Effective Writing Assessment and Instruction for Young English Language Learners

The total number of English Language Learners in the American public schools is more than 4.5 million students or 9.6% of the total school population. This article focuses on instructional writing strategies and assessments for English Language Learners in the elementary classroom. This article provides early childhood education teachers with information about differences amongst English Language Learners because they are not a homogenous group. English Language Learners’ academic abilities can range from emergent readers, writers, and speakers of English to proficient readers, writers, and speakers of English.     

Mutual attitudes among immigrants and ethnocultural groups in Canada

The domain of intercultural relations comprises two parallel sets of phenomena: acculturation and ethnic relations. These have usually been studied in isolation from each other, but their intersection is of increasing importance for understanding intercultural relations in plural societies. Although this mutual view of intercultural relations has long been recognised, there has been an imbalance in the research carried out: acculturation studies have been predominantly done with the non-dominant groups, and ethnic attitudes have been studied mainly among dominant populations. Beginning in the 1970s, we began a program of research to redress this imbalance with studies in Canada. We examined the acculturation expectations held by the dominant population with respect to immigrants and ethnocultural groups, using the concept of multicultural ideology; we also examined the ways in which dominant groups change and respond to the presence of such groups using concepts of security (both cultural and economic), tolerance, and ethnic attitudes. More recently, we have developed a research instrument to continue this program. The International Study of Attitudes Towards Immigration and Settlement examines the views of members of various ethnocultural groups in a number of countries. This paper reviews the research framework and some findings from these studies among various members of the larger society. The role of a number of demographic and psychological variables related to attitudes toward the kinds and numbers of immigrants are presented. Some conclusions and implications are then discussed.     

自我身份与文化：中国高校中“国际化”教学实践的人类学思考

"国际化"教学是目前中国高校中正在兴起的一大趋势.它不仅是跨国教育产业发展的结果,也是多元文化交流的表现.然而,在国际化教学实践中,却经常出现中国学生与外国学生不断两元化的问题.这不仅有悖"文化交流"的初衷,更阻碍了高校教育"国际化"的文化进程.本文通过四个教学案例,从三个方面对"国际化"教学进行讨论:首先,可以把中国教育界的"国际化"放置于"多元文化主义"的框架内研究,从而和欧美教育界相关问题接轨,以利于今后进一步深入交流;其次,课堂实践中的中国/外国学生身份认知反映了对自我、文化和代表的核心概念的认知问题,因此在身份认知的框架下讨论就能更好地阐释相关实践问题;最后,当代人类学方法论不仅提供了本文的田野研究方法,而且指导笔者进行国际化课堂的实践.本文意欲提倡在"跨国多元文化主义"框架内对"国际学生"身份的同一认知,以改变目前中国/外国两元身份认知的现状及其带来的不利影响.     

Valuing indigenous knowledge: to call it “science” will not help

In this commentary on Brayboy and Castagno’s paper, published in this volume, we discuss, on the one hand, many points of agreement between their proposal of culturally responsive schooling for indigenous youth and El-Hani and Mortimer’s proposal of culturally-sensitive science education. On the other hand, we focus on a key disagreement, not only with Brayboy and Castagno, but with a whole body of literature on multicultural, postcolonialist, postmodernist education. The main point of disagreement lies in the fact that we are not sure that to broaden the concept of science so as to talk about “native science” or “indigenous science” is indeed the best strategy to attain a goal that we wholeheartedly share with Brayboy and Castagno, to value other ways of knowing for their own sake, validity, and legitimacy.

Engaging with history after Macpherson

The Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) identifies a key role for education, and more specifically history, in promoting ‘race equality’ in Britain. In this article Ian Grosvenor and Kevin Myers consider the extent of young people's current engagement with the history of ‘diversity, change and immigration’ which underpins the commitment to ‘race equality’. Finding that in many of Britain's schools and universities a singular and exclusionary version of history continues to dominate the curriculum, they go on to consider the reasons for the neglect of multiculturalism. The authors identify the development of an aggressive national identity that depends on the past for its legitimacy and argue that this sense of the past is an important obstacle to future progress.     

