In this article we investigate the role of parental and family characteristics as explanations for gender differences in children’s education using primary data collected from villages in West Bengal, India in 2007–08. We add to existing research by focusing on the importance of parental perceptions by distinguishing between the stated need for education in general and the need for education for girls to investigate the pathways through which girls’ education may be improved. Results show that while girls are being enrolled at the same rate as boys when young, they are being withdrawn at much higher rates as they get older, often for marriage or financial reasons. Multivariate analyses show significant gender bias in education among the older sample (17 years and over) and some important differences among predictors for male and female education for both samples. For the older sample, financial constraints are more important for curtailing a daughter’s education than a son’s education. Among the indicators of parental perception, the expectation of economic independence for girls has a positive effect on girls’ education, but parental expectation of the enhancement of traditional roles (as wives and mothers) through girls’ education has a beneficial effect on boys’ education.

This article offers insights into conceptual, pedagogical, and programmatic crossings and conflicts between the fields of Environmental Studies and Ethnic Studies. It highlights both the important intersections between the two fields and their potential value, while also addressing the challenges posed in the development of programmatic collaborations. Utilizing case studies drawn from the author’s own experiences, the article’s focus is on harnessing the strengths and limitations of both fields to promote transformative knowledge and action at multiple scales.

Some thirty years before Harriet Ann Jacobs opened the Jacobs Free School in Alexandria, Virginia in January 1864, one of her first students was her fifty-threeyear-old uncle, Fred. The seventeen-year-old Harriet appreciated her uncle's “most earnest desire to learn to read” and promised to teach him. 1 As slaves, both teacher and student risked the punishment of “thirtynine lashes on [the] bare back” as well as imprisonment for violating North Carolina's anti-literacy laws targeting African Americans. 2 Nevertheless they agreed to meet three times a week in a “quiet nook” where she instructed him in secret. 3 While the primary goal for him was to read the Bible, this moment in Jacobs' slave narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl revealed her early commitment to African American literacy and education as well as her rejection of the laws of American slavery. In that moment, the vocations of education and abolition took root for Harriet Jacobs.

A 2002 review of the course requirements and electives of Economics, History, Political Science, and Sociology programs in thirty randomly selected state and private, “doctoral-level” and “masters-level” institutions produced 201 courses relating to the study of race-and ethnic-related issues. Only two courses (History offerings on a single campus) were required for completion of a major. While some departments offered “concentrations” with mandated content, the concentrations themselves were elective. Diversity in America today is a truly important component of social (re)organization and change and, thus, a major source of social friction . Why is it, then, that students, those majoring in the social sciences in particular, are able, by uninformed or informed choice, to complete a degree with but cursory attention to the topic? This essay addresses the reasons for relegation of diversity-related issues to optional status and argues that the situation can and should be reversed.

Today many Alaska Natives are seeking a higher education; however due to subtle differences in communication styles between the Native Alaskan student and Euro-American instructor, both students and educator frequently experience communication difficulties. This paper examines the differences in non-verbal communication, the assumption of similarities, stereotyping, preconceptions, and misinterpretations that may occur between Alaska Native and Euro-American cultures. University classrooms are becoming increasingly multicultural, and one teaching style may not be effective with all students. Those involved with education need to promote flexibility and awareness of cultural differences in order to achieve successful communication in the classroom.

This essay examines trends in education that affect Canadian schools.

This article addresses the use of African American Perspectives as a means of promoting a more inclusive understanding of human communication theory. It describes contributions by African American scholars as they relate to providing a framework for inclusion of other under-represented cultures in U.S. society (i.e. Asian American, Latin American, etc.). This objective is becoming more and more relevant because of the increased percentage of U.S. citizens who are of non-European origin. Common sense supports the position that an inclusive curriculum, representative of the many cultural groups that compose the U.S., will appeal to the diverse audience educated in the U.S. today and tomorrow.

This paper examines the experience of Hispanic females in the public school in relation to how alternative learning, which takes place outside of classroom activities and discussions, generates a distinct method by which to gain an education. Four major frameworks utilized in discussing minority participation in education are presented and a focus on gender differences in education is submitted. This is followed by information obtained through an in-depth interview process. Analysis of the information shows the failure to account for differentiation between male and female Hispanics presents an assimilationist posturing of research. By placing race/ethnicity, class, and gender on equal footing in research, the institution of education may learn to adapt itself to the unique process of becoming educated which has been developed by Hispanas.