A cross‐cultural study: deaf students in a public mainstream school setting

The 1000 primary school students in this study included a minority population of nine deaf children. The underlying foundation of this mainstream environment allowed for accommodations, but only to the extent that the non‐deaf majority was not overtly impacted. Explicit messages of equality and implicit notions of normal were often in conflict. Deaf students learned that acceptance was granted to those who complied with the mores of the majority. The author draws on current pedagogical theory and study findings to offer four principles that will help insure a more inclusive educational experience for deaf and non‐deaf students as they are educated together: (1) care must be taken to understand the lived experience of all students; (2) consideration must be given to scheduling issues; (3) sign language interpreters must be provided for all curricular activities; and (4) all students should be acculturated in the dynamics and issues pertaining to a cross‐cultural learning experience.     

Student persistence in distance education: a cross‐cultural multi‐institutional perspective

Following the 12th World Conference of ICDE (Vancouver, 1982) the author was invited to coordinate a project aimed at opcrationalizing a research methodology that was discussed during the conference. The essence of the proposed methodology (Taylor and White, 1983) was to conduct essentially the same empirical study in a variety of distance education settings. It was thought that such an approach could engender an objective synthesis of research results that might lead to a significant contribution being made to the empirical basis for distance education.

It was agreed that the study should focus on something of practical importance to distance educators. It was further agreed that the study could not be of too specialised a theoretical nature because of the need to involve a number of institutions across a wide range of cultural settings. It was finally agreed that the study should take a lead from Rekkedal's (1973) study on turn‐around time.

Major contributions to this first ICDE International Research Project were made by L.J. Barker and V.J. White (Darling Downs IAE, Australia), G. Gillard (University of the South Pacific, Fiji), D. Kaufman (Open Learning Institute, Canada), A.N. Khan (Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan), R. Mezger(Tasmanian State Institute of Technology, Australia) and the ICDE Research Committee regional coordinators.     

Exploring teaching practices in physical education with culturally diverse classes: a cross‐cultural study

This is a cross‐cultural comparative study that sets out to explore teachers' knowledge, understanding and practices of the teaching of Physical Education (PE) to students from different cultural backgrounds. More specifically, it explores key issues in the teaching of PE to Muslim students. Thirteen PE teachers, six from England and seven from Greece were involved in face to face interviews exploring issues related to the teaching of PE to culturally diverse classes, their subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and knowledge of students' religion and culture. The findings suggest that teachers had a limited knowledge of their students' culture and religion. More specifically, ‘novice’ teachers with modest cultural knowledge faced difficulties in teaching students from culturally diverse backgrounds. The study stresses the need to increase student teachers' knowledge and understanding—as part of their initial teacher education courses—to respond and operate effectively towards wider inclusion of students from ethnic/culturally diverse backgrounds in PE and extra‐curricular activities (ECA).

Il s'agit d'une étude interculturelle qui a pour but l'exploration des connaissances des pratiques et la compréhension de l'enseignement de l'éducation physique (PE) offerte aux étudiants de milieux culturels divers. Plus spécifiquement, elle explore les questions clé dans l'enseignement de la PE aux élèves musulmans. 13 professeurs de PE dont six du Royaume Uni et sept de Grèce ont participé à des entretiens pour explorer des questions liées à l'enseignement de la PE aux classes culturellement diverses et pour évaluer leurs connaissances en ce qui concerne la matière et la pédagogie, ainsi que la religion et la culture de leurs éleves. Les conclusions indiquent que les professeurs ont des connaissances limitées de la culture et de la réligion de leurs étudiants. Plus spécifiquement, les professeurs débutants qui ont des connaissances peu aprofondies de la culture et de la réligion se retrouvent face à des difficultés lors de l'enseignement donné aux élèves issus de milieux culturels différents. L' étude souligne la nécessité d'améliorer les connaissances des professeurs au cours de leur formation professionnelle afin d'assurer aux étudiants d'origines culturelles et ethniques différentes une meilleure insertion dans la PE et la ECA.

