In diverse university contexts, students need to constantly navigate and negotiate their social identities. Students bring their unique embedded histories and cultures to the university context and position and reposition themselves to experience a sense of belonging. These experiences contribute to student self-formation and sense of being. This…

The aim of this study is to examine the professional identities of the academic staff of the faculties of education in Turkey. The study employed the Q methodology, in which both quantitative and qualitative data can be used. The qualitative data were collected and analysed by interviewing seven academics working in the faculty of education in the…

Prior research suggests that human children lack an aptitude for tool innovation. However, children's tool making must be explored across a broader range of tasks and across diverse cultural contexts before we can conclude that they are genuinely poor tool innovators. To this end, we investigated children's ability to independently construct 3 new…

Over the past forty years, media education research has emerged as a historical, epistemological and practical field of study. Shifts in the field--along with radical transformations in media technologies, aesthetic forms, ownership models, and audience participation practices--have driven the application of new concepts and theories across a…

Many countries have successfully used mutual educational and cultural exchange programmes to promote unity. South Africa has adopted similar approach as a social vehicle for influencing mutual appreciation. This study has documented students perception on the role of Buddy programme towards unity at the University of Venda using a survey design.…

Purpose: This review systematically analyzed BID among young women of developing nations after these women's consumption of Western media. We explored changes in women's exposure to Western media alongside changes in body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders. Reoccurring themes of internalization across populations of women are discussed.…

This study investigated whether the associations between (a) the quality of the parent-child relationship and peer acceptance and (b) early adolescents' life satisfaction differed depending on the importance of family values in the respective culture. As part of the Value of Children Study, data from a subsample of N = 1,034 adolescents (58%…

Although happiness as a state of mind may be universal, its meaning takes culture-specific forms. Drawing on the concept of folk theories, this study attempted to uncover lay beliefs about the nature of happiness in Germany and South Africa. To that end, 57 German and 44 black South African students wrote free-format essays in response to the…

In this article we portray our personal journeys in a cross-cultural context resulting in professional growth. Data are presented in the form of constructed dialogues, and are reflected upon using the theories of transformative learning and intercultural competency. The role of lesson study as a vehicle for our journeys is examined. Reflection on…

There are many factors that influence dress code decision making in formal and informal business arenas. In South Africa, with its colonial and apartheid history followed by an exuberant resurgence of Africanism, factors such as diversity of race, ethnicity, religion, and culture play a critical role in lifestyle and worldview. These many and…

To create unique and appropriate learning opportunities and environments and to nurture the development of creative thinking abilities among learners are some of the demands for creative thinking currently expected of teachers globally and also in South Africa. Creative thinking in academic context assumes, among other things, the ability to…

Attitudes to science scales developed in England have been used in a rural region of South Africa with children aged 10 and 11 years in a two-stage data collection investigation. Cultural constraints on the use of "foreign" scales are explored. Factor analyses reveal differences between the South African and English children. A South…

Argues that the polarized nature of the apartheid system requires that students must encounter and examine South African literature which represents viewpoints from different racial perspectives. Recommends several pairs of books which can be studied successfully in conjunction. (MG)

The "value orientations" concept can be used to empirically investigate the differences between people and between human groups and can be of particular value to the educator. "Value Orientations" are complex principles that organize a given culture's expression of certain basic "human problems" (such as human nature,…

Examines the factor structure of the Survey of Work Values for a sample of White South African males. States that number of factors and item composition of factors differed from results of previous research due to cultural differences between South African and American samples. (CMG)