Search

The social movements of the 1960s and the subsequent growth in racialized immigrants played a key role in introducing social knowledges into a variety of academic subjects and developing a number of interdisciplinary fields such as Third World Studies, Ethnic Studies, Women's Studies, Cultural Studies and Queer Studies. Background to the development of Ethnic Studies as an interdisciplinary subject is given.

The author recommends increased emphasis on interethnic conflict around the world as part of an education in pluralism. Educators have been set the task of overcoming intolerance and heading off conflict in an increasingly diverse society. A widespread response has been to require students to study other cultures and evaluate them in relativist terms to achieve a tolerant pluralism. This 'way of life' approach tends to essentialize culture and inhibit the consideration of interactions between societies or of conflicts within them. By contrast, an approach focusing on conflict and context rather than, or in addition to, studying ways of life would be more effective in fostering intergroup understanding. Instead of relativizing, students would face difficult issues and make judgments., According to a Washington, DC joke of the 1980s, you could tell where the civil wars and social breakdowns were by noting what ethnic restaurants were opening up. Perhaps the [...]

The strategies for teaching about ethnic minority families must be based on ethical considerations. Students must be taught to develop a tolerant and sympathetic attitude toward the racially discriminated minority in the society. They must be made aware of the problems faced by the families and their impact on the society at large. The educators must first try to rid the students of their preconceived notions and prejudices before teaching them to seek commonalities between them and the segregated minority.

The colonialist outlook of core-periphery relationship that informs most archaeological investigations of frontiers and boundaries is problematic. A study recognizes three problems with colonial models of territorial expansion, maintenance of boundaries and homogenous populations. The problems include an approach to culture change which considers frontiers as passive adaptation of core innovations, the dependence on macro scales of analysis, and the assumption that there are always sharp frontier boundaries seen in material culture migrations.

This article utilizes three areas of knowledge derived from field theory to conceptualize and analyze the planning and conduct of conflict management workshops for Arab and Jewish youth in Israel. The three areas of knowledge are ethnic identity and majority-minority relations, a theory of individual change within a social group, and principles of action research. The central field-theoretical concepts in each of these areas were applied to contemporary conflict management workshops. Among the products of this action research were changes in participants' attitudes, development of methods for the training and support of trainers, and accumulated knowledge regarding the differences between the two ethnic groups in communication and interpersonal styles.

Students' experiences of coursework on culture and identity Writing about your own ethnic background or that of friends can be rewarding and can help with the rest of the course […]