| This Issue | Articles | Instructional Ideas | Open Forum | Reviews | Contributors |
| Caruso | Cozza and Mbugua | Hallen | Hansell | Kennett | Lukiv |

 
ABOUT THIS ISSUE

The theme of this Fall 2000 issue is cross-cultural partnership.  We present readers with examples of cross-cultural partnerships in which individuals or groups from different cultural backgrounds and locations come together to pursue a common goal and, as a result, to produce cross-cultural understanding and increase awareness of each other.

Articles in this issue illustrate various forms of partnerships.  Cozza and Mbugua's reprinted article reports a collaborative project which involves the triad of a university's teacher training program, an elementary school and families of students in partnership.  Kennett's article also discusses a partnership initiative between a university teacher training program and a local high school.  While Cozza and Mbugua's article focuses on the multicultural learning of pre-service teachers and children as a result of the partnership, Kennett discusses the human dynamics of trust-building in the partnering relationship.   Hansell's article provides theoretical grounds for a successful human relations program, the PARTNERS program, in which urban and suburban school children are brought together regularly to learn about each other and, in turn, to develop cross-cultural competence.

Instructional ideas that Caruso offers in this issue incorporate educational technology into an in-service teacher training program.  To help teachers to explore cross-cultural and diversity issues, he provides a list of websites and a series of guide questions.  Hallen reports on a successful summer camp program for children, in which his college students of theater and urban and suburban children are brought together to channel their creative energy into the creation of an original production.  His detailed description of how the program is operated may provide readers with practical tips for similar initiatives.

Lukiv's article presented in the Open Forum section offers an interesting perspective on the change in the Native American--referred to as "First Nation" in this text--education in Canada.  

Reviewed resources embrace a broad definition of partnership from individuals' cross-cultural friendship to institutional collaboration.  The theme of developing cross-cultural  understanding and competence is infused in all the materials reviewed in this issue. Some of the materials may be broadly connected with the theme of the Spring 2000 issue of EMME--stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.

Articles on Partnership
Instructional Ideas on Partnership
Open Forum
Reviews of Resources on Partnership

Articles

Transforming the Cultures of the Family, School, and University Through Collaboration

Barbara Cozza and Tata Mbugua
University of Scranton

ABSTRACT: This project identifies a school community involved in a collaborative partnership through a triad of focus: family-school-university partnership.

Putting Contact Theory into Practice: 
Using the PARTNERS Program to Develop Intercultural Competence

Linda Hansell
University of Pennsylvania

ABSTRACT: This paper describes an intergroup relations/multicultural education program model which successfully applies the elements of Allport’s "contact theory" and promotes skills of intercultural competence in its elementary and middle school student participants. The PARTNERS Program is an urban-suburban school partnership which integrates and lends credence to the conditions of contact theory. The elements of contact theory and intercultural competence are discussed and sample program activities are described.

Trust in the Transitions:
Changing Leadership with an Educational Partnership

Carol Kennett
Trinity International University

ABSTRACT: The primary goal of this paper is to explore trust development in school-university partnerships, especially as it is affected by the transitions in leadership that so frequently occur in such settings. It proposes three elements of trust and highlights their importance as guiding principles of a successful educational partnership. By understanding the evolutionary nature of trust development, collaborators see the value of early attention to relational foundations upon which they can then build their program. By acknowledging trust as a mechanism for managing complex collaborations, partnerships are not easily derailed when encountering periods of mistrust and misunderstanding. And finally, by viewing trust as a choice, participants retain the sense of power and ownership enabling them to choose trust over time.

Instructional Ideas

Enhancing Diversity Through Educational Technology

John Caruso, Jr.
Western Connecticut State University 

ABSTRACT: This instructional idea contains six activities linked to websites pertaining to cultural diversity issues and a series of questions.  The use of instructional technology was presented as part of a virtual in-service course for teachers, designed to raise their awareness of global and domestic diversity issues.

Eastern College Summer Theatre Camp:
Collaborative Arts Education in Action 

Mark Hallen
Eastern College

ABSTRACT: The Eastern College Summer Theater Camp is a month-long day camp program for children. With an emphasis on partnership, creativity, teamwork, and high energy, children and staff alike come away with changed perspectives not only on their ability to develop theater, but also on relating to and enriching others in all areas of life.
 

Open Forum

Aboriginal Education in Quesnel Now, Cultural Genocide in Canada Then

Dan Lukiv
University of Northern British Columbia

ABSTRACT: The Quesnel School District’s Aboriginal Education Centre has attempted to address the individual needs of Aboriginal students by taking definitive steps to hire personnel and create policy that promotes their heritage and, ultimately, success in school. The Centre runs on principles opposite to those of late-19th-century Canadian residential schools that promoted, even ensured, cultural genocide and poor academic training for Aboriginal students.

Reviews of Resources

Literature for Young Readers

Professional Literature

Websites