This study investigates the dialogic processes involved in how teachers talk about their students and what consequences their ways of talking (i.e., "narratives") may have for their guidance. We take a sociocultural perspective on learning as transformation of students' subjectivity. Teaching, as a process of guiding and facilitating learning,…

This article links research into constructions of childhood and child agency to anthropological studies of young people's informal adoption and state involvement in family arrangements. It analyses the life history of a young Peruvian woman who deliberately chose to move into an orphanage. The multiple points at which individual and family plans…

This paper presents a study that used narrative inquiry to explore staff experiences of learning and teaching in immersive worlds. The findings introduced issues relating to identity play, the relationship between pedagogy and play and the ways in which learning, play and fun were managed (or not). At the same time there was a sense of imposed or…

The "Research & Action Report," published twice a year, is a window on the activities and initiatives at the Wellesley Centers for Women. The report typically features news about the Centers, interviews with researchers, commentary on recent events or social trends affecting women and girls, announcements of new publications, and much more.…

The use of hybridity today suggests a less coherent, unified and directed process than that found in the Enlightenment science's cultural imperialism, but regardless of this neither concept exists outside power and inequality. Hence, hybridity raises the question of the terms of the mixture and the conditions of mixing. Cultural hybridity produced…

A study examined pragmatic routine and indirection as regularly-used strategies for accomplishing linguistic action that, while conventional, can pose problems for non-native speakers. Two kinds of conventionalities are distinguished: conventionality of means (kinds of semantic structure that have acquired a standard illocutionary force, such as,…

A study examined the values, expectations, and experiences in school among residents of the island of Moloka'i (Hawaii). Using semi-structured interviews, researchers sought to establish whether native Hawaiians' values and experiences in school were distinguishable from other Moloka'i community members, including those of school personnel. As a…

A discussion of classroom second language learning focuses on whether or not the concept of natural development in a target language is an appropriate research perspective. It is argued that the current psycholinguistic framework for such research should be replaced by the perspective that language learning is a social and contextual, not…

The Community Services Branch of the Family Services Section of the North Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) surveyed all 100 DSS county directors to determine if directors saw HIV/AIDS as a problem now and/or as a potential problem in 5 years. Forty-one percent of the directors indicated an immediate need for difficult-to-provide…

This paper is an attempt to summarize the responses provided by African member states to a questionnaire that was part of the preparation activities for a conference on education. The questionnaire dealt with: (1) education, culture, and development policies; (2) taking the cultural dimension into account in educational programs; (3) the role of…

There is evidence in the literature indicating that western education was used not to promote the healthy coexistence of the western and the African cultures but as a sanitizing and civilizing medium. This document describes the need to design science education that adequately meets the needs of the African in such a way that the African view of…

A number of factors came together in the 1970s to create a social problem called "battered wives". Then, beginning in 1977, there was an attempt to create a social problem called "battered husbands." So far, such attempts have been unsuccessful. This analysis compares the issue of battered husbands and battered wives to…

The increasing commercialism and professionalism of sport through the medium of television has had an impact upon the policy of the Canadian government toward sport. Facing pressure from separatist movements within the country, the government has made athletics a keystone in the drive for national unity. The cultural significance of sport and the…

Contested child custody cases between divorcing parents provide a context in which particular ideologies of the family are articulated, reproduced, and legitimized in legal practices. The relationship between legal and extralegal categories was examined in a review of 32 divorce cases, 13 from family court and 19 from circuit court. Data came from…

Romania is a country with a good number of linguistic minorities. Descriptive linguistic data include the number and kinds of languages spoken in what areas and by how many people and their attitudes toward the languages. Models and typologies of language planning are presented to discern their appropriateness. (SCC)