Search

Highlights: China's global vision of education seeks to address various educational challenges from a global perspective. In terms of geopolitical education, China has geographical advantages for enhancing education collaboration with cultural and economic impact. Despite the global learning crisis, China will continue the opening-up of education and advancing of its global technology leadership. Amid unprecedented global change, driving innovation in education has become a pressing issue in China's education system. China is embracing the diverse opportunities arising from global changes and challenges, seeking to forge stronger international bonds through education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racism is pervasive in education in Aotearoa New Zealand, including in early childhood education. The preparedness of early childhood teachers to respond to the Ministry of Education's current anti-racism policy direction is a pressing concern. This is particularly the case, given the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa offers little guidance to support early childhood teachers to develop anti-racism pedagogies. This primarily theoretical article seeks to contribute to dialogue with early childhood teachers about both racism and anti-racism pedagogies. The theoretical arguments advanced in the article focus on document analysis of Te Whāriki. Analysis includes consideration of the themes of inclusion, equity and social justice. It also includes consideration of what these themes might imply about expectations for early childhood teachers' uptake of anti-racism approaches in their practice. Document analysis is supplemented by limited preliminary survey data drawn from the initial findings of the Anti-racism Commitment in Early Childhood Education: Pathways to Inclusion, Equity and Social Justice (ARC-ECE) study. Drawing from race-critical scholarship to further advance the theoretical arguments, the article highlights tensions in early childhood teachers' understandings about racism. The limits of narrow definitions of racism that explain it as the result of 'cultural difference' are explored. In making a case for thinking beyond cultural competence and culturally responsive practice, the article calls for an immediate rethinking of racism in (and beyond) the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent attacks on critical race theory (CRT) aim to limit discussion and understanding of race (and its intersection with class, gender, and power). Racial dialogues can be uncomfortable for those who benefit from power, suggesting that resistance to CRT or any discussion of race and power in education is rooted in emotions. This study examines the role of racialized emotions in public policy discourse that surrounds CRT bans in education that have been proposed, and in many cases, passed across the United States. Focusing on four early-adopting states of the bans, the findings reveal how emotionalities of whiteness are tacitly endorsed, invited, and animated within racialized politics, as well as how these emotionalities might be disrupted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been an explosion of online theological education programs. Such programs have opened new and diverse learning opportunities to many who otherwise have few options. In this regard, they could be considered democratizing. However, these programs might be viewed as imperialistic in that they advance foreign theological agendas and control. They seldom consider the challenges of cultural diversity and context of international learners. Furthermore, institutional goals of increasing enrollment and efficiency may overshadow the best interest of learners and learning effectiveness. Several recommendations are offered to reduce foreign dominance and promote the empowerment of diverse learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests an integration of Barbara Rogoff's sociocultural development theories into Christian faith transmission. Drawing from Confessional Anglican Churches in Sydney, it examines prevailing models of children's ministry influenced by Western schooling principles. Highlighting Rogoff's intent community participation and cultural learning theories, it argues for their applicability in fostering meaningful children's ministry practices among children and the alignment with Confessional Anglican theology. It concludes with suggestions for application in children's ministry practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to interpret and theorise non-Indigenous health students' emotional learning experiences within a cultural safety course from an Australian First Peoples' perspective. All undergraduate health students enrolled in a First Peoples' health and cultural safety course were invited to complete a post-course online survey. The survey included quantitative items along with six free-text responses about students' emotional learning experiences. The free-text comments provided by 72 health students are the focus of this article. Drawing upon Kamilaroi Country and the metaphor of the river in drought, flood and when waters become clear, this research provides a synthesis of non-Indigenous health students' emotions in the cultural safety classroom. Students acknowledged the powerful impact of work undertaken by First Peoples educators in sharing their narratives, creating safe spaces and bearing witness to students' emotions. The analysis informs an understanding of student learning and recommendations for teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ethnographic case study examines the artifacts of the leadership culture of one Finnish early childhood education (ECE) center and how they appear from the perspective of broad-based pedagogical leadership. Qualitative content analysis with a directed approach was guided by Pasquale Gagliardi’s and Mary Hatch’s definitions of artifacts. In addition, artifacts were analyzed through broad-based pedagogical leadership. Based on the analysis, thirteen activities, six verbal expressions, and thirteen objects of leadership culture were found in the data. Most of the artifacts were indirect pedagogical leadership, and some had several purposes due to staff interpretations. The interpretations varied both between the leaders and the staff but also within the staff. The findings indicate