Offering practical guidelines based on research and practice, this book focuses on some of the most topical issues among those working with children from ethnic minorities. Experts from a variety of disciplines look at the various aspects of such work.

Offering practical guidelines based on research and practice, this book focuses on some of the most topical issues among those working with children from ethnic minorities. Experts from a variety of disciplines look at the various aspects of such work.

Both of these authors bring to this topic a wealth of personal experience and academic scholarship and insight. They courageously embrace new ideas and concepts of race and culture, both nationally and globally, and provide new and exciting ways of thinking, talking, learning and educating. Features: Authors encourage the reader to critically think about diverse family constellations and individual racial and ethnic identity. Different models of multiracial identity development are reviewed. Focus Questions at the beginning of each chapter help give students direction. A variety of tools are provided to help students critically examine their own perceptions, and to evaluate materials, curricular approaches, and instructional methods. Author bios: Francis Wardle first became involved in issues regarding multiethnic and multiracial children when his four-year-old daughter came to him in tears, after a peer used race as a put down. Since then he has created the Center for the Study of Biracial Children, given presentations on multiethnic and multiracial issues throughout the US and Canada, written extensively on the topic, and been quoted in newspapers, magazines, TV programs, and radio stations including NPR. Currently Dr. Wardle teaches at Red Rocks Community College and the University of Phoenix/Colorado Campus, consults for the National Head Start Migrant Program, and writes for a variety of national publications. Marta I. Cruz-Janzen is Associate Professor of Multicultural Education at Florida Atlantic University. She received a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Denver, a Master of Arts and Master of Education in Human Development from Columbia University Teachers College, and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University. Her dissertation, "Curriculum and the Self-Concept of Biethnic and Biracial Persons" received the University of Denver Phi Delta Kappa 1996-97 "Dissertation of the Year Award." Marta has been a bilingual teacher and elementary school principal.

In July 2000, the Department of Health/Social Services Inspectorate document Excellence Not Excuses revealed that the majority of UK local authorities had not put strategies in place to deliver appropriate services to ethnic minorities. In response, the Department set up four demonstration projects under its Quality Protects program to develop models of best practice to improve life chances of Black and ethnic minority children and their families. In autumn 2000, the Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) were invited to undertake a descriptive study of the four demonstration projects. The resulting study serves as a learning tool for future work in the area of meeting the needs of and developing ethnically-sensitive services for Black and ethnic minority children looked after by local authorities. Case studies of the individual projects describe individual projects' working arrangements, the definitions and issues they grappled with, the work undertaken and the process of how this was done, an overview and an outlook. In conclusion, issues of structure, process, and resourcing of the projects are discussed, and implications for policy and practice are raised.

"GHK and ETHNOS were commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills to undertake a research project to explore how children's and parental services can engage effectively with black and minority ethnic (BME) parents. There were two key phases in this research: a literature review and qualitative fieldwork undertaken in ten case study settings."--P. 2.