In a dehumanized world in which meanings derived from dominant liberal world views are tacitly assumed to exist objectively and to impose themselves on discourses and on minds quite independently of who expresses them, this paper endorses what Immanuel Wallerstein calls "unthinking social science" and then rethinking social science in…

This article examines the pedagogical dimension of vospitanie, or character formation, in communist and post-communist education. It explores how vospitanie is conceptualized in two teacher-education textbooks--one from each period--in Ukraine, a post-Soviet country. Comparative analysis shows how conceptualizations of vospitanie have evolved over…

This hermeneutical essay demonstrates why and how Pierre Bourdieu's social reproduction theory is neither an adequate explanation for understanding praxis nor the Black/White academic achievement gap in contemporary postindustrial economies like that of the United States and the United Kingdom. The underlining hypothesis of the work is that the…

World culture theory (WCT) offers an explanatory framework for macro-level comparative analyses of systems of mass education, including their structures, accompanying policies and their curricular and pedagogical practices. WCT has contributed to broader efforts to overcome methodological nationalism in comparative research. In this paper, we…

Marx's critique of capitalism remains foundational to the university social science curriculum yet little is known about how instructors teach Marx. In post-industrial, service-oriented economies, students are also increasingly disconnected from the conditions of industrial capitalism that animate Marx's analysis. Inspired by the discussion of how…

Citizenship education has been an important part of the European Union's (EU) agenda to integrate a European dimension into schools' curricula. The usage of European symbolism in citizenship education curriculum material has been an especially important (yet understudied) means not only to promote a distinct European identity and increase…

Nepal experienced political change from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy in 1990 and finally to a republic in 2008. These changes in the political climate were followed by subsequent change in the educational policy as the incoming regimes tried to incorporate its ideology in the educational policy. This paper analyses the role of…

In this study, the Tinto model of student integration is applied qualitatively to soldiers attending college. The authors found that soldiers commit to the military primarily and to college secondarily; therefore, military policies and relationships related to college offered a better understanding of college commitments than did college policies…

Much research on bullying in schools positions individual children within a deficit model of personal variables, categorising and cataloguing them with high levels of aggressiveness, low levels of empathy and so on. While less than optimal school characteristics are sometimes noted, the expectation for change is on the children. This article…

Popular education, by which is meant adult education within and in support of radical social movements, has become a major topic in academic adult education in recent times. This paper criticises the lack of attention paid in most of this writing to the history, theory and practice of revolutionary parties in the communist and socialist tradition.…

This article is based on the idea that if we are witnessing an on-going shift towards the transnational phase of capitalism, this objective structural change should also be taken into account in higher education studies. In this sense, this article reflects the increased scholarly attention into the relationship between globalisation and higher…

We investigated academic buoyancy (a response to challenge) and adaptability (a response to change) among a sample of 12-16-year-olds in China (N = 3617) compared with same-aged youth from North America (N = 989) and the United Kingdom (UK; N = 1182). We found that Chinese students reported higher mean levels of buoyancy and adaptability. We also…

Islamophobia has become increasingly evident in the sociocultural landscape of the United States. The current political climate which centers on the influx of refugees and concerns of extremists has in effect othered individuals of Arab ancestry as a bounded group. Arab students represent a heterogeneous group of individuals, encompassing a…

This article explores the changing dynamics between gender, cultural capital and the state in the context of higher education expansion in contemporary China. With a particular focus on the one-child generation and women's opportunities and aspirations, I draw upon empirical evidence from a first-hand survey study and in-depth semi-structured…

This article argues that strong interrelations between methodological and theoretical advances exist. Progress in, especially comparative, methods may have important impacts on theory evaluation. By using the example of the "Varieties of Capitalism" approach and an international comparison of higher education systems, it can be shown…