In the West, science is assumed to be an integral part of Western culture. What interests Western educators and policy makers is achievement in science, particularly the comparative achievement in science among students of different Western nations plus Japan. Americans are constantly asking whether or not our students know as much science as…

The Council for Graduate Students in Education's Seventh Annual Colloquium was held on March 28, 1981, on the theme "Education Across Cultures: Domestic and International Perspectives." Papers presented include: "Symbolic Strategies in the Organization of Ethnic Study Programs" (Julian E. Abuso); "The Prospective…

Sustainability must be integrated into all levels of engineering education, from foundation courses to ongoing projects and research. This report contains the proceedings of the Joint Conference on Engineering Education and Training for Sustainable Development. The objectives of the conference were to define the essential knowledge and skills of…

A number of counter-assumptions can be posited to challenge the usual basic assumptions of the professional literacy establishment. These counter-assumptions include the following: (1) literacy is not just a technical skill neutral across all cultures; (2) culture refers to basic questions about truth and knowledge and varies from one society to…

The importance of research in literacy is that it provides some routes to greater efficiency in literacy provision. Research from the past shows how important reading and writing have been over the centuries. Literacy was often invested with social and moral power as well, and religious literacy was the predominant form of reading and writing from…

In 1987, the department of Rio San Juan was declared the first "illiteracy-free territory" in Nicaragua, since it had reduced its rate of illiteracy from 96 percent in 1979 to 3.7 percent. This regional literacy crusade was made possible by the facts that the necessary facilities had been provided; a network of consultative committees…

The report focuses on the role of education in facilitating effective participation of groups and individuals in development efforts in Africa. Special attention is given to problems of the poor, women, the handicapped, those uninvolved or marginally involved such as unemployed youth, and those living and working in rural areas. The report is…

In order to explain the role that the university can play in the struggle against illiteracy, a distinction must be made between "social" illiterate people, who are dominated by oral tradition, and functional, or "uneducated" illiterate people, who usually know how to read and write, but without having sufficient understanding…