that symbolic leadership is present in many leadership situations and that a lack of knowledge about the symbolic and cultural dimensions of leadership can undermine leaders’ good intentions. The results of the study can be utilized in practical work in leading organizational cultures and in structuring pedagogical leadership in ECE. Additionally, the research has theoretical implications by enriching leadership research in ECE and enhancing the concept of broad-based pedagogical leadership, which can be used in leadership training programs in the field of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying Culture and Appreciative Education lenses, this qualitative study, eliciting detailed descriptions, examines six North American adult and higher education scholars' lived learning experiences and insights gained from their academic collaborations in and with the East. Our findings indicate that participants hold unique international collaboration experiences with commonalities. Most participants experienced language and cultural barriers in real-time, on-site collaborations that they would not have considered otherwise without these experiences. Many differences made them realize the fundamentals for intercultural collaborations. They consciously learned to reposition with appreciative mindsets and co-construct goals and solutions with counterparts. All participants indicated that transnational contexts enable profound reflective and authentic learning, renewed understandings of cross-cultural sensitivity, and different ways of thinking and doing. This study demonstrates that international collaborations promote adult learning with self-awareness for a new dimension of global learning and cultural competency in the internationalization of adult education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic reviews are the method of choice to synthesize research evidence. To identify main topics (so-called hot spots) relevant to large corpora of original publications in need of a synthesis, one must address the "three Vs" of big data (volume, velocity, and variety), especially in loosely defined or fragmented disciplines. For this purpose, text mining and predictive modeling are very helpful. Thus, we applied these methods to a compilation of documents related to digitalization in aesthetic, arts, and cultural education, as a prototypical, loosely defined, fragmented discipline, and particularly to quantitative research within it (QRD-ACE). By broadly querying the abstract and citation database Scopus with terms indicative of QRD-ACE, we identified a corpus of N = 55,553 publications for the years 2013–2017. As the result of an iterative approach of text mining, priority screening, and predictive modeling, we identified n = 8,304 potentially relevant publications of which n = 1,666 were included after priority screening. Analysis of the subject distribution of the included publications revealed video games as a first hot spot of QRD-ACE. Topic modeling resulted in aesthetics and cultural activities on social media as a second hot spot, related to 4 of k = 8 identified topics. This way, we were able to identify current hot spots of QRD-ACE by screening less than 15% of the corpus. We discuss implications for harnessing text mining, predictive modeling, and priority screening in future research syntheses and avenues for future original research on QRD-ACE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a collaborative autoethnographic approach, we discuss body mapping as an embodied pedagogical practice for teaching sexuality. Body mapping centers stigmatized bodies through guided visual, oral, and textual self-representation. We begin by discussing embodied pedagogies and the bind of representation (ideas grounded in the work of feminists of color) in teaching and learning about sexuality. We then consider three body mapping experiences: in a sexuality education graduate seminar (seminar mapping), as a remote synchronous practice (remote mapping), and as a solo practice (solo mapping). We explore challenges in representation, embodied difference, and the im/possibility of mapping the sexual. Finally, we consider the implications and applications of body-mapping exercises for sexualities classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As sociology instructors increasingly include materials on sexual violence in their courses, both instructors and students express anxieties over how best to handle such sensitive conversations. This article critically examines the conventional advice to offer a trigger warning, which can interfere with student education (e.g., requiring survivors to miss out on a lesson) and does not adequately prepare instructors for the difficulties that may arise during discussions of sexual violence (e.g., managing victim-blaming comments). Using institutional betrayal as an alternative frame, this article builds a trauma-informed and survivor-centered pedagogy that offers specific examples and strategies of how to teach to survivors instead of around them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can sociology instructors provide high-quality education in the sociology of sexualities that captures both the increasing need for digital pedagogical tools and sociology's continued drive for theoretically rich course content? We present digital storytelling as a highly adaptable instructional tool that is appropriate for a range of undergraduate sociology courses. We outline one specific application of digital storytelling—a staged, semester-long assignment in which students create multimedia presentations to tell stories about how they were socialized into some gendered or sexual role. We also discuss three key learning outcomes from the digital storytelling project: (1) developing students' sociological imagination and intersectional thinking by connecting their own lived experience to social theory, (2) developing transferable technological skills, and (3) learning to apply sociological concepts outside of the classroom. We close our discussion with potential assignment modifications to improve accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not only does teaching about gender and sexuality diversity lead to some very interesting and often emotionally evocative, pedagogical exchanges; it can also create challenging issues for teachers and students