When do people accept cultural diversity?: Affect as determinant

Two experiments examined the influence of affect on the acceptance of cultural diversity. In Experiment 1, the salience of affective reactions towards Turkish immigrants was manipulated by asking German participants to think about their negative feelings towards Turks in general or towards a subgroup of Turks. It was found that the salience of negative affective reactions led to a decreased acceptance when affective reactions were generalized to the whole group, but not when they were attributed to a subgroup. Experiment 2 investigated the moderating role of perceived homogeneity with regards to the impact of affective reactions attributed to a subgroup of Muslim immigrants in Germany. As predicted, the salience of a negative aspect of a subgroup strengthened self-reported and implicitly measured negative attitudes when the perceived homogeneity of the immigrant group was high, but not when it was low.     

Individual | collective dialectic of free‐choice learning in a community‐based mapping project

In this article we describe an instance of free‐choice learning in the context of an eelgrass mapping and stewardship project (the Project) that covers over 500 kilometers of coastline in British Columbia, Canada, and involves 20 volunteer groups. In this ethnographic case study we sought to (a) explicate the relationship between individual and collective learning in this free‐choice setting and (b) understand how a network of Project participants could both constitute a free‐choice learning setting and support such a setting. We articulate a dialectic relationship between individual and collective learning, which, unfortunately in our view, has not yet been explored in educational research. In this relation, collective learning fosters individual learning and vice versa, whereby individuals produce resources in action and as outcomes of their activities. These resources expand the action possibilities of the collective, and thus constitute learning. The stability of the network of Project participants, which brings about and supports collective and therefore individual learning, rests on the flexibility of the Project that enables local innovation and tailoring of mapping activities as well as access to expertise and tools produced by other groups and Project partners. The possibilities that arise in the Project for local people to participate in relevant ways constitute free‐choice learning settings.     

Learning to teach science in urban schools

Teaching in urban schools, with their problems of violence, lack of resources, and inadequate funding, is difficult. It is even more difficult to learn to teach in urban schools. Yet learning in those locations where one will subsequently be working has been shown to be the best preparation for teaching. In this article we propose coteaching as a viable model for teacher preparation and the professional development of urban science teachers. Coteaching—working at the elbow of someone else—allows new teachers to experience appropriate and timely action by providing them with shared experiences that become the topic of their professional conversations with other coteachers (including peers, the cooperating teacher, university supervisors, and high school students). This article also includes an ethnography describing the experiences of a new teacher who had been assigned to an urban high school as field experience, during which she enacted a curriculum that was culturally relevant to her African American students, acknowledged their minority status with respect to science, and enabled them to pursue the school district standards. Even though coteaching enables learning to teach and curricula reform, we raise doubts about whether our approaches to teacher education and enacting science curricula are hegemonic and oppressive to the students we seek to emancipate through education. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 941–964, 2001     

Classroom Animals Provide More Than Just Science Education

Keeping classroom animals is a common practice in many classrooms. Their value for learning is often seen narrowly as the potential to involve children in learning biological science. They also provide opportunities for increased empathy, as well as socio-emotional development. Realization of their potential for enhancing primary children’s learning can be affected by many factors. This paper focuses on teachers’ perceptions of classroom animals, drawing on accounts and reflections provided by 19 participants located in an Australian primary school where each classroom kept an animal. This study aims to progress the conversation about classroom animals, the learning opportunities that they afford, and the issues they present. Phenomenographic analysis of data resulted in five categories of teachers’ perceptions of the affordances and constraints of keeping classroom animals.     

A rationale for differentiated staffing

The improvement of staff utilization practices through the technique of differentiated staffing is the subject of this paper. The authors bring together the various definitions of the term differentiated staffing and propose a more inclusive definition. Drawing from the literature in organizational change, the authors document in a logical and systematic manner the parameters of differentiated staffing and the problems that are likely to be associated with its introduction. The major part of the paper analyzes the potential of differentiated staffing for improving many deficiencies that are apparent in present methods of utilizing professional personnel in the public schools and in the decision-making procedures of those organizations. The authours urge controlled and systematic pilot projects be undertaken before largescale or even system-wide adoption.

---

Résumé Le sujet de cette étude porte sur l'amélioration des méthodes d'utilisation du personnel au moyen de la technique de la différenciation du personnel. Les auteurs regroupent les diverses définitions de l'expression différenciation du personnel et proposent une définition plus globale. En s'inspirant des documents relatifs aux changements structuraux en matière d'organisation, les auteurs appuient sur des documents, d'une manière logique et systématique, leur idée des paramètres de la différenciation du personnel et des problèmes qui vraisemblablement accompagneront sa mise en application. Cette étude est consacrée principalement à l'analyse des possibilités qu'offre la différenciation du personnel en vue d'améliorer les nombreuses lacunes que l'on constate à l'égard des méthodes actuelles d'utilisation du personnel qualifié dans les écoles publiques et au niveau des méthodes de prise de décision des ces organismes. Les auteurs préconisent le recours à des projets pilotes méthodiques et bien dirigés avant que cette nouvelle technique soit adoptée sur une vaste échelle ou même à celle du système.

---

---

The authors wish to express their appreciation to the following for their helpful criticisms of an earlier draft of this paper: Dr. John Brubacher, Dept. of Educational Administration, University of Connecticut, Storrs; Dr. Walter J. Hartrick, Centre for the Study of Education Administration, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Dr. James L. Olivero, The Southwestern Cooperative Educational Laboratory, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dr. Philip J. Runkel, Center for the Advanced Study of Educational Administration, University of Oregon, Eugene.     

A comparison of the development of spatial conceptual abilities of students from two cultures

Efforts are underway to determine if there are any ways unique to Navajo thinking and thus to the way that they might learn. Studies have shown a consistent lag in achievement levels for Native Americans. The purpose of this investigation was to examine spatial thinking abilities of sixth and tenth grade students from 2 locales—a school on the Navajo Reservation and schools in Mesa, Arizona. A battery of 10 Piagetian-type tasks were administered individually to the subjects. A chi-square one sample procedure was used to test for significant differences between subsamples at each grade level. Significant differences were detected for two of the tasks at the sixth grade level, and one task at the tenth grade level. The overall findings of this study support the contention that there were no substantial time delays or advances in the development of selected spatial abilities of Navajo sixth and tenth grade students compared to those of parallel non-American Indian students. The concern of modifying instruction in science courses in order to adapt them to supposed 'different' spatial structures possessed by Navajo students appears to be unfounded.     

Moving Beyond a Deficit Model to Describe and Promote the Career Development of At-Risk Youth

A theoretical framework for understanding the career maturity of diverse groups is needed since the career maturity construct has evolved using white, middle class samples (Cheatham, 1990). Krumboltz holds that career beliefs can be influenced by one's social environment (1991). If career beliefs were related to the career maturity of a diverse group, they could be used to provide a more coherent understanding of the unique social experiences that surround their career maturity. This study examined relationships between the career beliefs and the career maturity of academically at-risk students who were failing core academic courses. Several career beliefs were significantly related to the career maturity of the sample in this study such as the belief that obstacles can be overcome and college/occupation variation. The career beliefs construct appeared to clarify the role that social experiences played on the career maturity of the sample in this study.