Robert E. Salsbury - Böcker

School systems around the world have been searching for ways to help engender better interpersonal relations among all persons within their borders. Achieving this goal is difficult when students have had limited cross-cultural experiences. This reference book examines developments in multicultural education in 42 representative countries from around the world. Each chapter examines the history and structure of the school system in a particular country, and discusses efforts to promote multicultural education. Chapters cite current literature, and an extensive bibliography concludes the work.Many countries are composed of highly diversified, pluralistic peoples who cry out for recognition and dignity. As a result, school systems around the world have been searching for ways to engender better interpersonal relations among all persons within their borders. Achieving this goal has proven difficult when students have had limited cross-cultural experiences. This reference book examines advances in multicultural education in 42 countries from around the world.Chapters are devoted to individual countries and are arranged alphabetically. Included are chapters on industrialized countries such as the United States, France, and Germany, along with countries having different political systems and varied religious perspectives. To foster comparison, each chapter discusses the history of the school system, the structure in which multicultural education must evolve, and recent efforts and developments in multicultural education. Each chapter includes a list of current references, and the volume concludes with an extensive bibliography.

In the study of multicultural education, there are key names, places, concepts, and legal actions which provide a foundation for the field. This reference includes more than 400 entries from a broad range of topics related to multicultural education, which the authors define as education geared toward reducing bias, ensuring equity, and promoting understanding of the self and others. Each item in the encyclopedia has been chosen for its value in illuminating one or more particular concerns in the field. Each entry not only helps to identify and place in an historical perspective a concept, place, person, event, or legal action, but also links that topic to an important aspect of multicultural education.While the encyclopedia provides coverage of numerous terms from the social sciences and discusses various court decisions and historical events, it also includes entries for notable persons from a wide range of cultural groups. These persons exemplify the achievements and diversity of America's many cultures and are often discussed within a multicultural curriculum. In addition, the volume provides entries for cultural and ethnic groups. These entries discuss the educational needs and experiences of the group. Thus there are entries for such groups as African-Americans, Anglo-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Jewish-Americans; for organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith; for several Native American people; for persons, such as George Washington Carver, Geronimo, and Jesse Jackson; and for numerous terms and concepts, such as busing, institutional racism, gender equity, quota systems, and reverse discrimination. Entries provide bibliographic information, and the volume concludes with a selected, general bibliography.

Born during the turbulent years of the 1960s, multicultural education has attempted to help students acquire a more sophisticated understanding of the pluralistic populations of the United States. And as the United States becomes increasingly multicultural, it is necessary for students to learn to live and work effectively with members of different racial and ethnic groups. Each state's experiences with multicultural education vary, and states have emphasized multicultural education to greater and lesser degrees. This reference book is a guide to multicultural education initiatives in the 50 states.After an introductory essay on the development of multicultural education programs, the volume presents alphabetically arranged entries on the status of multicultural education in each state. Because the programs in each state have developed in response to the particular characteristics and experiences of the state's population, each entry begins with a brief history that places special emphasis on the state's cultural groups. The second section discusses the state's educational system, since the system provides a framework for the state's multicultural education initiatives. The third section analyzes the state's creation and implementation of multicultural education policies and programs and draws on responses to a questionnaire. Each entry closes with bibliographic references, and the volume concludes with a selected, general bibliography.