alike. This article focuses on what happens when a module that addresses compulsory heterosexuality and schooling is broached in an undergraduate sociology class. More importantly, it offers an analysis of the critical incidents and tensions that pay specific attention to how power, knowledge, and emotion feature in teaching and learning. Using antioppressive and affect theories, this article offers an analysis of how we might understand pedagogical practice, especially as it relates to addressing the power of normative heterosexuality in a university classroom. With reflections emerging from the module, I argue for more sociological theorization and analysis of the role of affect in pedagogies that seek to advance liberatory teaching and learning in the area of anti-heterosexism education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching about sexualities and the LGBTQ+ movement today is full of pitfalls and possibilities. While growing acceptance of at least some segments of the LGBTQ+ community means students are more open to talking about these issues than ever before, two serious barriers remain: (1) The rise of Trump has empowered antagonistic students to utilize the tools of the neoliberal university to retaliate against sexualities instructors, and (2) even more-accepting students often struggle to have nuanced conversations about sexualities that acknowledge diversity and are not ahistorical. Horror can be used to overcome these barriers, illustrating the extent of LGBTQ+ marginalization for more-resistant students while helping others see that sexuality is socially constructed and historically mediated. This article will begin with a theoretical overview of how the horror genre illustrates changing social attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community and highlights the challenges faced by diverse identities under the umbrella before ending with practical suggestions for incorporating these lessons into the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article connects sociological analyses of race to sexuality to rethink the teaching of the sociology of sexualities. Through the use of the image of the sea, I locate whiteness as a root for the challenges in current pedagogical approaches at my institution, knowing that it is merely an example of multiple others facing similar problems at the structural level. Using autoethnography as a method to illustrate personal experiences in the classroom and the institution, I engage in two interrelated topics that structure this article. First, I explore how teaching sexualities studies from a sociological angle requires teaching about power. In the second part, I delve into how a neoliberal engagement with individualism and students' singular social location influence the potential in students' learning. The discussion and concluding parts propose thinking through some of the previous teaching on the sociology of sexualities to create it anew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the topic of leading complementary schools as models of non-profit social enterprises, reflecting the way the sector has developed in Lithuania. Complementary schools in Lithuania provide educational services often related to language and cultural education focusing on different groups such as minorities, immigrants and people with disabilities. They use client-focused activities to achieve social goals and maintain financial self-sufficiency. Therefore, the leadership of these organizations is of major importance. Group discussions were conducted with 32 heads of complementary schools to explore their perceptions of the entrepreneurship competencies they need to meet the challenges they face in establishing and sustaining their non-profit organizations. Viewing complementary schools as non-profit social enterprises and their leaders as social entrepreneurs contributes to the understanding of them as organizations and the wide range of competencies and practices needed to lead such schools effectively with implications for pre-service and in-post leadership development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cumulative cultural learning has been argued to rely on high-fidelity copying of other individuals' actions. Iconic gestures of actions have no physical effect on objects in the world but merely represent actions that would have an effect. Learning from iconic gestures thus requires paying close attention to the teacher's precise bodily movements—a prerequisite for high-fidelity copying. In three studies, we investigated whether 2- and 3-year-old children (N = 122) and great apes (N = 36) learn novel skills from iconic gestures. When faced with a novel apparatus, participants watched an experimenter perform either an iconic gesture depicting the action necessary to open the apparatus or a gesture depicting a different action. Children, but not great apes, profited from iconic gestures, with older children doing so to a larger extent. These results suggest that high-fidelity copying abilities are firmly in place in humans by at least 3 years of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The style of the Jewish-Greek historiographers Eupolemus and Demetrius has often been evaluated as "bad Greek." This is generally seen as evidence of their lack of education. The negative views on the language of Demetrius and Eupolemus are illustrative of a broader issue in the study of Hellenistic Judaism: language usage has been a key element in the discussion on the societal position of Jews in the Hellenistic world. In this article, I assess the style of the historiographers in the context of post-classical Greek, and conclude that their language reflects standard Hellenistic Greek. The linguistic analysis then becomes a starting point to reflect on the level of integration of Jews in the Greek-speaking world as well as to consider the nature of Jewish multilingualism in the late Second Temple period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ernst Boesch (1916–2014) is well known for his symbolic action theory and distinctive approach to cultural psychology. In contrast, his numerous contributions as an educational psychologist have remained nearly unnoticed up to now. Against this backdrop, this article highlights some crucial phases in Boesch's biography that demonstrate his strong involvement in educational