Editor's Introduction

In his book Acts of Meaning, Jerome Bruner (1990) states that meaning is constructed through culture, participation in the culture, and other participants’ experience and behaviors. In the first article, Friedland examines culture through her own and a student’s personal reflections and writes, “Cultural sensitivity is inadequate. Cultural competence is Necessary.” In the second article, Wright provides a wonderful example of how to develop such competency through art and the art of teaching. In the third article, Earley grapples with helping students see personal and professional relevance to the study of statistics, often a cultural impasse for graduate inservice teachers. In all three articles of this issue, the writers base their practice on the shared belief that learning becomes meaningful when student interests and needs are balanced with teacher knowledge of the discipline studied, when exploration of difference and examination of assumptions are integral components of teaching and learning, and when authentic and hospitable discourse distinguishes the faculty-student relationship. With each writer is the unstated but clear conviction that the power and authority of the teacher can either
benefit student growth or be a missed opportunity.

Margaret Zidon, Acting Editor

	Summer 2006   Vol. 20, Number 3