The American Mosaic

The Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College, CUNY conducted a series of four conferences on the impact of America's increasingly diverse society on the curriculum of schools of library/information science. Each of the conferences had a library/information center type as its focus. Each addressed issues of administration, reference services, and collection management. The overall findings and some recommendations are included.     

Express acceptance or feel anxiety? The effects of trait-related information about foreign residents on endorsement of multiculturalism

Apart from direct contact, people also familiarize themselves with other groups through indirect information. For example, as previous studies have revealed, indirect information on personality traits of outgroup members have influences on intergroup attitudes. Extending existing work, the current study specifically examined the effects of such indirect information on people’s endorsement of multiculturalism, a set of attitudes regarding the attainment of harmonious coexistence among diverse cultural groups. Based on the Stereotype Content Model, two experiments were conducted to investigate how media coverage and social consensus information about moral, social and competence-related traits of foreign residents in China would affect local people’s endorsement of multiculturalism. In experiment 1, when participants learned from the news that foreigners in China possessed high competence, they expressed more appreciation towards the cultural diversity that foreigners brought to the local society, but less support for foreign residents maintaining their own cultural traditions. In experiment 2, participants who learned that other local people perceived foreign residents as having high sociability, morality or competence showed more appreciation towards cultural diversity and more support for maintaining such diversity. Furthermore, in both experiments, perceived anxiety played a mediating role in how indirect trait-related information affected local people’s support for maintaining cultural diversity. Lastly, possible explanations for some unexpected findings and implications for future research are discussed.     

论运动休闲产业的国际化与本土化之辩证发展

运动休闲产业在中国是一个新兴产业,在西方运动休闲传入中国并与中国传统休闲理念的冲突与博弈中曲折发展。作为一种具有强烈文化性的产业,它必定会在国际化与本土化的艰难选择中不断实现文化多元化的产业特征构建,而从另一个角度看,运动休闲的国际化与本土化的双重特征的博弈正是促进该产业长足发展的动力所在。     

Acculturation preferences of majority and minority adolescents in Germany in the context of society and family

Four hundred and fifteen adolescents (134 German majority and 281 minority members) completed a questionnaire which measured attitudes towards acculturation, life satisfaction and intergroup relation variables. German majority members preferred integration followed by assimilation (according to Berry's taxonomy), while minority members had a clear preference for integration. Integration was more strongly associated with favourable intergroup relations and, in the case of minority members, life satisfaction, than the other acculturation orientations. Furthermore the study showed that discrepancies between own acculturation attitudes and perceived attitudes of the other group may influence life satisfaction and intergroup attitudes. Perceived acculturation preferences of the respondents’ parents were also examined. German majority adolescents perceived their parents’ attitudes as more favourable to exclusion than their own, and minority members perceived their parents’ attitudes as leaning more towards separation than their own. In the majority sample, these discrepancies were not related to any of the outcome variables, but in the minority sample they influenced life satisfaction, perceived quality of intergroup relations, and tolerance.     

教育理想的构筑——杜威民主主义与多元文化主义的比较研究

古今中外,无论哪个教育家、教育流派或教育思潮都守候着自己的一份教育理想,用不同的理论、经验和信念构筑心里美好的教育未来。杜威用民主主义教育思想构建了"民主共同体",多元文化教育提出了"文化共融"的理想社会状态。杜威的民主教育思想所构筑的社会理想与多元文化教育所规划的世界图景表现出来的相似性,并不是简单的时代上的连续性,更像是对理想社会核心价值诉求的借鉴与超越。     

Inside and outside the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel: Teachers’ perceptions of personal, professional and political positioning

The purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers of the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel construct their school culture in relation to various outside pressures in their attempt to achieve educational change. Field notes from an in-service training workshop were analyzed according to three levels of the teaching context: the personal, professional and political. It was found that the teachers perceive themselves as primarily pedagogical experts with a shared vision based on multiculturalism and coexistence. According to the findings, recommendations are made for improving the positioning of the teachers in relation to pupils, parents and policy-makers.     

Does normative multiculturalism foster or threaten social cohesion?

The study advances a tri-dimensional model of multiculturalism that highlights the importance of perceived societal norms, i.e., the extent to which one’s society is perceived as characterized by culturally diverse groups in contact with one another (Multicultural Contact, MC), a widespread appreciation of cultural diversity (Multicultural Ideology, MI), and multicultural policies and practices (MPP) to support and accommodate that diversity. A community sample of 143 Hispanics and 141 non-Hispanic Whites in the United States completed an online survey that examined perceptions of normative MC, MI and MPP as predictors of trust and national attachment, key indicators of social cohesion. The results indicated that MI, MC and MPP predict greater national attachment and that MI predicts greater trust; however, the positive effects of MI are limited to Hispanics and not found for Whites. The findings point to the conclusion that normative multiculturalism is more likely to foster than to threaten social cohesion.