A study of 19 private schools in St. Petersburg, Russia, including ethnic, religious, and elite schools, found a precarious situation of legal contradictions about their status, dealings with corrupt bureaucrats, and financial instability. The current socioeconomic crisis will likely diminish their number and diversity. Private schools' survival…

Analyzes the significance of competing contexts (physical, historical, political, cultural, economic, sociological, and legal contexts) in the development of personal and social education in Hong Kong. Compares Western and Chinese (especially Confucian) views and values related to personal and social education and the development of understanding…

Interviews with 154 elementary school students in Northern Ireland and the United States found that students in both countries were very interested in history and learned about history from family and the media, as well as school. However, the two groups of students had different views on the importance of history and reasons for studying it.…

A study of teacher education in formerly British, Caribbean countries found that teachers were trained to use centrally produced curriculum guides in language arts, reading, and foreign languages. However, policy ideals related to teachers being "facilitators of learning," teaching low achievers, and using new technologies were unmet and unlikely…

A literature review on the origins, nature, and future of globalization and implications for education found little of relevance for low-income, postcolonial countries. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, a conceptual framework suggests how developing nations' educational policies are influenced by legacies of colonial education, the position of…

Ethnographic fieldwork and a study of major educational reform documents in Japan suggest that despite calls for reforms promoting children's socialization, creativity, and individual talents, little will change at the high school level. The Japanese public's diffuse desire for more freedom and choice in education has been translated into…

Examines Vietnamese educational reforms of the 1990s, aimed at modernizing education to support Vietnam's wide-ranging market reforms. Discusses the structure of preschool through higher education; the cluttered lower secondary school curriculum, rigidly tied to textbook content and teacher training; rural disadvantage and lesser access to…

Traces the lifecycle of the Primary Science Programme (PSP), 1983-99, a representative South African nongovernmental organization. Shows how the social and economic environment shaped PSP development and demise. Highlights tensions between quality versus quantity, subject versus holistic focus, and participatory versus authoritarian management…

Publication of school rankings based on raw data for various performance indicators was found to influence school choice and mobility strategies for elite and middle-class parents in England and France. Rather than promoting school improvement, publication led to unintended school coping strategies, such as marketing activities, student exclusion…

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…

Surveys of approximately 1,800 students aged 12-13 in England, France, and Denmark and in-depth study of 18 students in each country found "constants" in pupil concerns about education's link to work, teacher respect for students, and interesting teaching; and national differences in students' school attitudes, importance of socioeconomic factors,…

International comparisons of school effectiveness and outcomes have been used to suggest that British schools are underperforming and British students are underachieving, a view that permeated official publications in the 1990s. A review of some international studies and the difficulties of making international comparisons reveals no evidence of…

In urban Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), cultural factors arising from West Africa's "triple cultural heritage" (African, Euro-Christian, and Islamic) and globalization place considerable strains on secondary education and have implications for postcolonial nation-building and development. Surveys of 200 secondary students in the two…

In Gujarat, India, illiterate Rabari nomads see formal education and literacy as irrelevant to pastoralism, but as providing possible alternatives if the pastoral life dies. Access and school culture present many difficulties. The hegemonic values of the international initiative Education for All and associated national policies ignore the…

Explores contextual factors related to a nation's international position that promote introduction of school-level "development education" (also called "global education"). Analyzes the case of Japan; finds that although the contextual factors were present by the mid-1980s, introduction of development education was delayed due to ideological…