psychology in general. It then reconstructs and discusses the main constituents of what one could call Boesch's cultural psychology of education, which he developed in the context of his work as director of the Forschungsstelle für Entwicklungshilfe, insbesondere Erziehungshilfe (Institute for Research on Developmental Aid – specifically educational aid) – which was later renamed Sozialpsychologische Forschungsstelle für Entwicklungsplanung (Institute for Social Psychological Research on Developmental Planning) – during the years from 1962 to 1986. Finally, some conclusions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the cultural and educational mission of modern media related to the spiritual and cultural education of youth in Kazakhstan. Over the past two decades, the socialization problems of Kazakh youth have been removed from the state's social policy agenda. Methods of comparative and complex analysis were applied in this study. To define acute youth problems, the study analyzed television projects and printed materials related to different periods of media activity in Kazakhstan. Several sociological measurements were used to reveal the needs of the television audience. The study defined the key socialization factors and institutions of young people. The article describes the role of media in establishing social standards of behavior, communication, and activity that directly affect the process of socialization. The study analyzes the activities of TV channels performing a cultural and educational function. The need to strengthen the editorial policy of media resources, focusing on socially significant issues with priority given to social and educational broadcasting, became an essential conclusion of the study. The results of the study allowed to compile an average portrait of the young generation, as well as to identify the key characteristics for the correction of life strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed at investigating the impacts of some cultural, social and economic factors of the students' families on the students' education and attitude toward mathematics. This study has been carried out through the use of data envelopment analysis. Data envelopment analysis is a linear programming method that its main purpose is to compare and evaluate the efficiency of a number of similar decision-making units, and to compare and analyze them, which have different values of consumed inputs and produced outputs. In this study, the inputs are the various aspects of cultural, social and economic conditions (such as family income, physical and mental health condition of the family members, and parents' occupation) of the families of 300 sixth-grade elementary school students in district 4 of Tehran, and the outputs are the extent of achievement in the mathematics test and the interest of the students of the mentioned schools to the activities related to the mathematics course and moral discipline. After the completion of the investigations, the effective and ineffective units were identified and the results were completely interpreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to analyse the everyday behaviour of a caregiver at the Emmi Pikler nursery school in Budapest as she manages the breakfast of the 12 children aged 2-3 under her care, as an example of quality care. The methodology used was observational. The design was idiographic, follow-up and multidimensional, and the observation instrument is a field format developed ad hoc. The relations of sequentiality and association among the caregiver's different behaviours are analysed: the actions related to the breakfast itself, the use of space and the gestures accompanying the actions. The results, which were obtained via a lag sequential analysis, demonstrate the existence of a twofold behavioural pattern, instrumental and relational, in which each instrumental action inherent to breakfast is associated with a specific, unique repertoire of postural accompaniment, a combination of gestures and postures on the part of the caregiver, thus forming a clear, univocal sequence for children to learn the meal routine autonomously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study examines associations between preservice teachers’ experiences in teacher education (n = 2,129), their beliefs about culturally diverse students, and their endorsed instructional practices within social reconstructionist and achievement goal theory frameworks. Structural equation modeling confirmed significant associations between experiences in teacher education and discomfort with student diversity, endorsement of mastery- and performance-oriented practices, and reluctance to adjust instruction to culturally diverse student needs. The number of multicultural education courses completed negatively predicted preservice teachers’ stereotype beliefs and positively predicted mastery orientation. Reluctance to accommodate to culturally diverse students’ educational needs mediated relations between stereotype beliefs and discomfort with student diversity with mastery- and performance-oriented practices. This demonstrates that general stereotype beliefs can inform proximal cultural intentions and instructional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, anti-Muslim discourse and sentiment has become pervasive in the West. Using a collaborative ethnographic approach, we observe how participants at a Turkish Community Center (TCC) cultivate stigma management strategies against the cultural backdrop of post-9/11 anti-Muslim stereotypes. In our analysis, we use Goffman’s work on stigma and critical race theory to explore the socially embedded nature of stigmatization processes for Turkish Muslims in a local community center. Our findings reveal how aspects of Turkish culture and Islam, together with a structural context that facilitates collective stigma management, allow TCC participants to effectively manage stigma and combat anti-Muslim stereotypes. Turkish participants use the practice of “dialogue” to prioritize secular identity(ies) through cultural education, normalize the Muslim self in conversation about religion, and embody a gendered presentation of Islam and Turkish culture. While facilitating individual and collective resilience for TCC participants in the face of stigmatization and pervasive anti-Muslim sentiment, these