The author learned that the book "The Catcher in the Rye," so important to him as a young man, had been challenged by adults and could easily have been barred from his school's reading list. He started thinking about who had the power to tell him what he could and could not read as a teenager and as a high school student. What were the…

This paper examines the ways in which gender, religion, ethnicity and class intertwine in a state religious girl's junior high school in Israel. It is based on ethnographic data collected from 1999-2002, including interviews with staff and students and observations of classes and other school events. The claim is made that in this school,…

This overview of the current state of English for specific purposes (ESP) begins by surveying ongoing debates on key topics: needs assessment and its goals, specificity in instructional methods, and the role of subject knowledge in instructor expertise. Two strands of current theory and research are next surveyed, namely, genre theory and…

This paper presents an exploratory study, using an ethnographic approach, of linguistically and ethnically diverse parents interacting with their children. Subjects included three Persian-speaking families, three Chaldeans, and three Euro-American families; children were aged 4-5 years. Goals were to understand cross cultural communication,…

Classroom language and literacy practices need to be reconceptualized to account for the valuable role talk and interaction play in the process of learning to write. Teachers should construct learning environments within which interaction between students and teachers is the primary focus. The participation framework of kindergarten journal…

The Home and School Learning Contexts Study was conducted in Kosrae State (Federated States of Micronesia) by the Pacific Region Educational Laboratory to obtain data on learning styles at home and in the primary grades, to develop recommendations for integrating home and school learning styles, to implement the recommendations in the primary…

This paper describes two culturally-sensitive longitudinal studies of normal development of Puerto Rican adolescents and children growing up in the United States. A number of areas pertinent to Puerto Ricans and other minorities that have previously been neglected are studied. Both projects are grounded in a cultural-ecological approach in which…

This paper describes and reflects on the pedagogical meaning of a festival held to showcase and celebrate Latin American culture in a North Carolina town undergoing a cultural transition as its Latino population grows. Following a successful event the previous year, a 2-day festival was organized to include a soccer tournament, booths selling…

This paper examines elementary education in Brazil, including the most important and difficult problems teachers and teacher educators face, and the main theories and theoretical frameworks that researchers have used in studying these problems. Elementary school teachers complete a special course, corresponding to high school rather than…

This guide provides history, format, contact names, addresses, and phone numbers of some African dance and African American marching units in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). The working papers are divided into two categories. "Part One: Movements of African Dance in Philadelphia" begins with a sensitive, detailed explanation of the…

A study described, analyzed, and interpreted the ways an effective high school teacher used literacy activities (reading, writing, and discussion) to teach chemistry to first-year chemistry students. The teacher selected was considered effective by peers and students and professed to intentionally use literacy activities as a means of teaching…

The Dalton School, an independent, progressive school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, was founded in 1919 by Helen Parkhurst. She established a child-centered school that attempted to incorporate the concept of a democratic community within the boundaries of an educational program. The school's innovative program became known as the Dalton…

This paper discusses miscommunication in speech acts, speech act research, and applications in the classroom. A new model of speech acts proposed by Celce-Murcia, Dornyei, and Thurrell is discussed. The distinguishing feature of this model is that the pivotal center is discourse competence. Discourse competence interacts with the three subfields…

By looking at three high school assemblies, this paper addresses the resolution of a tension generated by the interplay of the American egalitarian belief in the right of all persons to equal educational opportunities and the potentially countervailing belief in individualism and individual achievement. That is, while American society espouses a…

An urban high school English/journalism class used the production of a community-focused newspaper as a strategy for the self-determination of young African Americans. The intervention emphasized social relations--focusing on specific verbal and social skills which young people can use in determining and reaching a variety of communication goals…