Cultural diversity renders those in the midst of cross-cultural encounters with rich opportunities for understanding the components of other people's conception of the world, their outlook on life, and their value orientations. There are few studies that examine the construct of Worldview as pertaining to Mexican people living in Mexico. Although research has been conducted with people of Mexican descent (i.e., Mexican Americans, Chicanos) mostly in the United States, the development of their experiences, the impact, and the meanings that such experiences represent to them, differ in many ways from the experiences of the participants in this study “An Examination of Worldview in Northeastern Mexico”. The study focuses on the experiences of nine participants, male and female, between the ages of 25 and 34, who live in Northeastern Mexico and who describe what being Mexican means to them and how they define themselves and their worldview as young Mexican individuals in relationship to five existential categories as proposed by Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961). The study examines the literature with respect to worldview, in general, and its recent instrumentation in the field of multiculturalism, in particular. This study utilizes heuristic procedures and in-depth, one-to-one interviews to facilitate the emergence of people's portrayals, which were clustered and analysed always observing the five existential categories. The findings of the study endorse the value of using worldview as a socio-cultural framework for developing awareness and having a more thorough understanding about differences. McKenzie (1996) says that, “when united in a conversation in which understandings and worldviews are shared, we stand a better chance of reducing the limitations and narrowness of our existing worldviews” (p.123). Therefore, the implications for using worldview as framework might encourage individuals to reach beyond their own cultural boundaries enabling them to make reflective decisions to enhance the ability to effectively shape an environment inclusive of others from diverse cultures. / Graduate

D.Litt. et Phil. / South Africa is a culturally diverse country, which is becoming more and more complex due to secular influences like globalisation and the influx of African migrants. As different ethnic groups are integrated in South African communities, pastors are faced with new challenges to develop multicultural congregations, that reflect the demography of the community. Pastors also face challenges with regards to the interaction of men and women, as well as the interaction of various age groups. The handling of current challenges will however not be effective without an understanding of the painful exclusion of various ethnic groups and women from certain ministry and leadership positions that characterised the Pentecostal history. The lack of mentorship from generation to generation also led to generation gaps. In order to provide pastors of multicultural Pentecostal-Charismatic congregations with guidelines to handle these challenges, it was necessary to give a rich description of the challenges that pastors themselves experiece with regards to the interaction of various ethnic groups, men and women as well as the interaction of various age groups in multicultural congregations. The description of the challenges that pastors of multicultural Pentecostal- Charismatic congregations face, as well as giving guidelines in handling these challenges, formed the research goals of the study. The qualitative model of practical theological reflection developed by Swinton and Mowat (2006), was used to guide the research process. In the first stage of the research process, a literature study was done to describe the multicultural context of Pentecostal-Charismatic congregations. The study took place against the background of the Pentecostal history. This led to a description of the DNA of Pentecost, that explained how unity in the initial Pentecostal movements gained momentum through the work of the Holy Spirit. A description of the Pentecostal history also explained how the introduction of formal structures, as well as a shift from the missionary task of Christ to an inward focus on the vii preferences of certain people and groups led to the division of believers, based on ethnicity, gender and age. Challenges are also faced with the current integration of various ethnic groups, men and women, as well as different age groups. In the second stage of the research process, qualitative research was used to explore and to describe the challenges that pastors of multicultural congregations face. The themes that were identified by the study, were compared to current literature as well as Scriptural guidelines in the third stage of the study. In the final stage, new practices were given to aid pastors in handling the challenges of multicultural Pentecostal-Charismatic congregations. These practices include a return to the original DNA of Pentecost, a strong theological and cultural grounding, as well as the implementation of practical guidelines under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The study was concluded with the unique contributions of the study to the field of Practical Theology and by making recommendations for further research.

Islam and the Reflection in Multiculturalism in Great Britain

No description available.