Dieses ist eine inter‐kulturelle, vergleichende Studie, deren Intention es ist das Wissen, Verständnis und die Praxis von Lehrern zu untersuchen, die Schüler mit unterschiedlichen kulturellen und religiösen Hintergründen unterrichten. Insbesonder handelt es sich hierbei um spezifische Fragestellungen, die sich beim Unterrichten der Leibeserziehung mit moslemischen Schülern ergeben. 13 Sportlehrer, sechs aus Großbritannien und sieben aus Griechenland wurden in vertraulichen Interviews über Ihre Erfahrungen beim Unterrichten von Kindern mit undterschiedlichen kulturellen Hintergründen befragt. Hierbei wurden sowohl Fragestellungen zu didaktischen und pädagogischen Vorgehensweisen und Erwägungen, als auch das Lehrerwissen über die Religion und Kultur der Schüler erforscht. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigten ein begrenztes Lehrerwissen mit Bezug auf die Kultur und Religion ihrer Schüler auf. Insbesondere weniger erfahrene Lehrer (Berufsanfänger) wiesen ein Defizit an Wissen über relevante kulturelle und religiöse Sachverhalte auf. Lehrer mit solch begrenztem kulturellem Wissen fanden es problematisch Schüler mit diversen kulturellen Hintergründen effektiv zu unterrichten. Die Studie betont die Notwendigkeit das Wissen und Verständnis der Lehrer als Teil ihrer Lehrerausbildung zu verbessern um somit flexibler und effektiver auf die Herausforderungen reagieren zu können, die sich beim Unterrichten von Schülern mit diversen ethnischen und kulturellen Hintergründen ergeben.

Éste es un estudio comparativo intercultural que investiga el conocimiento, la comprensión y las prácticas de los profesores de la enseñanza de la educación física (PE) a los alumnos de diversos orígenes culturales. Más específicamente, explora las cuestiones claves en la enseñanza de PE a los alumnoss musulmanes. 13 profesores del PE, seis del Reino Unido y siete de Grecia estuvieron implicados en entrevistas cara a cara explorando las cuestiones relacionadas con la enseñanza del PE en las clases culturalmente diversas, a su conocimiento de la asignatura, al conocimiento pedagógico y al conocimiento de la religión y de la cultura de los alumnos. Los resultados sugieren que los profesores tenían un conocimiento limitado de la cultura y de la religión de sus alumnos. Más específicamente, los profesores principiantes que tenían un conocimiento cultural modesto hacen frente a dificultades enseñando a alumnos de origeneses culturalmente diversos. El estudio indica la necesidad de aumentar el conocimiento de los profesores durante sus cursos iniciales de educación profesional – para que puedan responder y funcionar con eficacia hacia una inclusión más ancha de los alumnos cultural y etnicamente diversos en el PE y ECA.     

The education of children with special needs: a cross‐cultural perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses issues attendant on the practice of identifying pupils with special educational needs in advanced educational systems. Current practices in Australia and Scotland are described and attention is drawn to the problems generated by the abandonment of a category‐based approach to children with special educational needs, the variability of practice between authorities and the absence of reliable data on incidence of special educational needs. Placement outcome data derived from a Scottish study are presented and discussed. The paper concludes with discussion of Australian and Scottish practice set against United States’ experience in the light of Public Law 94‐142 and identifies areas for future research.     

Mentoring in black and white: the intricacies of cross‐cultural mentoring

Cross‐cultural mentoring relationships can be sites of struggle around the issues of race, class and gender. In addition, the mentor/protégé relationship offers micro‐cosmic insight into power relations within western society. The authors of this paper, a black woman associate professor and a white male professor, use the example of their mentoring relationship to illustrate six common issues facing academicians involved in these relationships: (1) trust between mentor and protégé; (2) acknowledged and unacknowledged racism; (3) visibility and risks pertinent to minority faculty; (4) power and paternalism; (5) benefits to mentor and protégé; and (6) the double‐edged sword of ‘otherness’ in the academy. Literature is used for review and critique of mentoring in the academy while offering personal examples to illustrate the complexity and success of a 13‐year mentoring relationship between a duo who began their association as teacher/student.     

