Teaching Tolerance

This book presents evidence that childhood prejudice is not only different from the adult kind, but also changes in a pattern inverse to that of moral judgement. Changing Childhood Prejudice describes longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of city and suburban children in grade, middle, and high school. Davidson used interviews to supplement observations made during playing her board game, then compared scores on the prejudice that emerged with scores on Kohlberg's Measure of Moral Development. Considering childhood prejudice as a detour in the possible strong development of caring, character and moral judgement implies a school context smaller, warmer, and more encompassing than one relying only on mainstreaming and multiculturalism. The fact that nearly 40% of the nation's public school children will be from minority backgrounds within a few years requires new goals, including influencing parents. The authors call for school-by-school mission statements drawing parents into cooperative development of anti-prejudice and character curricula, supplementing the leadership of faculty members and some adolescents. New roles for the mental health community are also described. Examining the research of others and their own case studies from cognitive, clinical, and social perspectives, the Davidsons conclude that ways of opposing prejudice and insisting on caring can be adapted to children's changing moral assumptions at each level of schooling. Children's might-makes-right and favor-trading assumptions in grade school change through identification with a conforming goodness. Conformity can be gradually replaced by independence in ideals, particularly when secondary students ponder theirown community service. Coauthored by a clinician and a professional writer, the book tells how to achieve more caring in public schools and more cooperative discipline at home.

Explores the political pressures and influences on teachers today, in particular, how the political actions of the conservative right disempower and control teachers, school districts, parents, and children through an atmosphere of fear used as a strategy to ensure that its political agenda (including increased accountability, high-stakes testing, direct intense direct instruction phonics programs) is followed in schools. The book offers a unique look at not only what the conservative factions are doing buy also why.

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. While many of the entries are for terms and theories related to multicultural education, the volume also provides entries for notable persons from different cultures and relates them to the curriculum. In addition, the book includes entries for particular cultural groups, which examine their educational experiences and needs. Each entry not only helps to identify and place in an historical perspective a particular term, but also links that term to an important aspect of multicultural education. Entries provide bibliographic information, and the volume concludes with a selected, general bibliography.