practices also contribute to the reproduction of broader patterns of racial, cultural, and gender inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws upon a survey of writing conceptions and cultural dispositions data, as well as multimodal compositions allowing bilingual teacher candidates to recursively explore and deepen the relationships between language, identity, and culture in learning. We found that teacher candidates did rethink the relationships through the multimodal tool. Moreover, their epistemic writing conceptions were correlated with high intercultural dispositions and multimodal complexity. The multimodal composition allowed candidates to follow individually distinct processes, but they all made more references to their imagined teaching practice at the end of the learning experience. These references were the result of, and resulted in, a deeper reflection of the relationships. Our results have implications for preparing teachers to confront the reality of diverse classrooms through more flexible pedagogical practices that allow for diverse modes of meaning making, such as the multimodal composition in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This whakataukī or ‘proverb’ speaks to Māori perspectives of time, where the past, the present and the future are viewed as intertwined, and life as a continuous cosmic process. Within this continuous cosmic movement, time has no restrictions – it is both past and present. The past is central to and shapes both present and future identity. From this perspective, the individual carries their past into the future. The strength of carrying one’s past into the future is that ancestors are ever present, existing both within the spiritual realm and in the physical, alongside the living as well as within the living. This article explores Māori perspectives of the past and the models and inspiration they offer. In this way, it provides a critique of the practices in early childhood education, highlighting the importance of cultural concepts and practices, and discusses implications for both teaching and academic practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many teachers and educational researchers have claimed to adopt tenets of culturally relevant education (CRE). However, recent work describes how standardized curricula and testing have marginalized CRE in educational reform discourses. In this synthesis of research, we sought examples of research connecting CRE to positive student outcomes across content areas. It is our hope that this synthesis will be a reference useful to educational researchers, parents, teachers, and education leaders wanting to reframe public debates in education away from neoliberal individualism, whether in a specific content classroom or in a broader educational community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deaf children have traditionally been perceived and educated as a special needs population. Over the past several decades, several factors have converged to enable a shift in perspective to one in which deaf children are viewed as a cultural and linguistic minority, and the education of deaf children is approached from a bilingual framework. In this article, we present the historical context in which such shifts in perspective have taken place and describe the linguistic, social, and cultural factors that shape a bilingual approach to deaf education. We further discuss the implications of a linguistic and cultural minority perspective of deaf children on language development, teacher preparation, and educational policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study outlines the struggle for desegregation and the adoption of culturally responsive curricula in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) as it attempted to balance state politics and federal court oversight. The case offers a detailed illustration of the political and legal events that led up to the adoption, elimination, and reinstatement of the TUSD Mexican American Studies (MAS) program. With a focus on social justice and the power of culturally relevant curricula, educational leaders are encouraged to consider these events from the perspective of different stakeholders in evaluating future policy alternatives for MAS in Tucson. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored the use of mobile social software, in the form of a mobile group blog, to assist cultural learning. The potential of using this technology for cultural adaptation among overseas students was examined as those students adapted to the everyday life of studying abroad. Two pilot studies and a successful field study of a mobile group blog as used by U.K. overseas students are reported. A further study with prospective overseas students witnessing this “moblogging” in China revealed the advantages of communicating through this technology as a form of peer-supported preparation for cultural adaptation. Potential advantages for learning a second language, via this system, were highlighted as communication was interwoven with cultural adaptation and exercised in the blog entries. Given mobile Internet, the language experience together with cultural observation impressively supported these students’ growing confidence with time, space, and imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International faculty mobility raises important questions about the relationship between culture and teaching in higher education. As international faculty members adjust to new cultural expectations, they may alter their teaching styles. This study uses survey data to examine the teaching styles of international faculty members in South Korea. The study considers whether international faculty assimilate into Confucian heritage classroom culture by testing the hypothesis that formal authority and expert teaching styles will correlate positively with the number of semesters an international faculty member has taught in South Korea. However, the results reject this hypothesis. The findings elucidate teaching styles used by international faculty members in Korea and provide a platform for further investigation into intercultural pedagogy in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a historical and cultural perspective as well as a critical ethnographic approach, this work analyses the numerical relationships that take place