International comparisons in educational achievement and economic performance have spurred studies on the East Asian learner. In this context the cultural perspective on the Chinese learner has gained currency. This paper examines how the interaction of cultural, social and structural forces shape the changing patterns of diversity among Chinese…

Attitudes to science scales developed earlier in England have been used in and around a Pakistan city with children in Primary/Elementary Grades 4-8. The limitations of a "transferred scale" in a culturally different context are apparent in a failure to reproduce the English factor patterns, but items are identified to serve as a base for future…

This article considers the underlying assumptions related to the use of random assignment in educational research and evaluation; more specifically, the ability of random assignment to create similar comparison groups for the purpose of determining the effectiveness of educational programmes. In theory, randomly assigning individuals to comparison…

This study explores the psychometric properties of three instruments: a semi-structured interview, a questionnaire and a sorting task. The central question is which instrument is most suitable to investigate the goal orientations of students in competence-based pre-vocational secondary education. The questionnaire proved most accurate. The…

Under current law, students pursuing an undergraduate degree in the United States are considered financially independent (from their parents) for the purposes of financial aid if, among other conditions, they are 24 years of age or older. When students' parents are able to pay, considering them financially independent may result in more generous…

The considerable debate in recent years on the aims of citizenship education has not been accompanied by an equally substantial discussion on the educational processes involved. This article puts forward a theoretical framework, referred to as "curricular transposition", for understanding the complex task of realizing normative ideals of…

Both parents and children have strong interests associated with the childrearing process. Children have an interest in being raised in a particular manner, while parents have an interest in parenting in a particular manner. Whose interests should serve as the foundation for childrearing rights? Although parents have an interest in rearing their…

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an initiative that dates back to the early 1990s. Whilst policy statements at this time referred to ESD as a bringing together of environmental and development education, in the UK, as in most other industrialized countries, it has been the environmental agenda that has tended to dominate. In the UK,…

The United Nation's Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) aims to prepare students for pressing economic and environmental problems. In this article, I argue that an exclusive emphasis on an ambiguous goal, sustainable development, raises important questions for educational ethics. Specifically, I argue that DESD mission…

Three years into the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, there has been considerable discussion regarding education for sustainable development (ESD) at a policy level, yet very few countries and communities have moved to integrate ESD into their educational curriculum. In this article we argue that the conceptualization and…

Academic disciplines have a critical role to play in higher education's response to the planetary challenges of the 21st century. Many academics have embraced the call for a fundamental reorientation of higher education around the goal of education for sustainable development. Individual faculty members who prioritize such a pedagogical goal,…

To what extent is the design of American schooling adapted to the lofty aspirations educators have enunciated during the last century? I first enumerate these aspirations as well as the basic design of schooling; then I evaluate the match. After highlighting the limitations of the basic design, I point to some alternative settings offering greater…

England's new School Admissions Code endorses the use of lotteries to admit students to oversubscribed schools. Is this endorsement wise? This article argues that lotteries make decision-making without regard to reasons possible. This sanitizing effect is desirable in order to protect against bad reasons. This effect could make at least four…

White privilege analysis has been influential in philosophy of education. I offer some mild criticisms of this largely salutary direction--its inadequate exploration of its own normative foundations, and failure to distinguish between "spared injustice", "unjust enrichment" and "non-injustice-related" privileges; its inadequate exploration of the…

This article deals with the issue of how to establish an authentic community of inquiry. I propose the introduction of a distinction between two stages of the community of inquiry: the stage of an emergent community of inquiry and the stage of an established community of inquiry. Further on, I propose an analysis of the structure of intentions and…