Introduction: One Nation Indivisible? an Overview of the Yearbook
Abstract
10.1177/0895904803260356EDUCATIONAL POLICY / January and March 2004BONNIE C. FUSARELLI and WILLIAM LOWE BOYD Introduction: One Nation Indivisible? An Overview of the Yearbook BONNIE C. FUSARELLI and WILLIAM LOWE BOYD A NEW AND, FOR MANY, problematic America is emerging: multicul- tural, multifaith, with alarming inequalities and permeable borders pene- trated by globalization, by immigration (often illegal), and by international terrorism. Globalization, demographic trends, and "culture" wars--both internal to the United States and external between the affluent, westernized world and Islamic and underdeveloped nations--are challenging and trans- forming the character of U.S. society. The hegemony of White majorities and even of the English language are no longer assured; minority majorities are emerging in some states, and demographic trends indicate that this is the wave of the future. Most of the population growth is occurring in poor, disad- vantaged families and in English-as-a-second-language families. As the United States becomes more diverse, multicultural, multilingual, and at the same time, more unequal, the character, values, and legitimacy of our society and of its public school system are called into question. "Globalization," as Kymlicka (1995) observed, "has made the myth of a culturally homogenous state even more unrealistic, and has forced the major- ity