Minority languages in both industrialised and developing countries have seldom been considered as objects of serious study. The discussion recognises that linguistic minorities are not homogeneous in nature. Apart from their sociolinguistic settings, they also differ in their historical, cultural, and natural backgrounds which makes it difficult…

Cultures of low aspirations, and more particularly young people's adaptation to them, are often presented as the major obstacle to an economic development agenda which requires more higher-level skills and a social agenda which is about enabling people from "non-traditional" backgrounds to go to university. The article analyses and discusses some…

Russia at the beginning of the twenty-first century has turned into a country of paradoxes. For example, even though society is increasingly dependent on education and science, it is spending less and less on them. Despite all the talk about how intelligence goes where the pay is better, higher and secondary education, evidently, is an exception.…

Contemporary Russian society is going through complex stages of internal change and integration into the world civilizational process. This process includes profound structural and functional changes in the economic, sociocultural, and intellectual spheres. Under these conditions, Russian society is observing the emergence of a whole complex of…

Today, the Census Bureau compiles extensive information every year about the people and the economy of the United States. That is how the authors know that in 2006 the United States is going to reach an extraordinary milestone--300 million people. In this article, the authors discuss the "now and then" of the U.S. society. The authors…

Inasmuch as social deficiencies breed malcontent, it is not difficult to understand the resulting dissonance in physical, social, emotional, and relational well-being not only between individuals but also within and between communities and groups and between nations. The proverbial "haves" and "have-nots" continue to be…

The goal of the United National Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Competency Standards for Teachers (ICT-CST) project is to improve teachers' practice in all areas of a their work. By combining ICT skills with emergent views in pedagogy, curriculum, and school organization,…

This brochure highlights some of the performance indicators used by Connecticut's public higher education institution to demonstrate accountability. This paper reports on the results of these goals: (1) Student Learning; (2) Learning in K-12; (3) Access and Affordability; (4) Economic Development; (5) Societal Needs; and (6) Resource Efficiency.…

This paper argues that many internationally financed literacy programs do not sufficiently take into consideration important daily life issues of the learners, including nutritional deficiencies that may hinder learning, or of children-parent-society interactions that may improve learning. As a result, many programs have become synonymous with…

The South is arguably the most generous region of a generous nation. Southerners give to their universities and schools, to their soup kitchens and homeless shelters, to the community United Way, to relief agencies responding to natural disasters, and most specially to their churches and other religious institutions. As a whole, Southerners give…

The contribution of higher education institutions to regional development is a theme that has attracted growing attention in recent years. Knowledge institutions are increasingly expected not only to conduct education and research, but also to play an active role in the economic, social and cultural development of their regions. The extent to…

This report describes the progress made by AID (Agency for International Development) in mainstreaming attention to gender throughout its strategies and programs to increase the overall effectiveness of its development assistance. The highlights from fiscal years 1991 and 1992 illustrate both the impact achieved and the momentum gained. Divided…

The technical and vocational education (TVE) system in Iran suffers from a lack of social status in comparison to academic education. Recent and future planning is directed toward changing the existing ratio of approximately 10:90 (TVE in comparison to academic) at the secondary level to 50:50 by the end of the second 5-year plan. The lack of…

This paper locates the phenomenon of self-managing schools within the framework of "fast capitalism" and identifies themes of organization central to fast capitalism, which are argued to also underpin the self-managing schools. "Fast capitalism" refers to the rapidly intensified integration of regionalized productive activities into the global…

Based on a workshop in Gambia in 1989, this manual was developed to help Peace Corps workers to develop training techniques for teaching women to run businesses producing and selling local products and to manage money. Topics covered include the following: (1) the role of the facilitator in adult learning; (2) problems women face in controlling…