Measuring the preconditions for a successful multicultural society: A barometer test of New Zealand

The study examined the preconditions for multiculturalism in the New Zealand context as enumerated by Berry, Kalin, and Taylor (1977) and Berry and Kalin (1995). Using data from a New Zealand national probability sample (n = 5862), we assessed ethnic group differences in: ethnic equality positioning as an indicator of support for diversity; race-based rejection as a measure of prejudice and intolerance; affective ratings of warmth as an indicator of positive ethnic attitudes; patriotism as an indicator of attachment to New Zealand society; and perceptions of realistic threat and expectations of economic security as indicators of a confident identity. Consistent with the preconditions for achieving a multicultural society, expectations of race-based rejection were uncommon, intergroup feelings were generally warm, perceived threat was moderately low, expectations for future security were moderate and fairly comparable across groups, and all groups expressed high levels of patriotism. However, New Zealanders resisted a resource-specific multicultural ideology that involves race-based interventions to reduce social inequality. There was also evidence that the level of warmth towards Asian New Zealanders, the most recent and rapidly growing immigrant group, was lower than that towards other ethnic groups. The findings are discussed in relation to socio-political issues, including tensions between biculturalism and multiculturalism, and the obstacles to reducing social inequality across ethnic groups.     

Is cultural group representation a fair option? Adolescents’ evaluations of forms of decision-making in multicultural Mauritius

Social psychological research on multiculturalism has mostly looked at recognition of differences and much less at equitable participation. The present study investigated adolescents’ fairness judgements of three democratic decision-making procedures (representative democracy, equal group representation, and proportional group representation) and one nondemocratic procedure (cultural group oligarchy) among Hindu (N = 844), Muslim (N = 630) and Creole (N = 310) adolescents in Mauritius. We examined these judgements in two different contexts (i.e. school and national), and in relation to ethnic group identification, age and gender. Results show that representative democracy was viewed as the fairest decision-making procedure and cultural group oligarchy as the most unfair one. The group representation procedures were judged as relatively unfair although there were significant differences by ethnic group, age and gender. Strength of ethnic identification was linked to higher fairness ratings of democratic group representation procedures. The results are discussed in terms of morality, group positions and ideological representations of the Mauritian nation.     

Heterogeneity in national identity construct: Example of Singapore using network analysis

Singapore has been undergoing a negotiation of its national identity as it celebrated its fifty years of independence. The seemingly lack of consensus on the nation’s identity has brought about much heated debates about Singapore’s governance. However, the construction of one’s definition of national identity is often shaped not by the political discourse but by what one has experienced in his or her formative years. Citizens who experienced different stages of nationhood are hence likely to develop different interpretations of what it means to be a citizen of the nation. In this study, using network analysis, we sought to examine how the definition of national identity differed between citizens who were born before Singapore’s independence, and hence experienced the early nation-building phase of the country, vis-à-vis citizens who were born after the country’s independence. 1000 native Singaporeans indicated which of the 27 identity markers were important for an immigrant to have to be accepted as a Singaporean. The analysis revealed that there were differences in the number of clusters within the identity networks of individuals born before versus after Singapore’s independence. The strength of the identity network of individuals born before independence was also stronger. Using simulated networks, we also showed how a change in endorsement of more influential markers had stronger effect on the overall identity network than a change in endorsement of less influential markers among individuals born before independence.     

多元文化主义、多元文化教育和美国的文学教学

七、八十年代以来,美国兴起多元文化主义及多元文化主义教育同传统思想的斗争。前者要求在文化和教育上更多地体现多样性,体现少数种族和妇女等弱势群体的文化和价值观;后者则强调文化的统一性,认为多元文化主义及多元文化教育会导致美国社会的分裂。九十年代前后美国各界围绕文学教学中改革和反改革的争论实质是其具体体现。     

Children and Place: Stories We Have, Stories We Need

Given existing curricula, instructional and assessment practices, teacher preparation programs, and multicultural education approaches, schools can be unhelpful places for students who are not at least middle class and politically white. Critical theory offers a range of conceptual frameworks for understanding and addressing these injustices but teachers find the ideas difficult to learn or to practice in classrooms. Increased attention to the use of stories is suggested to support individual and collective transformation and growth for teachers, students, and communities.