within the social practices of the Tseltal Mayan community. In this social group, children learn to identify numbers through the use of cultural artefacts and natural elements, as well as collaborating with adults and other children, bringing body, emotions and cognition into play. We describe how for Tseltal Mayan children, numbers constitute a way of naming the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work provides evidence that children as young as six years old successfully leverage written representations to their own purposes. During a modified clinical interview, Maggie created an idiosyncratic written representation to negotiate understanding of the interview task. In this move, Maggie shifted her role in the interview from sharing her own thinking to understanding the interviewer's thinking. Her representations were not strictly for communication but also for control. This fleeting but illuminating episode points to young children's intuitive perspective on written representations as a cultural tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theories of cultural reproduction and cultural mobility have largely shaped the study of the effects of cultural capital on academic outcomes. Missing in this debate has been a rigorous examination of how children actually acquire cultural capital when it is not provided by their families. Drawing on data from a large-scale experimental study of schools participating in an art museum’s educational program, we show that students’ exposure to a cultural institution has the effect of creating ‘‘cultural consumers’’ motivated to acquire new cultural capital. We find that the experience has the strongest impact on students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. As such, our analysis reveals important aspects about the nature of cultural capital acquisition. To the extent that the evidence supporting cultural mobility is accurate, it may be because disadvantaged children can be activated to acquire cultural capital, thus compensating for family background characteristics and changing their habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on two ethnographic research projects in Japanese university sports clubs to examine the role alcohol plays in the social and cultural education of students. Over the course of a four-year membership, the university sports club is a site where members learn to negotiate drinking. This negotiation is demonstrated by the range of strategies members employ when engaging in one of the many official drinking parties that punctuate the university sports club calendar. Knowing how to drink is seen as an important byproduct of being a member and this knowledge is acquired via the pedagogical relationships established between junior and senior members. On graduating university Japanese students are literally expected to become full members of society and it is the habitus related to social interaction (including drinking) rather than that related to sport, which has enduring capital. Alcohol plays a central role in many aspects of Japanese social interaction and the university sports club is a site par excellence for the training in and mastery of such skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study I examined examples of implementation of conservation policies initiated by the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992). I focused on the 101 conservation initiatives conducted during the period of 2002-2012 on the territories of groups classified by the international law as indigenous peoples. I assessed a degree to which conservation benefited indigenous communities as means to combat poverty and ecological degradation. I focused on the connections between the provisions of the CBD Article 8(j) that specified the importance of protecting indigenous and local communities’ traditional knowledge and practices (TK) to conservation, and the actual realities of conservation initiatives in which indigenous expertise was used. I learned that despite the wide use of elements composing TK in the projects examined, only certain communities benefited from the conservation initiatives, with a predominant part of beneficiaries located in the states that insured greater degree of legal and social protection to indigenous individuals as citizens of those states. For the most part conservation was imposed upon indigenous groups; some communities suffered displacement and poverty loosing the lands and resources to the conservation authorities. At the same time in other cases conservation projects offered an opportunity for indigenous individuals to advance their perspectives on managing traditional lands and natural environments and thus, to some degree, advanced underlining these groups’ interests. I concluded that collaborative work between indigenous groups and the outside agencies remains the key means toward improving the indigenous economies and relations with external actors while also serving as a means to care for the environment across geo-political boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Writing studies has been an intellectual playground dominated by the “big kids.” If we are to understand how writing becomes “relevant” to children as children, then we must study them, not for who they are becoming, but for who they are in life spaces shared with other children. This essay on the methodology entailed in studying writing in young school children’s worlds rests on a cultural studies perspective on childhoods and plays with a sociocultural perspective on literacy development. The methodological challenges entail (a) researcher positionality that allows a dynamic, multilayered view of classroom contexts; (b) data collection decisions allowing one to trace the trajectories of official and unofficial (child-controlled) communicative practices and their interplay; (c) a socially embedded view of the semiotics and functionality of literacy; and (d) a global consciousness that constrains a long-standing rush to generalization based on observational studies of Western, often privileged children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The essay discusses "Standard 2: Global Perspective for Design," a mandate forming part of the CIDA (Council for Interior Design Accreditation) 2014 Professional Standards which specifies that interior design programs should provide their students with the opportunity of gaining knowledge about other cultures. The author argues that faculty in interior design programs should not simply teach about other cultures but rather help students arrive at an understanding of what culture means in specific contexts.

