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This paper describes the development of Turkish Children and Mothers, a project designed to help 5-year-old preschoolers in the Ruhr Valley of Germany develop linguistic, motor, cognitive, and social abilities. The paper also describes various aspects of the project, including those that relate to maternal involvement, educational facilities, the needs of project participants, and cultural factors that should be considered when serving the ethnic Turkish minority that is adapting to German culture. Focusing on issues that arise from learning in a multicultural context, this paper provides numerous brief anecdotes to illustrate how cultural obstacles can be overcome. Contains 49 marginal notes citing one or more references. (HTH)

An 8-year ethnographic study in two rural Iowa towns examined the incorporation of recently arrived Mexicans and Mexican Americans into the social, economic, and political life of the community. Relocating to work in a nearby food processing plant, the newcomers altered the ethnic composition of this formerly homogeneous area. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, informal conversations, observation of community events, and review of government documents and local newspapers. Conceptual frames for the study include modes of incorporation, racial formation and racialization, and social regulation. The experiences of Mexican and Mexican American newcomers demonstrate how local social regulatory activities circumscribe the ways in which these new residents can make claims as permanent members of the community. These social regulatory activities construct the racialized, gendered, and class-specific grounds on which Mexican Americans can earn a living wage, access social services and education, and gain a political voice. Various experiences of the newcomers are described, including recruitment to the food processing plant, poor working conditions, disadvantages arising from limited English proficiency, local resistance to providing English as a second language classes or offering Spanish in school, lack of proficient translators in the school and community, harassment by the police and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, lack of affordable housing, harassment and discrimination during use of health and social services, biased attitudes of educators, and community fears about Hispanic youth. (Contains 116 references.) (SV)

This case study at a community college serving a small city and surrounding rural area was undertaken to examine how a diverse staff experiences the work place. Interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of one-half of the student affairs group staff; half of the respondent group were people of color, and four out of five were women. The interview protocol for the study was developed in consultation with a staff committee; a "culture audit" was customized to fit the organizational setting. Questions focused on the sense of success among staff, how staff are inducted into the organizational culture, the quality of supervision, career development opportunities, the extent of team spirit, and general satisfaction working at the school. Findings included the following: while 70 percent of the staff believed they had been successful at the college, disaggregation of the data revealed a racial/ethnic discrepancy; some minorities cited lack of understanding of organizational politics and culture; there was a discrepancy in the frequency of mentoring of whites and minorities; inadequacies in the performance appraisal system; differences in gender and race/ethnicity responses to questions about quality of supervision; and, in fact, differences in gender, racial, and ethnic perceptions were seen in most areas examined. (Contains 21 references.) (CH)

This paper examines the growth and characteristics of the Hispanic population in Illinois and presents a case study of how a rural Illinois community and its schools are adapting to an influx of mostly Mexican immigrants. The first section discusses Mexican immigration to Illinois during the 1900s and provides racial/ethnic data on population growth in the Midwest and Illinois during the 1980s; educational attainment, 1980-95; income and poverty rates; and population change in metro and nonmetro Illinois, 1990-96. In "Anytown," a rapid influx of Hispanic workers for a new meatpacking plant has resulted in local conflicts over education, housing, and race. Hispanic students in the schools increased from less than 5 in 1993 to 350 in 1998. As school administrators became aware of the rising numbers, they responded by hiring translators, bilingual aides, and a bilingual coordinator; creating a prekindergarten class for Hispanic students; encouraging parent participation; and developing appropriate curricula and assessment methods. Teachers participated in workshops and conferences about cultural change and the classroom. As staff and administrators gained knowledge and understanding about the needs of language-minority students, they shifted toward a more student-centered philosophy and began developing bilingual and multicultural programs. Interviews with immigrants about experiences in the community, at work, and in school portray the racism encountered by culturally diverse newcomers, but also the efforts of teachers and community members to improve community relations and social integration. Contains 33 references. (SV)

This paper describes the development of Turkish Children and Mothers, a project designed to help 5-year-old preschoolers in the Ruhr Valley of Germany develop linguistic, motor, cognitive, and social abilities. The paper also describes various aspects of the project, including those that relate to maternal involvement, educational facilities, the needs of project participants, and cultural factors that should be considered when serving the ethnic Turkish minority that is adapting to German culture. Focusing on issues that arise from learning in a multicultural context, this paper provides numerous brief anecdotes to illustrate how cultural obstacles can be overcome. (Contains 49 marginal notes citing one or more references.) (MM)

