction of differences in a multicultural school: a case study

This paper presents the results of a case study looking at the views of teachers and other educational professionals pertaining to the academic progress and general integration of immigrant schoolchildren in multicultural schools in the province of Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). It is organised into three sections: first, the geographical and social context of the study is described, focusing in particular on the impact on schools of migratory trends within the province associated with strawberry cultivation. This is followed by a presentation of the results of a field study into the educational panorama of immigrant pupils from various countries, drawing on verbal reports by teachers and school administrators. Finally, some conclusions are suggested for possible categories of analysis with a view to opening new lines of research in the future.     

Correlates of infant pointing frequency in the first year

This study examines the emergence of concurrent correlates of infant pointing frequency with the aim of contributing to its ontogenetic theories. We measured monthly from 8 to 12 months infants' (N = 56) index-finger pointing frequency along with several candidate correlates: (1) family socioeconomic status (SES), (2) mothers' pointing production, and (3) infants' point following to targets in front of and behind them. Results revealed that (1) infants increased their pointing frequency across age, but high-SES infants had a steeper increase, and a higher pointing frequency than low-SES infants from 10 months onward, (2) maternal pointing frequency was not associated with infant pointing frequency at any age, (3) infants' point following abilities to targets behind their visual fields was positively associated with their pointing frequency at 12 months, after pointing had already emerged around 10 months. Findings suggest that family SES impacts infants' pointing development more generally, not just through maternal pointing. The association between pointing and following points to targets behind, but not in front, suggests that a higher level of referential understanding emerges after, and perhaps through the production of pointing.     

Islamophobia in the media: a response from multicultural education 1

This paper looks at the media in Germany and Australia in order to focus on the question of how Islam is accepted in both countries, and the extent to which Islamophobia exists. It was discovered that, for the most part, the media in both countries present a somewhat biased view of Muslims and Islam. However, there were some significant differences: (1) a higher acceptance of multiculturalism in the Australian media, which is revealed in the greater number of articles on ordinary, everyday multicultural life; (2) differences in the portrayal of migrants’ roles; and (3) the terminology used to refer to migrants. The paper concludes by outlining the ways in which multicultural education could contribute to a reduction of Islamophobia.     

构建和谐社会首先要转变观念

一、坚持科学发展观是关键 自2003年10月十六届三中全会提出科学发展观以来,科学发展观已深入人心.2005年,胡总书记强调指出,做好"十一五"时期的经济发展工作,关键是坚持以科学发展观统领经济社会发展全局,推动经济社会发展转入科学发展的轨道.     

Towards a multicultural democracy: some thoughts on the recent Indian elections

Abstract The surprising defeat of the BJP in May's elections is evidence of longterm trends in India's politics. Welcomed by the diaspora with mixed feelings, the results inspire confidence in India's progress towards a mature multicultural democracy. The elections demonstrate that India is a far more diverse and pluralistic country than previous elections might have suggested and that Indian democracy successfully mirrors the country's ideological spectrum. In place of Hindu nationalism and the religious card, one finds a unique political leadership drawn from the country's minorities and shaped by India's synthetic culture.