Special Programs in Anthropology for Precollege Teachers

Abstract

During the 1970s and early 1980s a small but growing number of anthropologists became involved with in-service teacher training projects. This new interest in precollege education can be traced partially to increased national concern with educational reform and partially to declining enrollments in college courses. For anthropologists involved, the recognition that exposure of precollege students to anthropology might help to increase college enrollments was usually accompanied by genuine faith in the benefits of anthropological knowledge and perspectives, and by a desire to spread the anthropological message to larger numbers of people. Similar motivations were behind the curriculum development projects of the 1960s (reviewed in this issue by Marion Rice). Changes in funding opportunities largely explain the different form that the contribution of anthropologists to precollege education took in the 1970s.