This document considers the position, plight, and needs of recent Central American immigrants to Canada. It seeks to answer three questions: What kind of support do they need? What kind of programs can respond to their needs? How can they be helped to integrate into Canadian society? Several facts are uncovered, and conclusions are reached based on anecdotal information. Among the findings are these: Most of these immigrants come from rural areas in their own countries and have limited or no literacy in their native Spanish. They are often very unfamiliar with what basic appliances are in Canada (e.g., stoves). They encounter significant ethnic and racial-based hostility and prejudice from Canadian citizens. Many untrue and largely negative stereotypes about them are widely believed. Recommendations are made for effectively teaching these immigrants to survive and thrive in Canada. Immigrant success stories are chronicled in a number of vivid examples. It is concluded that the acquisition of literacy skills in Spanish is a necessary first step before acquiring similar literacy in English or French. Literacy is viewed as more than just reading and writing, but a necessary tool for problem solving in every-day life in a modern society. Other useful resources are provided. (KFT)

This study explored connections between perceived academic ability level, academic and social involvement, and interaction across race/ethnicity in informal campus situations. Data were obtained from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program 1987 freshmen survey and 1991 followup survey and the Higher Education Research Institute faculty survey scales on faculty perceptions of campus climate. The sample consisted of 4,138 White, African American, Latino, and Asian American students attending 291 four-year institutions. Students who rated themselves among the highest ability categories at college entry were more likely to enroll in honors programs, be elected to a student office, and become resident advisors. Students who rated themselves in the lowest and the middle categories of ability were more likely to be employed off campus, join a fraternity/sorority, and spend more time partying. Students who rated themselves as low ability were more likely to participate in intercollegiate sports and spend time socializing with friends. High ability students were more likely than medium and low ability groups to frequently dine, study, room with, and date someone of a different racial/ethnic background. Students who rated themselves in the lowest ability category were least likely to interact across race or ethnicity. (Contains 31 references.) (SW)

This study examined how high-achieving Latino college students perceive the receptivity of their institutions to a Latino presence on campus. The multi-institutional study had the prime objective of identifying areas for institutional improvement and increasing awareness by college administrators of specific campus climate issues facing talented Latino students. The study examined student background characteristics, college structural characteristics, general campus climate measures, and student behaviors as determinants of a perceptual measure of an institution's racial/ethnic tension. Data are presented from 859 sophomores and juniors attending 224 colleges. Sample participants included 386 Chicanos, 198 Puerto Ricans, and 275 other Latinos (students who categorized themselves as Cuban, Latin or Central American, or other Hispanic). Results indicated that students believe they face social inequalities due to systematic discrimination and tend to perceive racial tension and report discrimination on their campus. Students with lower academic self-ratings also are more likely to perceive tension on campus. Low racial/tension and fewer experiences of discrimination were reported for campuses where the Latino students perceived campus administrators as open and responsive to student concerns. Results suggest actions and attitudes conveyed by faculty and administrators play an important role in setting a tone on campus that makes all students feel valued. (Contains 35 references.) (GLR)

This paper examines the impact of ethnic segmentation in education on educational outcomes. Between 1991 and the late 1990s, the Albanian Kosovar population received education services in an informal system parallel to the official one. Using the 2000 Kosovo Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) data, this paper exploits cohort differences in exposure to the parallel system to estimate its effects among Albanian youth. The first cohort includes individuals who entered secondary education before 1991, when the "parallel" education system was initiated. The second cohort includes individuals who entered secondary school in the last 10 years under the ethnically segmented education system. In order to disentangle the effects of the changing system and economic environment, and changes in the characteristics of the population, a Oaxaca-type decomposition is used. The results suggest that the last decade of ethnic tension has claimed a substantial toll on the educational outcomes of young male Albanian Kosovars. In addition to declines in enrollment rates in secondary education, those who are enrolled are expected to complete 1 less year in education. However, secondary school enrollment for girls increased during the parallel system, but with a sharp decline in the expected numbers of years completed. (Contains 17 references.) (SM)

The social, political, and ideological underpinnings of recent policy initiatives relating to language and culture in Australian society, in particular, those of concern to ethnic minority groups, are examined in this paper. The development of a policy for immigrant ethnic minorities has always been quite distinct in comparison with the indigenous minority, the Aboriginal groups, who by virtue of their historical and political status in society made different claims and demands on the state regarding matters such as cultural maintenance and language policy. This paper seeks to accomplish three main objectives. The first is to develop an understanding of how language has become manifest as an issue of public policy through an historical overview of the development of social policy in relation to migrants and ethnic groups during the last four decades. The second objective is to expose to critical scrutiny the rationale and some of the hidden and often unstated assumptions that lay behind these policies. Thirdly, given the continuing dominance of language and culture in policy development, the paper attempts to present the case for a paradigm shift away from a preoccupation with culture towards one more attuned to the current social reality and emerging needs of Australian society. (DB)

