Two experiments examined the effects of a culture-general factor, pattern redundancy, on the discrimination of five-tone melodies that differed in their adherence to Western tonal conventions, among 9-month olds, 5-year olds, and adults. Increasing exposure seemed to attenuate the effects of the pattern redundancy while amplifying the influence of…

In light of globalization-driven educational demands and growing student alienation, there is a pressing need to reevaluate the cultural context of schooling and learning. Comparative education studies have potential to illuminate the complex interplay of personal, social, and structural factors that influence student engagement in particular…

Discusses the World Wide Web and epistemology in the context of higher education. Topics include the transformation of cultural assumptions by net-based information systems; information revolutions; views of and use of information technology; the organization of knowledge; and the changing role of students in educational history. (LRW)

For more than 25 years, researchers have described the critical roles leaders play in creating effective schools and school districts. If U.S. schools are to close achievement gaps, their leaders must possess the appropriate knowledge, dispositions, and skills to assume these critical roles. The Interstate School Leadership Licensure Consortium…

AIDS prevention research has demonstrated that theoretically driven HIV prevention programs can be tailored to specific cultures. Further, condom self-efficacy and contraceptive self-efficacy scales have been tested in the U.S. and been shown to predict condom and contraceptive use. Results of condom and contraceptive self-efficacy studies have…

Students at all levels need to have opportunities to represent themselves in their work in ways that are meaningful to them. The Family Artifact Museum Project provides an opportunity for students to accomplish this as they bring their family stories into the classroom and see how the lives of ordinary people are part of history. This project came…

This article analyses the impact of national quality audit of Swedish higher education institutions between 1995 and 2002. It also looks at the programme and subject reviews that have succeeded the audits, in order to compare results. It is found that the audits have resulted in the development of policy and structure of institutional quality work…

A traditional preoccupation with the immediate and short term on the part of school leaders has recently given way to recognition of the need for, and importance of, strategic leadership. However, this article expresses a number of concerns about recent thinking on strategic leadership, in particular, the view that vision and school improvement…

This author investigates the question. Within the cultural context of her teaching, how does one teacher experience professional learning aimed at literacy practices? Using an elementary teacher's professional context as a site, the author employed data collection tools typical of qualitative analysis: participant observation, interviews, and…

An enduring tenet of the comparative education tradition is the significance of cultural context, of the distinctive features that characterise a society or social group. The close link that has been established between culture and development has prompted Caribbean leaders to place more emphasis on an appreciation of the region's cultural assets,…

The paper examines the "prehistory" in the 18th century of the theory of "Bildung". Pedagogical historiography commonly traces the theory back to the influence of Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, who is held to be the founder of the concept of "innere Bildung", on the grounds that Shaftesbury's…

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived reasons of pre-service music educators (undergraduate music majors preparing to teach music) for preferring three distinctive pieces with traditional roots in East Asia. The selected pieces were foreign to research participants in the US. Pre-service music educators (N = 66) listened to a…

University of Chicago literary critic W.J.T. Mitchell claims that his contribution to the cultural interpretation and hermeneutic understanding of dinosaurs is every bit as valuable as archeological discoveries. Indeed, he holds that, because of his new way of looking at dinosaurs, the title "scientist" should aptly apply to him, too.…

Recently, one of these authors was asked to facilitate a meeting of about a dozen Native Americans, all present and past employees of a large Federal agency, and members of a Native American affinity group. A Native American colleague and others from the group informed the author in preparatory session that the group would employ a "talking…

The simple mention of reparations for African-Americans in the United States can be counted on to generate a firestorm. When it comes to the issue of recompense for injustices Black Americans have suffered throughout U.S. history--slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and other political and social mechanisms designed to maintain racial inequality--the…