How preschool children learn in Hong Kong and Canada: a cross‐cultural study

This paper reviews literacy learning conducted in two laboratory preschools in Hong Kong and Canada, and examines the link between cultural values and educational practices. Both preschools maintain that a constructivist view of child learning underpins their practice. However, the author's experience in these two settings illustrates how similarities and differences are identified in the scope, focus, implementation strategies and learning outcomes of the activities observed. Reasons for these findings are explored from the perspectives of cultural values and societal beliefs in education of the East and the West, and how the constructivist ideology is espoused in these settings. Implications of this cross‐cultural comparison on the issue of ‘best practice’ in early childhood education are discussed.     

A cross‐cultural study of teacher perspectives on teacher roles and adoption of online collaborative learning in higher education

This study aims to understand teachers’ perspectives on their roles in higher education, their views about the adoption of a social‐constructivist approach to teaching and learning and the integration of online collaborative learning in blended learning environments in higher education from a cross cultural perspective. We interviewed 60 Chinese teachers from Beijing Normal University and Capital Normal University in Beijing, China and 30 Flemish teachers from Ghent University in Flanders, Belgium. The results revealed differences as well as specific similarities in perspectives between the Chinese and Flemish university teachers. The cultural and educational context is taken into consideration when discussing the results.     

Administrating transnational education: a cross‐cultural application of Hodgkinson’s values paradigm

This article reports on an exploratory study which employed Hodgkinson’s values paradigm as an analytical tool for explaining how administrators of transnational education programmes understand national cultural values to affect their work and working environment. In particular, interviews with managers responsible for Australia’s provision of transnational higher education in Thailand were examined against Hodgkinson’s values paradigm in an attempt to identify whether any of his particular value types might appear more prominently in decision‐making undertaken in either the Australian or the Thai educational administrative setting. The findings suggest that rational consequential decision‐making might be more significant in Australia, while decision‐making using rational consensual, transrational and subrational values might be more prominent in Thailand.     

Measuring students’ interest in physics ‐ design and results of a cross‐sectional study in the Federal Republic of Germany

A test to determine students’ interest in physics was developed on the basis of a curricular model of physics education with three dimensions: topic, context and activity. It was administered to about 4000 students in the 11‐16 age range attending different types of school in the Federal Republic. The results suggest that context is by far the most dominating dimension; the interest structure is independent of the type of school; the gap in interest between boys and girls may be closed if physics is treated not solely as a scientific enterprise but also in its connection to our society as a whole, including controversial issues.     

Collateral Learning in Science: Students’ responses to a cross‐cultural unit of work

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of students’ responses to a cross‐cultural science unit entitled “Maintaining health.” The unit was designed to help students to build bridges between their traditional practices and beliefs and western science concepts. This paper reports students’ responses to a pre‐test and post‐test, and their reflections on their learning. The responses were analysed using the collateral learning model. There was evidence of parallel, dependent, and secured collateral learning. The implications for science teaching and for assessing science learning are discussed.     

Pupils as partners in education decision‐making: responding to the legislation in England and Ireland

Enabling pupils with special educational needs to participate more fully in the assessment, planning and evaluation of their own learning has become a principle enshrined within the legislation of many countries in recent years. Educational policy in both England and the Republic of Ireland has recognised the desirability of increased pupil involvement, and this is reflected in policy documents and in legislation which highlights the requirement of schools to take greater account of the views of pupils. This paper documents the approaches to increased pupil involvement in decision‐making adopted in England and Ireland and provides an overview of the key challenges that face policy‐makers and educators in ensuring meaningful participation for children and young people with special educational needs.     