This paper examines the contradictory data of research studies on bilingual education from the viewpoint that such data will make sense only if we consider bilingual education as the result of societal factors rather than as the cause of certain behaviors in children. Schermerhorn's theoretical framework for research on ethnic relations (with the independent variables of sequences of interaction, degree of enclosure, and degree of control) is utilized in an attempt to account for the various results of bilingual education programs. Wallace's scheme of revitalization movements is also briefly touched upon. (Author)

In order to design a cognitive model of ethnic attitudes, an interdisciplinary project has analyzed strategies used in everyday conversation among majority members about minority groups, e.g., immigrant workers from Turkey and Morocco and people from Surinam. Data were collected through undirected interviews among people in an Amsterdam neighborhood where a relatively high percentage of ethnic minorities live. Following background information and a discussion of the general notion of strategy, a detailed discussion points out the complex sequences of social interaction, which involve pragmatic, semantic, stylistic, and rhetorical discourse strategies. Subtle discourse analysis of the transcribed interviews suggests hypotheses about the contents, representation, and strategic uses of ethnic attitudes (and prejudice, in particular). Strategic moves may be defined at several layers of analysis and along several dimensions. Also, it appears that quite a number of moves and move sequences appear to be typical for talk about ethnic minorities. These moves are categorized as dissimulation (e.g., vagueness, presupposition), defense (justification, explanation of attitudes), accusation (blaming, negative experiences with ethnic groups), and positive self-presentation. Future research will involve an analysis between specific kinds of prejudiced beliefs and specific moves and strategies. Transcripts of some interviews are presented in English and Dutch. (KC)

The ethnic factor in public education is the main focus of this paper. Among those playing leading roles in the society, there is a general tendency to underestimate the importance of ethnicity as a factor in group life, and usefulness of knowledge about ethnic groupings in America as an aid in coping with social problems, and, perhaps more vital, as a resource available for strengthening and enriching our national existence, including the educational experience. Along with down grading of ethnicity, a series of other issues is addressed: the public school's failure to live up to its expectations to serve as a means of upward mobility for the lower socioeconomic classes, the necessity of ethnic studies, the salience of ethnicity, and ethnic succession. The relative neglect of the historical and contemporary fact of the very close correlation in American life of both class and ethnicity has led to a lack of preciseness and a lack of appreciation of the relative importance of differential ethnicity. It is suggested that perhaps the single most important goal a complicated, dynamic, and diverse society must learn in order to achieve and to educate its young to strive for, is the fostering of a new pluralism. (Author/AM)

In this study of ethnic attitudes in the Netherlands, the cognitive nature of prejudice and its manifestation in discourse are examined. In the Netherlands, in formal and public situations, overt discrimination is exceptional or indirect; however, in more informal situations negative ethnic attitudes are evident. Historical and socio-cultural reasons are discussed. A random sample of 50 Dutch persons were asked what they liked and disliked about living in Amsterdam and what they thought about foreigners. The interviews were casual encounters in public places. The ethnic opinions expressed are systematised and described in terms of ethnic group schemata. A systematic discourse analysis is made of the thematic structures, the local coherence and semantic functions, the stylistic and rhetorical structures, the argumentations and narrative structures, and the controversial strategies of the interviews. It is shown that these various structures can be interpreted as indications about the underlying structures and strategies of opinions and their expression in social situations. (RM)

As part of a larger study (not discussed) ten educated Malaysian citizens were interviewed to find whether their rising political consciousness, over a ten year period (1988-1999), indicated that their transformation was influenced by their culture. The subjects were between 35-45 years old, married, with an average of four children. All were members of the majority race, Malay, and held membership in the United Malay National Organization (UMNO), the biggest political party in Malaysia. The following research questions guided the study: (1) What triggered individuals' transformations; and (2) what facilitated the transformation to occur. Voting patterns in the 10th General Election of 1999 were meshed with interview transcripts. Two themes emerged from the data: (1) abhorrence of political scandals and upheavals during 1998-1999; and (2) a feeling of being intellectually demeaned (lied to by government authorities). The major conclusion of the study was that a political event could trigger perspective shifts and lead to transformative learning if it is perceived as threatening to the communal cultural identity. A second conclusion was that the methods used to handle the national crisis were against participants' cultural and religious values. The researchers believe the study contributed to theoretical explanations of transformative learning among individuals in a developing country. (The bibliography lists 28 references). (AJ)

