The autobiographical stories of one college student about her childhood are used to help prospective teachers at Brooklyn College (New York) understand individual and child psychology in social context, particularly the roles of adults in the child's world. This may be useful to teachers in understanding their own relationships with students. (MSE)

Addresses the dearth of literature about preparing teachers to teach African American students, the attempts by scholars to fill this void, and the need for ongoing research in this area, highlighting: the uniqueness of the African American cultural experience; strategies for improving teacher preparation (e.g., autobiography, restructured field…

This book synthesizes over 100 autobiographical accounts by American Indians recalling their schooling in government and missionary institutions. From 1850 to 1930, such schools were established or supported by the federal government to "civilize" Indian children through acculturation. Chapters cover: (1) the use of autobiographical…

The rationale for using critical autobiography projects in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction is discussed, and procedures for implementation are outlined. Writing a critical autobiography involves the student's presenting a personal narrative while exploring external factors influencing his life. Critical experiences in life provide…

The concept of liberty has been in the forefront of the minds of African Americans ever since the beginning of slavery, and its importance continues to the present. To cope with the inability to achieve complete freedom, and with the oppressive state created by a lack of liberty, they developed ways to express their feelings about the elusiveness…

An initiation ceremony which marks the passage from adolescence to adulthood in an African village is the topic of this learning module for elementary and secondary students. A reading is adapted from the autobiography of a Guinean youth who participated in the initiation experience with other boys in his village at the age of 12 years. A lesson…

This selective listing of books for children in grades K-8 is organized by the following categories: American history, culture, and life; world history and culture; biographies and autobiographical accounts; folktales, myths and legends and storytelling; poetry and rhyme; contemporary interests and controversies; and understanding oneself and…

Twenty-five undergraduate preservice teachers in the literacy block (a six credit hour block of reading and language arts methods courses) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wrote their literacy autobiographies to fulfill one of the course requirements. These autobiographies help students' develop insights into their literacy past and present.…

Thomas Wildcat Alford, born of parents of the Absentee Shawnee tribe of Indians in 1860, relates the story of his life and of his tribe during the period from which the influence of the white race first began to be felt, up to when the so-called civilization of the white man superceded almost to annihilation the old tribal mode of life. The book…

An interracial team of teachers and regional consultants worked together revising this ten-year-old book on the teaching of black literature. The first section discusses black literature in terms of its discovery, tradition, and affective aspects; outlines goals and objectives for the course; presents a historical survey of black American writers;…

Investigates a variety of instructional strategies and teaching methods used in a graduate level multicultural education class. These included autobiographical analysis, role playing, and dialog journals, as well as, more traditional methods such as guest speakers and lectures. Discusses how the insights gained could be used in future research.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the personal conceptualizations of pre-service music education students by focusing on how they talked about learning to teach music in the context of cultural diversity, and to probe the relationships among these conceptualizations prior to, during, and after an immersion internship experience in a…

This book is an autobiographical effort to understand life as a person and as a high school English teacher, and how those two lives have intertwined. The text examines how the author, trained in certain ways, thinks of herself as a professional person. In addition to the subject of the teaching of reading and writing, the author explores how her…

This study examines the K-12 mathematical experiences of U.S. university students via an expressive writing assignment: a mathematical autobiography essay. The essays of 67 college students, out of over 300 enrolled in 16 sections of a college liberal arts mathematics course, were analyzed using constant-comparative methods. Two categories of…

Maintains that personal and family history assignments in an Asian American history course allow for an effective balance between scholarly inquiry and personal discovery. Describes the experiences and reactions of several undergraduate classes that used this approach. Discusses the benefits and problems inherent in studying oral histories and…