An understanding of how ethnicity is interpreted by the courts and tribunals of Canada is important for any theoretical conceptualisation of multiculturalism or any evaluation of multiculturalism policy implementation. This dissertation examines how ethnicity is defined in court judgments and what attributes were used to discuss it, and by whom? Specifically, this dissertation examines variations in the articulation and meaning of ethnicity since the term first appeared in Canadian case law in 1955. For the years 1950 and 2009, a search of the term "ethnicity" (ETHNIC*) in the Canadian Legal Information Institute database of cases revealed an astounding 2,358 federal-court and tribunal judgments/cases. For the purposes of this research, the number of cases was reduced to only 36 cases and 46 text segments, with the reference to ethnicity and examined via a qualitative "discourse analysis" technique. The dissertation applies a Bourdieusian theoretical framework postulating that ethnicity, which is an important ingredient of Canadian multiculturalism, is shaped in relation to power and meaning. The sample revealed a nuanced multiplicity of discursive effects in juridical language, underlining the use of the concept of ethnicity. It highlights some aspects of the "excluding" dynamics of the concept of ethnicity in case law for the time period studied. It appears that when adjudicating cases where ethnicity is implied, judges were inclined to equate ethnicity with skin colour, ancestry, and regional location. Applying the sociology of the law to my empirical research results suggests that legal professionals may articulate ethnicity in such a way that a particular conceptualization is rendered legitimate. Within the limits of my sample, such a process of rendering ethnicity as legitimate often meant that the scientific knowledge and experience of others was disregarded. Furthermore, my empirical analysis suggests that even if the meaning of ethnicity in judgments was influenced by the ideology of multiculturalism, the influence, if viewed through the notion of ethnicity, was normative and prescriptive until 2009. By revealing the decision-making process associated with adjudicating the cases where ethnicity is mentioned, this dissertation offers a better understanding of how Canadian courts and tribunals understood ethnicity from 1955 to 2009. This is the dissertation's main contribution to the advancement of knowledge.

The purpose of this study was to (a) explore elementary school teachers' perceptions of their strengths and deficiencies for working with, and meeting the need of, students from diverse cultural backgrounds; and (b) assess the relationships between these perceptions and the teachers multicultural background and demographic factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity. The participants were elementary school teachers in the Guilford County School System, North Carolina. One school was randomly selected from the four geographical regions in the school system. Teachers who taught summer school were also selected to participate in the program. Classroom teachers from selected schools participated in the study. This study used Jacobeth Ntsebe Thabede's dissertation, Multicultural Teaching Competence as Perceived by Business Education Student Teachers (1996) as a model to frame the research. Thabede used Wayson's (1993) The Multicultural Teaching Scale classified into Banks' (1993) Dimensions of Multicultural Education to determine the level of multicultural teaching skills of business education student teachers. This study determined the level of multicultural teaching skills of elementary school teachers. The outcome of the regression formula indicated 38 percent of the variance of Building Respect was explained. Building respect for diversity represents the teachers' reported willingness to model respect building practices. The four important independent variables were age, the number of hours of multicultural instruction, whether they taught in a suburban school, and whether the participants had experiences with diversity during their education. The more multicultural background during teacher education, the older the participant, the more hours of multicultural instruction, and if teachers were working in a suburban teaching environment, the more likely teachers were to report behaviors that reflect building respect for multicultural diversity. The findings of the focus groups and the survey showed teachers, who had multi-ethnic family origin, early education experience with cultural diverse students and multicultural friendship groups, perceived themselves competent to teach multicultural students. / Ed. D.

This thesis compares multiculturalism policies in Canada and Sweden, emphasising immigrant and ethnic minority political participation and representation. The analysis follows a structural approach, looking at, in each country, the level of "institutional inclusiveness" or the degree of openness to cultural diversity. Though Sweden offers better formal conditions for integration, Canada fares much better in incorporating immigrants and ethnic minorities in its citizenry. This suggests that Canadian institutions are more reflective of the principles of multiculturalism. Still, in both countries, visible minorities face more obstacles than other groups in the process of integration.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1993. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 142-150).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1992. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-259).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1994. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-217).