ABOUT THIS ISSUE

This year we have devoted our energy to promote understanding of one's own culture as a pathway to multicultural education with a belief that one needs to develop in-depth understanding of one's own cultural heritage in order to understand its interplay with other cultures with which they come in contact. 

This summer issue focuses on cultural visualization. We explore various ways in which one's culture can be expressed.  Tun uses photography to tell a story of her life growing up multiculturally in Myanmar (former Burma). Several photos are included in the article.  Wilson* writes about female ethnic artists who expressed themselves through fabric arts, paint, sculpture, and photography and whose works were displayed at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. Cohen* reports the oral history quilt project in which women and girls collected their local history and creating quilts with historic themes.  In the process she observed a community of women was forming.   She also gives helpful suggestions as to how to implement such a project. Hoffman discusses the life of women in Belize, whom she observed while spending a semester in the beautiful, multicultural country and reflects on her own womanhood.  Statzner and Miller report how their literacy project helped their Spanish-English ESL students express their culture through poetry and frame their discussion in the Freirian approach to literacy.

The "Reviews of Multicultural Resources" include professional and juvenile literature on quilt, drawing, and photography. A few out-of-print books are also reviewed due to their relavance to the theme of this issue. Milton's photography of Jewish children during the Holocaust and drawings of Kosovo children in Sendak express children's dispair and hope in such a poignant way. 

* Wilson's article and Cohen's article are reprinted respectively from Perspective by the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies and CARTS by City Lore, Inc.   Detailed information on the original sources are included in their articles.

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