There are circumstances under which ethnicity becomes the basis for political action in contemporary America. For example, the uncertain orientation of Cape Verdeans' political participation in New Bedford stems from the complex nature of their ethnic identity. Despite cultural dissimilarities from and limited contact with blacks in New Bedford, Cape Verdeans have not wholly escaped being identified as blacks by others. And, because of racial status distinctions in American Society, most Cape Verdeans prefer to maintain their ties to the larger Portuguese community in the city. However, the lack of continuing political organization in New Bedford, black political activism in the 1960s, and an eye toward potential political gain encouraged many Cape Verdeans to join the United Front thus adopting the rhetoric of black identity. When circumstances began to change relatively early in the life of the United Front, more traditional patterns of politics were followed. As a result, the United Front lost most of its political influence. When gains anticipated by the Cape Verdeans did not materialize, the Cape Verdean ethnic identification reappeared. The realities of ethnic stratification in New Bedford overcame the political alliance between Cape Verdeans and resident blacks. (EB)

Part of an overall study of the nonverbal behavior of Chinese bilinguals consisted of research to determine the extent to which the perceptual patterns of bilinguals in a cross-cultural environment are affected by the manipulation of variables for topic, ethnicity, and language. Sixty-four female university students were interviewed on videotape by either a Chinese or an American partner, on either friendship or cultural differences, and in either English or Cantonese. Subjects completed a 20-item semantic differential scale on which they rated themselves and their partner. Results indicated that the subjects rated the American interviewers more positively than the Chinese interviewers, but had a marked preference for the use of Cantonese during the interviews. One plausible reason for the first result is that the subjects were English majors who by virtue of this choice were moving away from an ethnic enclosure and preservation mentality. (Author)

Researchers have pointed to cultural diversity as a major source of conflict in our nation's schools, noting that these conflicts have the potential to escalate into violence. This study seeks to identify the types of intercultural encounters that young people themselves find troublesome. Participants were 906 sixth graders in 12 elementary schools in a large, ethnically diverse school district. Each student was asked to write an answer to the following: Describe the best thing that's ever happened to you with a person of another ethnic background; Describe the worst thing that's ever happened to you with a person of another ethnic background. Responses were content analyzed. The results were 8 categories for "best" responses and 11 categories for "worst" responses. This paper identifies and describes the 11 categories for "worst" responses, thus providing a view of what sixth graders find to be the most troublesome intercultural encounters. (Contains 12 references.) (Author/RS)

This paper examines research on multicultural education and multiculturalism and two forces, prevailing social and political dimensions, that impinge upon the full implementation of multiculturalism in higher education curriculum. Multicultural education is defined as one that incorporates the concepts of cross-cultural understanding and reflects an underlying principle that different groups learn and benefit from each other. Many educators, however, are inadequately prepared to incorporate multiculturalism, and because curriculum affects all students, faculty, and departments on campus, discussions surrounding multiculturalizing the college curriculum generally become a matter of political discourse rather than an act of intellectual and educational integrity. Various approaches to incorporating multiculturalism in the college curriculum are explored, and 15 social conditions and problems that hinder the development of multiculturalism, including racism, are delineated. These social problems, it is argued, must be addressed in the context of political problems such as the lack of strong legislative backing, how and when subject matter is determined, teaching from a politically correct position, better training for faculty especially with exposure to different ethnic groups, concepts of ethnic and women's studies, academic power structures and the traditional curriculum, and the legitimacy of diversity- or culturally-related courses. Finally, the paper lists a number of strategies organizations can follow to avoid pitfalls in multiculturalizing curriculum, as well as suggestions for individuals on reshaping their approaches to multiculturalism. (Contains 71 references.) (ND)

Relying upon the conceptual constructs from international relations, politics, and sociology, this study analyzes education policy and political socialization processes in the developing multiethnic/national societies with specific reference to Pakistan. The paper descriptively analyzes Pakistan social studies curriculum as an instrument of socialization that reflects the impact political changes at the national level have had on the curriculum during the Cold War era. The paper also provides a trend analysis of successive Pakistani governments and their perceptions of a national identity as demonstrated in the curriculum. (DB)