Many scholars across the world have studied the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to use digital media. Yet as digital texts have proliferated and evolved, there has been much conjecture over what it means to be 'digitally literate'. As literacy researchers from Australia, Sweden and Argentina we are concerned with the drive to standardise…

Across the globe, from the very wealthy continents of North America to Europe to Australia, the phenomenon of migrant and immigrant students outperforming native students are observed and documented. Even within the same race, achievement differences are being observed. What might account for the achievement success of one group of students over…

Taking a sociocultural approach to understanding the phenomenon of learning to teach, this study examined the extent to which seven pre-service teachers, in their final year of a Bachelor of Education course in a regional Australian university campus, identified personal, professional and contextual aspects as significant influences on learning to…

Across the globe, from the very wealthy continents of North America to Europe to Australia, the phenomenon of migrant and immigrant students outperforming native students are observed and documented. Some migrants and immigrants from China, the Philippines, India, Russia, Africa, and the Caribbean are reportedly achieving higher test scores than…

This research investigates an intercultural praxis approach to using visual research methods, in Australia and Vietnam, with preservice teachers in a Diploma of Early Childhood (DEC) course. The paper results from limited research with DEC preservice teachers exploring the development of intercultural praxis and limited research in teaching whilst…

Self-regulation is a core life quality and human right in democratic societies. The views and experiences of Australian students who had transitioned between home education and conventional schools were sought to explore the similarities and differences between two educationally diverse systems. Through qualitative research using guided interview…

This paper reports on the results of a meta-analysis of first year pre-service teachers' investigations of two transcripts of teacher/student talk. The first is set in the home environment and the second in the classroom. Working with specific tools of analysis and knowledge of the role of talk in literate, cultural and social practices they…

Applies loglinear models of social mobility to six surveys of Australian and Japanese men covering the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Finds similar patterns of association between social origins and social destinations in the two countries, no evidence of change over time in Japan, and only small evidence of increasing openness in Australia. (SV)

Data from a cross-cultural sample of tribal societies suggest that rape is part of a cultural configuration which includes interpersonal violence, male dominance, and sexual separation. Rape is interpreted as the sexual expression of these forces in society where harmony between men and their environment has been severely disrupted. (Author/MJL)

A study explored the notion of writing as a sociocultural act in order to discover whether and how native cultural literacy and literary influences manifest themselves rhetorically and stylistically. Data were collected from 223 students in Australian grades 6 through 11, and representing three linguistic and cultural groups: Vietnamese,…

Essays on political issues in multicultural and bilingual education include: "Cultural Recognition and Civil Discourse in Democracy" (Carlos J. Ovando, Peter McLaren); "The Political Life of Language Metaphors in Writings About Diversity in Education" (Sharon Pugh, Ovando, Nicole Schonemann); "Contesting Whiteness:…

Examines reasons preventing effective policymaking and genuine reform in a number of countries. Measures policy change in education against stages in coming to terms with a new issue: new knowledge, awareness, understanding, creation of new principles, implementation of new policy, change, and monitoring. (JHZ)

This book examines the implications of postmodern culture for adult education through a review of modernist culture and education and a comparative account of modernist and postmodernist culture that is configured as a set of six tensions in three domains: belief (situatedness and ambiguity); individual identity (determination and control); and…