Purpose: This paper aims to develop a better understanding of intergenerational knowledge transfer (IKT) practices by adopting a context-related and comparative perspective. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative case study design involving 83 interviews and non-participative observation in German and Quebec organizations has been chosen.…

This comparative case study, framed by Cultural Historical Activity Theory and sociocultural understandings of literacy, investigated students' online literate activity in two eighth grade English Language Arts classes taught by the same teacher--one with a scripted literacy curriculum and the other without. During a year-long research project, we…

The concept of citizenship is mainly viewed as a Western construct. This article argues an understanding of citizenship education in China not only simply as a grounding in schooling and procedural knowledge of systems of Chinese government but, more broadly, whether in schools or society, whether in China or overseas, that develops dispositions,…

The purpose of this comparative case study was to investigate the use of music in two Reggio-inspired preschools in the United States. I used purposeful sampling to select two sites that represented contrasting sociocultural contexts: one urban school serving a Latino population from low socioeconomic backgrounds and one suburban early childhood…

Musical preference has long been a research interest in the field of music education, and studies consistently confirm the importance of musical preference in one's musical learning experiences. However, only a limited number of studies have been focussed on the field of early childhood education (e.g., Hargreaves, North, & Tarrant, 2006;…

Results are presented of a comparative study of the reasons for parental choice of Scottish Gaelic-medium and Welsh-medium primary education in the year 2000 and of the reasons for pupils' decisions to continue with Gaelic or Welsh-medium education at secondary school in 2007. Parents in both contexts cited the quality of Celtic-medium education…

This study provides empirical data about the role and work context of the school principal in the Lebanon. The study applied grounded theory methods in collecting and analysing the data. The data were collected through a series of open-ended interviews with 53 secondary school principals, and focus group interviews with 8 principals from public as…

This paper explores participation in higher education in Germany and Spain through two case studies from the RANLHE project. There is one case in each national context (Germany and Spain) based on biographical interviews undertaken between 2008 and 2010. Social, economic and cultural dimensions are explored in order to better understand the German…

We investigated the extent to which methodological concerns explicitly addressed by the designers of the World Mental Health Surveys persist in the results that were obtained using the WMH-CIDI instrument. We compared rates of endorsement of mental illness symptoms in the United States (very high) and Nepal (very low) as they were affected by…

This paper investigates Mexican and New Zealand children's conception of the environment and their understandings of environmental issues, focusing on how personal experiences, culture and school-based environmental education (EE) programmes influence their perspectives. Sixty Year 5 children (age 9-11) from three schools in Dunedin (New Zealand)…

In this study, Natural Semantic Metalanguage (henceforth NSM) was used to carry out a comparative analysis. The compliment response behavior of native Persian speakers was compared with that of Native American English speakers to see if it can provide evidence for applicability of NSM model which is claimed to be universal. The descriptive…

This dissertation examines the diffusion of an innovative information technology system across multiple cultures between 2000 and 2006. Developed and implemented by technical communicators in the technical communication department of a global medical device company, the Advanced Single-Source Authoring and Publication System (ASAPS) brought…

Leadership has been under-researched in the Early Years (EY) sector of primary schools in England, especially in leading change for professional development. The aim of this paper is to theorise what the leadership culture for EY practitioners looks like, and how Initial Teacher Training providers and schools are preparing practitioners for…

Formative assessment is increasingly being implemented through policy initiatives in Chinese educational contexts. As an approach to assessment, formative assessment derives many of its key principles from Western contexts, notably through the work of scholars in the UK, the USA and Australia. The question for this paper is the ways that formative…

Background/Context: Schools are cultural contexts that have the power and potential to promote students' cultural assets or "other" youth in a way that keeps them from creating meaningful academic identities. In this study, we build on existing research and theory by defining "othering" as a personal, social, cultural, and…