What is assessment and how is it a cultural practice? How does failure to account for linguistic and cultural variation among students jeopardize... assessment validity? What is required to achieve cultural validity in assessment? This resource for practicing and prospective teachers – as well as others concerned with fair and valid assessment – provides a thorough grounding in relevant theory, research, and practice. The book lays out criteria for culturally valid assessment and recommends specific strategies that teachers can use to design and implement culturally valid classroom assessments. Assessment plays a powerful role in the process of education in the US and has a disproportionately negative impact on students who do not come from mainstream, middle-class backgrounds. Given the significance of testing in education today, cultural validity in assessment is an urgent issue facing educators. This book is essential reading for addressing this important, relevant topic.

Developed for Spanish students at the fifth-semester level or higher, this reader can be used as the main text in a civilization, culture, or reading... course. A departure from traditional texts, which present Spanish civilization as a neutral recounting of historical facts, events and data, Culturas de Espana develops the notion that history, culture, and civilization are concepts under constant construction.

Cultura y Cine: Hispanoamérica Hoy is a Spanish-language textbook designed for the student at intermediate/advanced level that explores Latin American... history, politics, education, art, family life, and other aspects of its culture through Spanish-language feature films. Each of the eight chapters explores a central topic in Hispanoamérica through the study of a feature film, an interview with a person relevant to the topic, a literary selection, and one or more articles from periodicals. Complete with vocabulary, cultural and historical notes, exercises, and activities, Cultura y Cine also includes five Vistazo panorámico sections which provide an overview of the fundamentals of a Latin American culture course.

McGraw-Hill conducted extensive research to gain insight into students’ study behavior and instructor needs. We learned that students want visual... appeal and content designed according to the way they learn, while instructors need a way to engage their students without compromising on high quality content. From this, we created the M Series (a series of magazine style textbooks). CULTURE is the latest addition to the series. This new magazine style text for the Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course offers solid scholarly content and an engaging design that will captivate your students. Through memorable eye-catching pedagogical features, students develop a better understanding of the material and will retain a greater amount of course concepts. This book presents cultural anthropology in a way that is both captivating and relevant to today’s student at a price that they prefer. More current, more portable, more captivating, plus a rigorous and innovative research foundation adds up to: more learning. When you meet students where they are, you can take them where you want them to be.

Exposing the inadequacies of old conceptions of static cultures and detached observers, the book argues instead for social science to acknowledge and... celebrate diversity, narrative, emotion, and subjectivity.

Matthew Arnold's famous series of essays, which were first published in book form under the title Culture and Anarchy in 1869, debate important... questions about the nature of culture and society. Arnold seeks to find out what culture really is, what good it can do, and if it is really necessary. He contrasts culture, which he calls the study of perfection, with anarchy, the mood of unrest and uncertainty that pervaded mid-Victorian England. This edition reproduces the original book version, revealing the immediate historical context and controversy of the piece. The introduction and notes broaden out the interpretative approach to Arnold's text, elaborating on the complexities of the religious context. The book also reinforces the continued importance of Arnold's ideas its influences in the face of the challenges of multi-culturalism and post-modernism.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Culture and Architecture: An Integrated History is a brief survey of architectural history, from its pre-historic origins to the present day. It looks... at the great works of architecture not only for their aesthetic values, but for their integral relationships with cultures and civilizations. Without their stories, history, and mythology, these monuments are merely brick, stone, mortar, and glass.Designed to be used in a single semester, but adaptable for a full year, Culture and Architecture is organized into five major time divisions that are introduced with a brief historical summary. Chapters begin with a timeline, and include photographs and drawings of the most important works during that period. Culture and Architecture is an ideal course book for students in foreign studies, art, anthropology, history, or anyone interested in architecture and culture.Leo Hansen is an adjunct professor in the School of Architecture, a department of the College of Design and Social Inquiry at Florida Atlantic University. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Notre Dame (1978) and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree from the University of Miami (2003), for which he received an Award of Academic Merit. He is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians and the American Institute of Architects.

Examining attachment from the perspective of culture, and evaluating two different cultures from the vantage point of mothers' perceptions of attachment... behavior, this book provides a unique view of desirable child behavior and long-term socialization goals among Anglo and Puerto Rican mothers of infants and toddlers. The authors integrate in-depth interviews with quantitative methods to shed light on variations both between cultures and among different socioeconomic groups within each culture, while at the same time delineating coherent conceptual frameworks that can be used to guide future research.

Authenticity is taken-for-granted as an absolute value in contemporary life. In Culture and Authenticity, Charles Lindholm calls upon anthropological... case studies from different cultures, historical material, and comparative philosophy, to explore how notions of authenticity develop, what forms it takes, and how it changes over time. Examines the idea of authenticity and its role in modern culture Explores society’s preoccupation with authenticity and the search for ‘real’ experiences Looks at how the concept of authenticity intersects with questions about religion, ethnicity, and race Investigates authenticity in the context of fields such as dance, cuisine, travel, and the modern marketplace

After years of relative neglect, culture is finally receiving due recognition as a key factor in the evolution and resolution of conflicts.... Unfortunately, however, when theorists and practitioners of conflict resolution speak of “culture,” they often understand and use it in a bewildering and unhelpful variety of ways. With sophistication and lucidity, Culture and Conflict Resolution exposes these shortcomings and proposes an alternative conception in which culture is seen as dynamic and derivative of individual experience. The book explores divergent theories of social conflict and differing strategies that shape the conduct of diplomacy, and examines the role that culture has (and has not) played in conflict resolution. The author is as forceful in critiquing those who would dismiss or diminish culture’s relevance as he is trenchant in advocating conflict resolution approaches that make the most productive use of a coherent concept of culture. In a lively style, Avruch challenges both scholars and practitioners not only to develop a clearer understanding of what culture is, but also to take that understanding and incorporate it into more effective conflict resolution processes.

Thomas Allsen is one of the foremost historians of the Mongol empire. His latest book breaks new scholarly boundaries in its exploration of cultural and... scientific exchanges between Iran and China. Contrary to popular belief, Mongol rulers were intensely interested in the culture of their sedentary subjects. Under their auspices, various commodities, ideologies and technologies were disseminated across Eurasia. The result was a lively exchange of scientists, scholars and ritual specialists between East and West. The book is broad-ranging and erudite and promises to become a classic in the field.

A follow-up to Grant McCracken's groundbreaking Culture and Consumption, this new book trades the usual platitudes about the consumer society for a more... detailed, exacting anthropological treatment. Each section of the book pairs a brief essay with an academic article. The essay is designed for a quick, provocative glimpse of the topic; the article provides a deeper anthropological treatment. The book opens with a broadside against the now thoroughly conventionalized attack on the consumer culture. Essays follow on homes, cars, people, and social mobility; celebrities, consumerism, and self-invention; museums and the power of objects; the anthropology of advertising; and marketing, meaning management, and value. Like McCracken's previous volume, this new book is an engaging, informative, and eye-opening foray into modern consumer culture.