This article describes a culturally responsive music curriculum through which students and teachers affirmed diverse stories of individuals present in our public school community. An arts-integrated curriculum project helped make learning more meaningful while concurrently creating a safe learning space for students. This grant-funded project comprised three interwoven facets: a schoolwide focus on world cultures and U.S. immigrant populations throughout the academic year; community celebrations of student learning through arts-based, experiential activities; and a core group of students who met weekly with teaching artists each week to disseminate knowledge via community informances. The themes connecting disciplines, content areas, and the school community served as lenses through which students gained artistic and academic skills as well as conceptual understandings about elements of language, culture, and community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the relationship between formal schooling (understood as cultural activity), autobiographical memory, and self. Autobiographical memory can be defined as memory for events and experiences of one's life. Research in the last years has evidenced cultural differences in autobiographical memory. However, the role of formal schooling in the configuration of our autobiographical memories has not been investigated systematically. Literacy and formal education have played and play a fundamental part in the constitution of the modern subject. Our study explores the characteristics of autobiographical narratives and self-construals of Mexican women and men from three different levels of formal education: 1) literate: learning to read and write; 2) basic: equivalent to primary education; and 3) university: higher education. Participants were asked to narrate their earliest autobiographical memory. The main results showed that formal schooling seemed to promote forms of autobiographical recall that are very similar to those that characterise “cultures of autonomy” (age of earliest memory, focus on autonomy, the self as protagonist of memories, emotional content, etc.). These results are discussed in terms of the relationship between socio-cultural activities and autobiographical recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, education policy making has been interwoven with the nation-building project. However, the centrality of the nation state in education policy making has been constrained by a wide range of new socio-political and economic phenomena that relate to European integration. This article explores the ways in which European education policies are mediated and reframed by national institutions through the case study of the development of intercultural education in Cyprus. It examines: (a) the types of interaction between European and national intercultural policies; (b) the ways in which European intercultural policies are mediated by national institutions; and (c) the impact of this process for the making and implementation of Cypriot policy regarding intercultural education. Intercultural education relates to a wide range of sociocultural, political and economic phenomena, while it is based on values that affirm cultural pluralism. Thus, the aim of this article is to provide a global perspective of intercultural education in a European state (Cyprus) that seeks conflict resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This feminist content analysis of selective adult education journals and conference proceedings draws on feminist aesthetic theory to develop a deeper understanding of women adult education scholars' work with/in the arts. Four major categories identified were community cultural development, aesthetic civic engagement and knowledge mobilization, arts-based research, and art education. Within these were multidimensional and at times contesting themes of cultural justice, identity and agency, elitism and postmodernism in museums, artistic quality and collective process, personal and social transformation, and pleasure and subversion. Women's diverse cultural practices contribute not only to liberatory or emancipatory struggles in feminist adult education but also to discourses of feminist aesthetic theory that all but ignore the educational potential of the arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issues on Chinese sex culture and the effect sexual materials and sex studies to the students at City University of Hongkong. Edison Chen sex scandal was used as example of such materials. The author argues that scandal had affected her students making them interested in pornography. Discussing scandal made easy to investigate the lifestyles and investment in pornography of the students. Web culture and tabloid media provides pedagogy in media, sex, and gender studies.

En este artículo editorial se presenta el monográfico titulado Enseñanza y aprendizaje de la Historia: aspectos cognitivos y culturales. En los cuatro primeros apartados, se justifica la actualidad del tema y se introducen los contenidos del monográfico, organizados en torno a dos importantes dimensiones de la enseñanza de la Historia: la cognitiva y la cultural. Respecto a la dimensión cognitiva, se esboza una panorámica de las habilidades y recursos didácticos implicados en aprender a pensar históricamente. Respecto a la dimensión cultural, se presentan las razones por las que la enseñanza formal de la historia continúa íntimamente ligada a la construcción de la identidad y la transmisión de la memoria colectiva. En el último apartado se concretan los objetivos del monográfico, así como la organización de los diferentes trabajos que lo componen, en torno a la investigación sobre ambas dimensiones de la enseñanza de la Historia. The introductory paper presents this monographic issue titled: Teaching and learning History: Cognitive and cultural aspects. In the first four sections, the current significance of the subject is justified and the contents of the monographic issue are introduced. They are organised around two important dimensions of History education: