Internet access has recently been introduced into over 30,000 schools in the UK. While web provision has been heralded by some as an educational panacea, it is also recognised that there are dangers inherent in school Internet use. Adopting the cultural risk perspective, drawing upon a social-cultural analysis of Internet regulation and utilising…

In this paper I examine how and to what extent various elements of my biography--race, ethnicity, gender, age, social class background, and prior personal and professional experiences--influenced my relationships with students in a graduate course examining the impact of race, gender, and social class on education. My lived experiences as an…

Sociocultural considerations play an important role in any teaching episode in our increasingly diverse society. This analysis focuses on a male European American preservice teacher, who is practicing teaching at a school with 3% African-American, 3% Asian, 91% European American, 1% Hispanic American, and 3% multiracial students. Examination of…

This study provides a framework for studying socio-cultural issues that impact on how knowledge, ideas and values are transmitted and developed. Since racial domination in South Africa was produced through power relations, it is important to investigate discourses through which black South African distance education learners make meaning of their…

Arab education in Israel and sociocultural, socioeconomic and political issues of being a minority in Israel are considered in this book. Arab education in Israel is traced from elementary to university levels, and from its historical background to its present administration. Numerous Arabic, English, and Hebrew studies in education are analyzed,…

Data collected from a sample of over 200 elementary school children from Tennessee were used for studying their perceptions of the future. An interview guide-questionnaire provided information regarding children's perceptions along the following three different dimensions: how children perceived their own personal future; how they perceived…

Discussion of one form of pragmatic competence, projecting a sense of stylistic voice into texts, explores how writing in a non-native language affects the ability to express stylistic voice and enter into social dialogue with readers. Using the published reflections of authors writing professionally in a non-native language, the analysis shows…

This paper argues that the ways of speaking characteristic of a given speech-community cannot be satisfactorily described or explained in purely behavioral terms, that they constitute a behavioral manifestation of a tacit system of cultural rules or scripts, and that to understand a society's ways of speaking, it is necessary to identify and…

The increasing linguistic and cultural diversity of U.S. public schools requires teachers to be more sensitive to how symbols and figures of speech are used to maintain an effective cross-cultural communication. The purpose of this paper is to address and discuss the role of sociocultural factors that shape the insights and perspectives of diverse…

Second language tests claiming to assess communicative competence are widespread, despite the vague nature of the construct. Sociolinguistic or intercultural competence is gradually gaining attention in the classroom, but testing has not kept pace, partly because of difficulty in defining the related skills. An opinion is that speech act theory…

Social cognitive theory suggests that individuals' beliefs about their efficacy in specific contexts, such as school, influence their motivation in those settings. The relationship between various sociocultural factors and the development of adolescents' perceived academic self-efficacy are investigated in this paper. Participants (N=202), drawn…

The move toward inclusive education potentially threatens the very heart of the Deaf cultural community, and may be an example of "epistemic violence" where the dominant ideology of equality of access to educational resources actually serves to reproduce structured inequalities. Deaf education has been moving away from a view of deafness as a…

The booklet is part of a grade 10-12 social studies series produced for bilingual education. The series consists of six major thematic modules, with four to five booklets in each. The interdisciplinary modules are based on major ideas and designed to help students understand some major human problems and make sound, responsive decisions to improve…

This theme issue of the Bernard van Leer Foundation newsletter focuses on the problem of teenage pregnancy and teenage parenthood in developing and developed nations, and examines the problems that teenage mothers face in different societies. It explores societal norms and values related to teenage parenting; the effects of teenage parents on…

This overview presents a profile of the Hispanic American community in five key areas: demographics, education, poverty, health, and civil rights. The demographic overview considers population composition and location, population growth, language acquisition, family status, and employment. Educational status and trends, underrepresentation in…