Interviews with 182 American Indians in Oklahoma examined the extent to which they were communicatively engaged within and outside the Indian community and the relationship between these two areas of communication and psychological and functional integration into mainstream society. Intraethnic and interethnic communication were positively…

African-American performing and visual-arts scholars comment on the continuing struggle to bring the work of black artists into the full view of the academy's white majority. Some feel the American art culture has been too slow to accept minority expression. Dance programs appear to be increasing in diversity faster than most other arts…

A religion professor reflects on her approach and experiences in teaching an upper-level course on religion and sexual diversity, looking at conditions in the classroom that create the tolerance needed for discussion, the nature of subsequent classroom discussions of the relationship between body and spirit and about celibacy, and student…

This case study narrative of a middle school science teacher's experience of science education and commitment to promoting equity was developed collaboratively by the teacher and a university researcher. It demonstrates how this form of case study can be a way to represent teachers' practical knowledge. (SK)

Examines the discourse of a problem-based learning group in medicine. Offers a sociocultural analysis of the data segment, focusing on the complex agendas pursued by the medical students. Explores the multiple agendas confronting a "transition community," the intra-space and inter-personal issues, and the role of the coach in transition…

Examines ways in which Noah Webster's linguistic theories and work on dictionaries influenced North American English lexicography, arguing that his impact on American education was great because his spellers and dictionaries monopolized a rapidly growing market, and influence on lexicography was substantial because he insisted on the validity of…

Observations of two learning groups of young women studying office administration identified one group as middle-class Anglo-Celtic, the other as working class, varied ethnic groups. They had different cultural assumptions about the teacher's role in assisting student learning; one group recognized their own lack of familiarity with group work.…

Investigates the body concerns of adolescent girls (N=67), together with the underlying motivations for wishes to be thinner. Results of focus group studies reveal that sociocultural influences exerted the strongest pressures to be thin. The girls displayed an unexpected sophistication in their conceptualization of the role of both media effects…

Examines one aspect of the many interfaces between second language (L2) learning and L2 testing. The aspect is the oral interaction--the dialogue--that occurs within small groups. Discusses from within a sociocultural theory of mind, that in a group, performance is jointly constructed and distributed across the participants. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on how knowledge about Japanese psychological development and culture can serve as a corrective to the ethnocentrism of Western theory. Highlights the Japanese cultural concepts of "amae" and "kejime." (Author/KB)

Explores the views some First Nations (Cree) and Euro-Canadian grade 7-level students in Manitoba have about the nature of science. Uses both qualitative and quantitative instruments to explore student views. A central hypothesis to this research program is the possibility that the different world views of two student populations, Cree and…

Discusses autonomy in language related to East-Asian contexts, describing autonomy in language learning, proposing a framework for learners in all contexts, examining three sources of sociocultural influence that could affect students' approaches to learning in East Asia, and considering attitudes and habits of learning that might result from such…

This study focuses on the use of the native language (L1) by second language (L2) learners when carrying out a collaborative jigsaw task in a computer chat environment. It investigates the extent and function of L1 use by means of a sociocultural theoretical framework. The research project was carried out in three languages: Chinese, German, and…

This study focuses on observations of classroom conversation as an approach to assessment of relationships between a teacher's teaching and pupils' learning and identity-development processes. Detailed observation notes from two conventional conversation situations from a first grade classroom are written down as narratives and analysed within a…

The question asked by this study was whether information on play behaviour of young children at-risk of learning difficulties could act as a diagnostic means of investigating emerging learning difficulties. A sociocultural perspective was taken to examine the role of interaction during the play of students in a regular primary school and in a…