Developing an integrated, intercultural unit of work

In a traditional, departmentalized subject-centered secondary school the learner is impeded from connecting the fragmented curriculum to life experience through reflective thinking. Strategies for intercultural units of work need to be developed and implemented in an integrated, problem-focused curriculum to promote participatory democratic process and the method of intelligence. The integrated curriculum through the unit of work is a dynamic model for the intellectual and social growth of youth.; The case study method will be used to describe how an individual teacher can overcome isolation by enlisting teachers of other subjects in correlating and integrating the studies into a unitary curriculum structure. The evaluation of the intercultural unit of work in the high school is examined in terms of (1) the processes of curriculum planning, implementation, and evaluation (formative and summative); (2) the processes of teacher-student planning; (3) the documentary materials and data connecting the interdisciplinary curriculum to learning activities and outcomes; and (4) a quantitative analysis that assesses anti-democratic attitudes of high school youth through an instrument developed by Remmers (1952).; Historically, the intercultural unit of work is considered in terms of how it supports the American Idea of E Pluribus Unum. There is a vast body of research revealing that adolescents develop sociocivic responsibility through the practice of democratic processes. The intercultural unit of work is a curriculum model that addresses the need for integrated, intercultural education for all as contrasted to fragmented, multicultural education advocated by special-interest communities who endorse cultural division. The focus of the intercultural unit of work is a problem or theme selected by the students which meets certain criteria for investigation and reflects their interests. The dynamic curriculum unites creativity with civic action through a paradigm shift toward education infused with democratic attitudes.; The experiences of the students within an enacted democratic curriculum are recorded in their own words. Furthermore, surveys of first-year language students at Metuchen High School reveal mixed outcomes reflecting both democratic and anti-democratic attitudes that invite further investigation during the subsequent years that students are involved in the development of a unit of work.