Coming upon Devon McKenna's entry one might ask two questions. First, why send undergraduates, specifically potential early childhood professionals, abroad? Second, why send them to Sweden? To both, the answer drawn from a comprehensive worldwide review of early childhood program provision provides an elegant recognition: "It is said that the…

The purpose of this study was to measure how well business and professional people from various cultures interpret symbols commonly used in international business presentations. Questionnaires contained 15 black and white symbols, selected from the clip art collection of Harvard Graphics business graphics software. Respondents from the United…

Children from South Africa and Sweden were asked to draw their "future family." The drawings were compared to investigate whether or not children's human figure drawings reflect sociocultural variations. Cultural variations were found in terms of spatial relationships (social distance, occlusion, and size scaling). However, cultural…

Based on Vygotsky's theory amongst others that play reflects different aspects of children's development and culture, this thesis explores in depth how aesthetic activities can influence children's play and the nature of the connections between play and culture, primarily in the aesthetic forms of drama and literature. The thesis also presents…

Day care programs in the Scandinavian countries have been viewed as exemplary models to transfer to Canada and the United States. This publication, which provides an overview of day care in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, discusses conditions, facts, and programs contributing to the widespread acclaim. It is pointed out that day care in Denmark is an…

Interviews with nationally representative samples of American (N=1,146) and Swedish (N=1,168) families revealed no significant differences between the countries in reported severe or abusive violence toward their children, in spite of the passage of an antispanking law in Sweden. In general, Swedish parents reported using less violence than…

Examined issues raised by pilot implementations of "Looking After Children" materials in social-work agencies in England, Canada, Australia, and Sweden. Found that implementation required major organizational change and new values and attitudes toward children in out-of-home care. Difficulties arose when management and monitoring systems…

The present article focused on two types of communicative intent (directing behaviour vs. eliciting talk) expressed by mothers and teenagers during everyday family interactions in Estonian, Finnish, and Swedish mono- and bicultural families. Three monocultural groups consisted of 17 Estonian, 19 Swedish, and 18 Finnish families living in their…

This paper examines the extent that material, social, and cultural resources and schools account for the relationship between socioeconomic background and student achievement among 15-year-olds in 30 countries. Generally, cultural factors play a more important role in most countries although in a small minority of countries, material resources…

Examined are two dimensions of leadership style (task-orientation and person-orientation) as they also define teacher style, specifically, as a function of context (grade-level, teacher experience, and socio-political differences). The Teacher Opinion Questionnaire was utilized to obtain opinions of ideal teacher behavior. Subjects were…

Examined data on family patterns in Greece and Sweden covering relations between parents and children, and family and child care settings. Found that Greek mothers stressed the general importance of their children's day care setting program more than did Swedish mothers, particularly concerning the socializing and learning aspects of the program.…

This collection of 27 brief essays focuses on universal aspects of childhood and early childhood education, education for peace, model early childhood programs, and the development of children's thinking and creativity skills. The essays are: (1) "The Universal and the National in Preschool Education (Goutard); (2) "Preschool Childhood:…

This paper describes how 13 Swedish preschool student teachers and one preservice leisure educator discussed their thoughts regarding their professional work, their life histories, and their ongoing studies in special education. What unified them was their professional education, which was based on their own participation. This project examined…

This study examined children's perceptions of child-rearing norms and values of the culture where the child is raised and provides a cross-cultural comparison of child development in India, Kenya, and Sweden. Children ages 8 through 13 in Kenya were asked questions regarding good and bad behavior and parents' sanctions, the results of which were…

Early Childhood Research & Practice (ECRP), a peer-reviewed, Internet-only journal sponsored by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE), covers topics related to the development, care, and education of children from birth to approximately age 8. ECRP emphasizes articles reporting on practice-related…