Universality of Socio‐moral Development: a cross‐sectional study in Poland

The concept of friendship has had a great deal of attention within recent years from philosophers. However, this attention restricts itself to friendship between adults and rarely considers the issue of friendship between children. The issue of friendship and how we socialise with others ought to be an important concept for education, yet schools rarely take the forming, nurturing and nourishing of friendship beyond helping to deal with disputes between friends when they disrupt school life. I wish to argue that whilst friendship is critical to the development of character and can properly be seen as part of ‘an invitation to the moral life’, it also has value in and of itself as part of the flourishing life.     

International students’ use of social network services in the new culture: a case study with Korean youths in the United States

In the United States, international students, especially from Asia, have reportedly experienced difficulty adjusting to their new life and culture. Little research has been done to understand the role of social network service (SNS)s, including instant messaging, blogs, chatting websites, and email on these students. Korean students are the largest international student group in the United States and were selected for the qualitative case study. Results showed that the participants used SNSs in various ways for their emotional well-being and for academic purposes.     

War,education and state formation: problems of territorial and political integration in the United States, 1848–1912

Abstract

After the Civil War (1861–1865), the United States faced a problem of “reconstruction” similar to that confronted by other nations at the time and familiar to the US since at least the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). The problem was one of territorial and political (re)integration: how to take territories that had only recently been operating under “foreign” governance and integrate them into an expanded nation-state on common structural terms. This paper considers the significance of education in that process of state (re)formation after the Civil War, with particular attention to its role in federal territories of the US West. Specifically, this paper analyses the role that education-based restrictions on citizenship, voting rights and office-holding played in constructing formal state power in the cases of five western territories: Hawaii, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico. A focus on the significance of education in these cases both advances and challenges literature on the “hidden” and decentralised structure of national policy-making in the US. It adds to that literature by illuminating how education served as an indirect tool of national policy in the West, effectively shaping the structure of power in other policy domains. At the same time, by focusing on the US West, the present analysis challenges the idea that national governance in the US was particularly “decentralised” or “hidden”. It highlights instead: (1) the role of colonial racialism in shaping national responsibility and authority for education in the US; and (2) the significance of education as both an alternative and a corollary to war in establishing US colonial power.     

Re‐examining factor structure of the attitudinal items from TIMSS 2003 in cross‐cultural study of mathematics self‐concept

The aims of this study were to examine the factor structure of the attitudinal questionnaire items from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and to investigate low‐ and high‐performing students’ mathematics self‐concept in East Asian societies and in the USA. The participants were 24,119 eighth‐graders, 4856 from Japan, 4972 from Hong Kong, 5379 from Taiwan and 8912 from the USA. Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were conducted revealing a same factor structure across the four societies. The MANOVA results showed that (1) the US students reported a statistically significant higher mathematics self‐concept than students in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Japan; (2) across the four societies, high‐performing students had statistically significant higher self‐concept than low‐performing students; and (3) the US low‐performing students’ self‐concept was higher than Japanese high‐performing students’ self‐concept. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Experiences of university life for students with Asperger’s Syndrome: a comparative study between Spain and England

Research has consistently shown that young people with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) are likely to experience increased anxiety during new social situations; yet, studies have been regionally and culturally bound. The aim of this study was to explore how higher education students with AS experienced attending university in two European countries: the UK and Spain. The objective was to find out if experiences differed between the two countries in relation to contrasting support arrangements and what kinds of interventions might aid students’ social well-being at university, an important learning outcome for future practice. This small-scale comparative exploratory study incorporated life-history interviews with nine students with AS. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four superordinate themes significant to both groups of students in Spain and the UK emerged from the data: social relationships, ‘special interests’, ‘environment’ and ‘support mechanisms’. Students with AS need and want clear, unambiguous and structured information from academics; support to get to know others in ‘small special interest groups’; more designated ‘quiet zones’ across campuses; and above all, a move away from ableist notions of AS. To our knowledge, this is the only Spanish–UK comparative study of university students with AS.