The essential argument made in this paper is that contact in the South African school is structured around fundamentally asymmetric relations of "knowing" between groups. Three distinct periods are delineated, the first of which (1976-1990) contained the most substantial ideas and contributions to debates and actual steps taken with…

In Lithuania early childhood education and care embraces children of the age from one to seven and is an integrated part of the education system. According to Lithuanian education classification, it belongs to the zero level of education. Though defined as pre-school education yet this stage is composed of two parts--pre-school education of…

This study explored the use of social comparison appraisals in adolescents' lives with particular reference to enhancement appraisals which can be used to counter threats to the self. Social comparison theory has been increasingly used in quantitative research to understand the processes through which societal messages about appearance influence…

The study scrutinizes the rationale behind higher education policy change in England and Japan, giving attention to stakeholders' perspective and legitimacy, policy network, and policy sphere. It argues that change in higher education policy in England and Japan towards being more market-oriented in the 1980s (England) and the 1990s (Japan) can…

This article analyses intergroup differences in education, with particular emphasis on schools offering one or more of the International Baccalaureate programmes ("IB World schools"). Experiences of human difference are often interpreted in terms of culture, and the notion of intercultural understanding is valued in many international schools. Yet…

Denmark's commitment to childhood characterized by equality, democracy, and social cooperation stands in stark contrast to public discourse about immigrant children, who are sometimes branded with negative stereotypes and cast as the cause of school problems. This study examined ethnic-group membership, ethnicity salience, and peer preferences of…

These analyses explore the relationship between gender inequality and subjective well-being. The hypothesis was tested as to whether societal gender inequality is related to the size of gender differences in subjective well-being in various societies. Results come from comparative data sets (World Values Survey, involving 57 countries; OASIS…

When Jerry D. Weast became the superintendent of the Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools in 1999, he spent the summer poring over student-achievement results and demographic trends. Then he created a map to illustrate what he'd found. The map divided the suburban district, just outside the nation's capital, into two distinct areas, which…

Low-income Black teenagers were found to hold unrealistic views of the work world. Middle-income Black teenagers were found to understand it well but to be limited in their access to employment by factors such as economic status and lack of assistance by the educational system and other public agencies. (CMG)

Literacy education concerns itself with assessing student needs and determining the appropriate methods for meeting them, without considering the ethical framework in which those "needs" find meaning. This paper argues that a notion of reflective communication, based on Jurgen Habermas's theory of "Discourse," provides an…

One implication of conflict theory is that law enforcement personnel should be most numerous in metropolitan areas where differences in economic resources are greatest. Data from 1960 did not always support this hypothesis, but 1970 data showed that unequal SMSAs were likely to have more law enforcement personnel. (Author/GC)

Appalachian students don't learn to read because reading lacks pragmatic social consequences for them. (DD)

This paper uses Foucault's notion of parrhesia to analyse the story of another and to interrogate teacher education in terms of the particular moral order or the forms of socialization that it uses. I examine the context of my own teaching in terms of truth-telling and the normative expectations that were found to exist. Through reflection and…

Researching the intersection of class, race, gender, sexuality and disability raises many issues for educational research. Indeed, Maynard (2002, 33) has recently argued that "difference is one of the most significant, yet unresolved, issues for feminist and social thinking at the beginning of the twentieth century". This paper reviews…