Cultural language impacts children's learning in school. This study examined two areas associated with curriculum; language, and the similarities and differences of characteristics among three curricula, Africentric, Multicultural and Eurocentric. The study applied to the secondary social studies content area, and students in an urban district located in upstate New York. It assessed the presence of different types of cultural themes and concepts, and the number of times they occurred in all three curricula. The assessment included a focus on the ideologies of curriculum advocates pertaining to curriculum characteristics. Similarities between their characteristics were displayed in a matrix.

The study utilized content analysis to determine: (a) the presence of specific themes and concepts within the literature texts, (b) inferences about messages made within the text, (c) the presence of themes and concepts by the research questions, and (d) the relationship between themes and concepts from the three curricula. Tables were developed to display data representing the most frequently used cultural themes and concepts found in each curriculum throughout the literature review. Reliability coefficients were displayed in tables to show coder reliability for selected themes and concepts.

Findings of the study through the analysis of data showed that coder reliability was substantiated in Africentric and Multicultural articles of themes but substantiated in only one Eurocentric article. Average reliability among these five themes was .87. Coder reliability was substantiated in one Africentric and Multicultural articles of concepts, and in both Eurocentric articles. Average reliability among these four concepts was .71.

Findings from the matrix indicate that Africentric curricula tend to focus on empowerment, self knowledge and cultural centering in education; that Multicultural curricula tend to focus on educational equality, and cross cultural literacy, and that Eurocentric curricula tend to focus on the White male shaping of America, and on culturally centering children on Western civilization. Similarities between the advocates existed in two characteristics: curriculum criteria for judging proficiency and mastery, and curriculum decision-making. Dissimilarities between the advocates were shown in the resulting four characteristics. Implications from this study suggest that cultural language in each curriculum is a factor that dramatically affects what and how children learn.