cognitive and cultural. Regarding the cognitive dimension, the scope of the skills and didactic resources involved in learning to think historically are outlined. With respect to the cultural dimension, we analyse why formal history education continues to be closely linked to the construction of identity and transmission of collective memory. In the last section, the aims of the present monographic issue dealing with these two dimensions of History education are described, as well as how the different papers are organised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Penn State University's Paul Robeson Cultural Center uses a model of cultural education and engagement to design and deliver all of its programs and services. The strategic nature of this model has resulted in well-received and well-supported offerings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the cultural nature of research. This is a consequential idea as research knowledge is expected to inform professional practices for our increasingly multicultural society. We highlight theoretical and methodological limits of the traditional practice of research on cultural groups and outline research as situated cultural practice. This notion challenges researchers to widen the analytic spotlight from a focus on certain groups to shed light on two additional aspects, namely, the sociocultural location of the researcher as a cultural being and member of a scientific field, and the cultural presuppositions in a field's habitual practices. We outline a model of culture that underlies the idea of research as situated cultural practice. We illustrate this notion with quantitative and qualitative research examples and reflect on implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Punctuated with terms such as at risk, dropout, and disadvantaged, Western educational discourse is replete with euphemisms for the reasons that Black youth underachieve or fail in school. This article highlights some of the contemporary developments in Ontario, Canada, focusing on issues of African Canadian education. Pertinent issues of sociological and historical relevance are discussed, with implications for education in the contemporary schooling context. Education must cultivate a sense of identity within culture and community, while working with ancestral cultural knowledge retentions. This calls for a revisioning of the educational system in public schools so as to (a) introduce a more effective method of teaching diverse youth, (b) create spaces where the needs of the most disadvantaged are seriously and concretely addressed (and not glossed over), (c) promote schools with strong ties to the community, and (d) help learners build their self-, collective, and cultural identities within an environment of social excellence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between approaches to learning and locus of control of students from the USA, Japan, and Taiwan. The results show that students from the USA utilized more rote memory learning compared to students from Japan and Taiwan, while students from Japan were more likely to be 'Achieving' learners than peers from either the USA or Taiwan. 'Deep Approaches' to learning, however, were similar across the three groups. Students from both Japan and Taiwan exhibited higher levels of external orientation than did students from the USA. Although cultural characteristics were reflected in students' locus of control orientation, there were no differences in students' deep processing understanding strategies as all students displayed low levels. School psychologists must therefore be aware that students from different Asian cultural backgrounds do not have a singular approach to learning or a singular locus of control orientation. The mediating role of cultural context in learning must be considered for individual students in order to implement appropriate and effective teaching strategies, techniques, and methods that promote deep level understanding for learners with differing cultural backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all sociology's 'strange others', cultural studies is perhaps the least unfamiliar to many sociologists. Yet cultural studies exists in one of the most ambiguous relationships with sociology of any academic discipline. In this article, it is argued that the complicated nature of the relationship is compelled by the very closeness of the two participants in it. What often seems to be an ongoing state of ritualized antagonism between them flows not from their ostensible differences but in fact from their striking underlying similarities. Their symbiotic bond both compels, and is hidden by, the rhetorical displays of selfhood in which they both often engage. The article reviews and assesses this state of affairs, and argues that the similarities between the two disciplines are actually based on a number of shared epistemological assumptions, a priori ways of thinking that in fact are very much open to question. A critique of these assumptions is outlined, and it is suggested that by recognizing their shared nature, both sociology and cultural studies, and the relationship between them, would enter into a greater state of intellectual maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article features an elementary teacher who has worked with the authors for the past 10 years in research on building a classroom community and using cultural universals as the centerpiece for elementary social studies for all children. Cultural universals are basic human needs and social experiences found in all societies, past and present, and include food, shelter, clothing, transportation, communication, family living, money, childhood, government, and so on. Actions related to cultural universals are experienced by all children regardless of their cultures, socioeconomic backgrounds, achievement levels, or special needs, so teachers can connect to these experiences as bases for developing historical, geographic, political, economic, sociological, psychological, or anthropological understandings. The ultimate goal is connected knowledge about how the social system works, how and why it developed over time, how and why it varies across locations and cultures, and what all this might mean for personal, social, and civic decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]