In this paper we report findings of a multidisciplinary study of online participation by culturally diverse participants in a distance adult education course offered in Canada and examine in detail three of the study's findings. First, we explore both the historical and cultural origins of "cyberculture values" as manifested in our…

The authors introduce readers to the research documenting racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness. They describe the key tests, including the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS), and several intelligence tests, and describe how they have been administered to several important national samples of…

There is a widely and deeply held belief on the part of the author's white colleagues that racism is something done by individuals through overt or covert actions against other individuals. Sometimes this belief is tied to one specific characteristic--skin color. Some would believe that they cannot commit racist acts against anyone who looks like…

This article approaches the concept of culture from an anthropological perspective. It places various culture concepts in their historical contexts and discusses several models that are utilized in research in international education. It is argued that the lack of a theory is a major reason for the culture concept's proliferation. A theory is…

Globalisation has seen diverse cultures becoming increasingly entwined and interdependent as business organisations operate in a borderless world. When organisations operate internationally they often find that countries differ in what is considered wrong or right. The objectives of the research were to identify cross-cultural ethical dilemmas…

Purpose: This paper aims to identify and compare the nature of decentralization that has emerged in three important Asian societies after a decade of their involvement in the decentralization movement. Design/methodology/approach: Data from the first cycle of the program for international student assessment were analyzed to investigate educational…

Recent research has documented silence/reticence among East-Asian international students, including Chinese students, in Western/English classrooms. Students' communication competence and cultural differences from the mainstream Euro-American society have been identified as two primary barriers to participation. Placing emphasis on individual…

Teacher candidates must metaphorically "step out of their own skins," challenging stereotypical cultural metanarratives, to teach effectively. This study describes results of collegian mentoring 1st- through 12th-grade students representing diverse ethnic and/or socioeconomic status groups in conjunction with a sophomore-level course on…

The purpose of this study is to describe forum participation of international graduate students who speak English as a foreign language in two Web-based graduate courses. Research questions focused around how linguistic and cultural differences impact nonnative speaking international students' perception of classroom participation, what effect…

In this article, the author discovers the cultural challenges and rewards of starting a center for English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). When she became the principal of a middle school outside of Baltimore, MD, she learned that her first year would also be the school's first year as a middle school English for speakers of other…

A large percentage of African American students comprise special education classes; yet few African Americans are special education teachers. Determinants of success for African Americans pursuing graduate study previously cited in the literature include academic and financial support, and faculty-student mentoring relationships. This qualitative…

The authors examined manifest anxiety and perceptions of English and French language competence among Anglophone (n = 35), Francophone (n = 29), and Mixed-heritage (n = 34) elementary education (60%) and secondary education (40%) students (80% female) in their second, third, or fourth year of study at the Faculte Saint Jean (University of…

Residence hall students' (N = 1,186, 52% male, 90% White, 66% freshmen) involvement in their living community is influenced significantly by precollege student characteristics (gender, ethnicity), classification, attitudes (toward hall director, house cabinet, academic comfort, social environment, group study), and environmental variables (noise,…

This paper reports an empirical study of the psychological and sociocultural adjustments of two cohorts of Chinese students taking a foundation course in English language at a British university. Using Zung's (1965) Self-Rating Depression Scale and a modification of Ward and Kennedy's (1999) Sociocultural Adaptation Scale, quantitative data were…

An extensive and coherent body of social and psychological research has identified social ties and supportive relationships as important predictors of well-being and quality of life. This paper examines the relationships between structural and functional indicators of supportive relations and well-being in Greece at different levels of analysis…