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Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education
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Is Diversity Enough? Exploring Intergroup Friendships In Italian Multiethnic Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Rina Manuela Contini, Bob Ives
Is Diversity Enough? Exploring Intergroup Friendships In Italian Multiethnic Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Rina Manuela Contini, Bob Ives
Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works
Italian schools are increasingly diverse spaces in which children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and cultural-linguistic practices interact daily. Thus, these spaces provide fertile ground for a continuum of relational experiences from positive intergroup relationships and friendships to tensions and experiences of discrimination and marginalization. Research has demonstrated that diverse spaces can be ideal for positive intergroup contact, intergroup dialogue and the formation of intergroup friendship, which have been associated with prejudice reduction and a decrease in intergroup anxiety. Employing a theoretical framework based on intergroup contact theory (Allport, 1954) and research on intergroup friendships, (Pettigrew & …
Strategies And Initiatives In Acculturation: Voices From Ghana, Susan Boafo-Arthur, Dzifa A. Attah, Ama Boafo-Arthur, Thomas D. Akoensi
Strategies And Initiatives In Acculturation: Voices From Ghana, Susan Boafo-Arthur, Dzifa A. Attah, Ama Boafo-Arthur, Thomas D. Akoensi
Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works
Culture shock and acculturation are salient aspects of any international study trip. Over the years, many institutions have devised several strategies to help international students transition to life in the host country. However, most of these strategies are insensitive to diverse cultural or country specifics. Drawing from Social Learning Theory, this paper provides narratives from four former students from the West African country of Ghana and how they navigated the process of acculturation in their respective host nations. The narratives discuss their feelings during the study abroad trip, some of the challenges they faced, and personal as well as institutional …
Problematizing The Conceptual Framework Of Interculturalism And Its Pedagogical Extension Of Intercultural Education: Theoretical Perspectives And Their Implications, Rina Manuela Contini, Cinzia Pica-Smith
Problematizing The Conceptual Framework Of Interculturalism And Its Pedagogical Extension Of Intercultural Education: Theoretical Perspectives And Their Implications, Rina Manuela Contini, Cinzia Pica-Smith
Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works
A new intercultural framework for education is being developed as a pedagogical response to increasingly multi-ethnic societies in Europe. This framework has been gaining ground during the last decade within EU Institutions (Commission of the European Communities, European Commission, Council of Ministers, OECD, OSCE) and the Council of Europe Documents and replacing multiculturalism as the guiding framework. This shift has generated an ardent debate between multiculturalists and interculturalists. Indeed, there is much criticism of the interculturalist framework. This article positions itself within this current debate and offers a critical analysis of the conceptual mapping of interculturalism within which there are …
A Cross-Cultural Study Of Italian And U.S. Children's Perceptions Of Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In Two Urban Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Davide Antognazza, Joshua J. Marland, Alberto Crescentini
A Cross-Cultural Study Of Italian And U.S. Children's Perceptions Of Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In Two Urban Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Davide Antognazza, Joshua J. Marland, Alberto Crescentini
Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works
This cross-cultural and cross-sectional study investigated Italian and US children’s perceptions of interethnic and interracial friendships, also known as intergroup friendships. A total sample of 226 children attending two urban, elementary schools in a middle-sized Northeastern US city and a middle-sized northern Italian city, were interviewed employing the questionnaire. Results indicate that Italian and US children’s perceptions of intra-racial and interracial friendships differed with students of color in the US rating intragroup friendships more positively than intergroup ones. In addition, students of color in Italy and white students in the US rated intergroup and intragroup friendships similarly.
Supporting Interethnic And Interracial Friendships Among Youth To Reduce Prejudice And Racism In Schools: The Role Of The School Counselor, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Timothy A. Poynton
Supporting Interethnic And Interracial Friendships Among Youth To Reduce Prejudice And Racism In Schools: The Role Of The School Counselor, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Timothy A. Poynton
Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works
Supporting interethnic and interracial friendships in schools among children and adolescents is an important part of a progressive educational agenda informed in equity, social justice frameworks, and critical multicultural education that leads to a reduction in racial prejudice. Positive intergroup contact is a necessary condition in prejudice reduction and the development of positive racial attitudes among ethnically and racially diverse groups of children and adolescents. School counseling initiatives focused on promoting interethnic and interracial friendships can have significant individual and systemic consequences such as: improving social, emotional, and cultural competence among youth; prejudice reduction; and the creation of equitable educational …
Children Speak About Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In The Classroom: Lessons For Teachers, Cinzia Pica-Smith
Children Speak About Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In The Classroom: Lessons For Teachers, Cinzia Pica-Smith
Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works
In this article, the author discusses her research on children's perspectives of interracial and interethnic friendships in a multiethnic school and highlights children's voices on these intergroup friendships. Schools are important spaces in which social and cultural competencies necessary to the formation of intergroup friendships may be supported (Zirkel, 2008). Schools provide settings in which children learn about themselves and other children, adults, and the society in which they live. Steinitz & Solomon (1989) describe schools as "sites of identity," places where "young people draw conclusions about what sort of people they are, what society has in store for them, …